Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa, Vol. 1 (of 5) : $b being a journal of an expedition undertaken under the auspices of H.B.M.'s Government, in the years 1849-1855Barth, Heinrich
History
Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa, Vol. 1 (of 5) : $b being a journal of an expedition undertaken under the auspices of H.B.M.'s Government, in the years 1849-1855
Barth, Heinrich
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Africa, North -- Description and travel
Soon emerging from the valley of Afís, we ascended rocky ground, over
which we plodded, while the rain poured down upon us with renewed
violence, till we reached the commencement of another valley, and a
little further, on its northern side, the small village Sárara, or
Asárara, divided into two groups, between which we passed. We then
crossed low rocky ground intersected by many small beds of torrents
descending from the mountains on our left, which rise to a considerable
elevation. All these channels incline towards the south, and are thickly
clothed with bushes.
It was half-past nine o’clock, the weather having now cleared up, when
we entered the valley of Tintéllust[106], forming a broad sandy channel,
bare of herbage, and only lined with bushes along its border. On the low
rocky projections on its eastern side lay a little village, scarcely
discernible from the rocks around; it was the long and anxiously looked-
for residence of the chief E’ Núr or Ánnur. Our servants saluted it with
a few rounds. Leaving the village on the eastern border of the sandy
bed, we went a little further to the south, keeping close to the low
rocky projection on our right, at the foot of which was the little tebki
or water-pond, and encamped on a sand-hill rising in a recess of the
rocky offshoots, and adorned at its foot with the beautiful green and
widely-spreading bushes of the _Capparis sodata_, while behind was a
charming little hollow with luxuriant talha-trees. Over the lower rocky
ground rose Mount Tunán, while towards the south the majestic mountain-
group of Búnday closed the view. As for the prospect over the valley
towards the village, and the beautiful mountain-mass[107] beyond, it is
represented in the annexed sketch, made at a later period, and for the
accuracy of which I can answer.
Altogether it was a most beautiful camping-ground, where in ease and
quiet we could establish our little residence, not troubled every moment
by the intrusion of the townspeople; but it was rather too retired a
spot, and too far from our protector, being at least eight hundred yards
from the village, in a country of lawless people not yet accustomed to
see among them men of another creed, of another complexion, and of
totally different usages and manners.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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