[Footnote 49: The name Msér, being pure Arabic, testifies to its antiquity; for at present no Arab hereabouts would call a track or path by this name. It is properly the journey itself.] [Footnote 50: Tníe, or rather thníye, ثنِيّةٌ is a classical and still popular Arabic expression for a winding pass over high ground or up a hill.] [Footnote 51: El hammáda is a very common name in North Africa for a stony level plain; but it is generally accompanied by a surname. The name is mentioned and explained by Ebn Khaldún, vol. ii. p. 358., trans. M. de Slane.] [Footnote 52: The Swaíd were formerly a very powerful tribe in Algeria, and are often mentioned by Ebn Khaldún. In vol. i. pp. 94. 101. their subdivisions are enumerated.] CHAP. VI. WADI SHATI. — OLD JERMA. — ARRIVAL IN MURZUK. [Sidenote: Wednesday, April 24th.] There are three roads from el Hasi: the westernmost called Trík e’ duésa, after a small cluster of palm-trees; the second, called Trík e’ safar, stony and more desolate than the former, but half a day shorter; and the third, or eastern, leading directly to Bírgen. When we at length left our uncomfortable encampment at el Hasi, our camel-drivers chose the middle road, which proved to be dismal and dreary. But the first part of it was not quite so bad, the appearance of granite among the rocks causing a little variety, while tamerán and shíʿah clothed the bottoms of the valleys; and we had a single specimen of a beautiful and luxuriant batúm-tree. When, however, we began to enter the region of the sand-hills, intermixed with rocky ridges and cliffs, the character of the country became desolate in the extreme. We travellers, being in advance, chose our resting-place for the first night near a high rocky mass called el Medál, against the wish of the camel-drivers, who would rather have encamped in the Shʿabet e’ talha, further on. The summit of the rocky eminence afforded a very interesting prospect over this singular district; and our younger shoush discovered, lower down, some scrawled figures. He came running up to inform me of his discovery; but it was of no interest, a cow and a sheep being the only figures plainly recognizable. The Fezzáni people come hither in spring, when the rain-water collects in the cavities of the rocks, and stay some months, in order to allow the camels to graze on the young herbage, which then shoots up here in profusion. Ben Sbaeda during such a stay here had lost a son, near whose tomb the camel-drivers said a prayer, or zikr, early the next morning. [Sidenote: Thursday, April 25th.]