Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa : $b Including accounts of Tripoli, the Sahara, the remarkable kingdom of Bornu, and the countries around Lake ChadBarth, Heinrich
History
Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa : $b Including accounts of Tripoli, the Sahara, the remarkable kingdom of Bornu, and the countries around Lake Chad
Barth, Heinrich
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Africa, North -- Description and travel
No barbarian could have graven the lines with such astonishing firmness,
and given to all the figures the light, natural shape which they exhibit.
The Romans, who had firmly established their dominion as far as Garama,
or Jerma, might easily have sent emissaries to this point, and even
further; but the sculptures have nothing in them of a Roman character.
Some few particulars call to mind the Egyptian sculptures. But on the
whole it seems to be a representation of a subject taken from the native
mythology, executed by some one who had been in intimate relation with
the more advanced people on the coast, perhaps with the Carthaginians. Be
this as it may, it is scarcely doubtful that the subject represents two
divinities disputing over a sacrifice, and that the figure at the left is
intended for the victor.
On the cliff itself there is another sculpture on a large block which,
now that the western end is broken off, is about twelve feet long and
five feet high. The surface of the block is quite smooth, protected
as it has been, in some degree, by the block above, which projects
considerably; nevertheless the sculpture has suffered a good deal. It
bears testimony to a state of life very different from that which we are
accustomed to see now in these regions, and illustrates and confirms St.
Augustine’s statement that the ancient kings of this country made use
of bulls for their conveyance. It represents a dense group of oxen in
a great variety of positions, but all moving towards the right, where
probably, on the end of the stone which is now broken off, the pond or
well was represented from which the beasts were to be watered. Some
of these bulls are admirably executed, and with a fidelity which can
scarcely be accounted for, unless we suppose that the artist had before
his eyes the animals which he chiselled. My sketch gives only a faint
idea of the design, which is really beautiful. The only defect, as I have
already remarked above, is in the feet, which, from some reason or other,
have been negligently treated.
If we consider that the sculpture described is close to a watering-place
on the high road to Central Africa, we are reduced to the conjecture that
at that time cattle were not only common in this region, but even that
they were the common beasts of burden instead of the camel, which we here
look for in vain. Not only has the camel no place among these sculptures,
but even among the rude outlines which at a much later period have been
made on the blocks around, representing buffaloes, ostriches, and another
kind of birds, there are no camels; and it is a well-known fact that the
camel was introduced into the western part of Northern Africa at a much
later period.
[Illustration]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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