[Footnote 60: Augustin. Op. vol. xvi. p. 526. ed. Bassan.:—“Garamantum regibus tauri placuerunt.”] [Footnote 61: See my Wanderings along the Shore of the Mediterranean, vol. i. p. 5. ff. It is, however, to be remarked, that even now, when the quantity of water all over the ancient world has certainly decreased a great deal, oxen are sometimes used on this Sudán road by way of Ghát soon after the rains. I have been assured that in 1847 or 1848 the well-known Tébu Haj Abérma travelled with oxen from Kanó as far as Ghát, about the time of the ʿAïd el kebír,—that is to say, in the month of December,—the oxen being watered every second day.] [Footnote 62: If I were to give the real native sound, I should write Rhát rather than Ghát; and it is only from fear lest I might offend the ear of the English reader, that I abstain from following this principle. The ghain of the Arabs has a double sound, sometimes as _gh_, at others as _rh_, and the latter prevails entirely in this part of Africa; and I do not see why we should not express this difference. For the same reason I should prefer writing Sonrhay, and not Songhay, or Sunghay.] CHAP. X. THE INDIGENOUS BERBER POPULATION. There can be no doubt that even Fezzán, in ancient times, had a population entirely different from that dwelling near the coast; but the original black inhabitants of that country have been swept away, or mixed up entirely with the Arabs, who seem to have invaded this country not earlier than the 15th century of our era, for in Makrizi’s time Fezzán was still a Berber country.[63] But few names now remain which evidently bespeak a Central African origin, such as those terminating in _awa_, as Tasáwa or Tessáwa (a town already mentioned by Edrísi[64]), Portukawa, and others. But in the country of Ghát, which we have now entered, the case is very different; for here the former state of things has not been so entirely altered as not to leave some unmistakable testimonies behind it. All the original population of North Africa appear to have been a race of the Semitic stock, but who, by intermarriage with tribes which came from Egypt, or by way of it, had received a certain admixture. The consequence was, that several distinct tribes were produced, designated by the ancients as Libyans, Moors, Numidians, Libyphœnicians, Getulians, and others, and traced by the native historians to two different families, the Beránes and the Abtar, who, however, diverge from one common source, Mazigh or Madaghs. This native wide-spread African race, either from the name of their supposed ancestor, Ber, which we recognise in the name Afer, or in consequence of the Roman term _barbari_, has been generally called Berber, and in some regions Shawi and Shelluh. The general character and language of these people seem to have been the same, while the complexion alone was the distinguishing point of difference.