As the Souafee left the threshold of the apartment, his Excellency turned to me, and raising his right hand underneath his chin, drew its back jerkingly forwards, making the sign of the well-known expression of contempt in North Africa. He then said to me:--"See what a life I lead, what insults I am obliged to put up with! what beasts are these Arabs!" The Souafah are, indeed, the type of the genuine Desert Arab. They have no foreign master, and manage all their affairs by their own Sheikhs and Kadys. The immense waste of sand lying between Ghadames and Southern Tunis and Algeria, is their absolute domain, in the arid and thirsty bosom of which are planted, as marvels of nature, their oases of palms. The Shânbah bandits, who plunder every body, and brave heaven and earth, nevertheless dare not lay a finger on them. I cannot better represent the feelings of the Souf Arab, nor the "wild and burning range" of his country, than by quoting the lines of Eliza Cook: "Through the desert, through the desert, where the Arab takes his course, With none to bear him company, except his gallant horse; Where none can question will or right, where landmarks ne'er impede, But all is wide and limitless to rider and to steed. No purling streamlet murmurs there, no chequer'd shadows fall; 'Tis torrid, waste and desolate, but free to each and all. Through the desert, through the desert! Oh, the Arab would no change, For purple robes or olive-trees, his wild and burning range." FOOTNOTES: [53] It is now the fashion in French writers to represent the Arabic ‮غ‬ by the Roman R, as _R_'dames for _Gh_adames. [54] ‮هرب الي الجبل‬ [55] _Fullans._--Mungo Park says: "The Foulahs are chiefly of a tawny complexion, with silky hair, and pleasing features."--M. D'Avezac says: "In the midst of the Negro races, there stands out a _métive_ (_mezzo-termino_?) population, of tawny or copper colour, prominent nose, small mouth, and oval face, which ranks itself amongst the white races, and asserts itself to be descended from Arab fathers, and Tawrode(?) mothers. Their crisped hair, and even woolly though long, justifies their classification among the _oulotric_ (woolly-haired) populations; but neither the traits of their features, nor the colour of their skin, allow them to be confounded with Negroes, however great the fusion of the two types may be." Major Rennell calls them the "Leucœthiopes of Ptolemy and Pliny." Mr. D'Eichthal thinks them to be of _Malay_ origin, on account of their language; but Dr. Pritchard considers them to be a genuine African race. CHAPTER XII. PREPARATIONS FOR GOING TO SOUDAN.