busy and distracting confusion. Strings of camels were in advance, with their heads towards Berkat. I sighed with regret. I wished to follow The camels are tied one after another, held together by strings in their nose, and they are not allowed to graze during the march, like the camels of Arabs. This is an advantage to the traveller, for much time is lost by the camels cropping herbage on the way. The files of camels are twenty and thirty in number, and sometimes these files are double. I imagine in mountainous districts they are untied, otherwise one camel slipping or falling, would draw another after it, and so the whole line would be thrown in confusion. In the palms noticed two small birds, white bodies, head and wings black. With the exception of the diminutive singing sparrow, and a few crows, these are all the birds I have seen in the oasis. Saw several Aheer Touaricks just arrived, and found them tall, well-made, comparatively fair, and fine-featured; nothing of the Negro character about them. All extremely civil to me; and I certainly like them as well, if not better, than the ordinary run of Ghat Touaricks. These Aheer Touaricks must be one of the finest races of men in Central Africa.

Went as usual to spend the evening with Haj Ibrahim. Had not sat down many minutes before a thundering knocking was heard at the outer door. An Arab youth called out, "Who's there?" and "Don't open," to the slave that had the charge of the court-yard door. The knocking increased in fury, the tumult of voices without being terrific; and Haj Ibrahim, at last, recognizing the party, and yielding to their violence, said "Open. As soon as the door was thrown back, in poured a host of

Touaricks, like the opening of a deluging sluice, all belonging to Berka, headed by their acting chief, the redoubtable Giant! Their first object was to abuse roundly the Arab youth who had called out, "Don't open." The merchants of Ghadames and Tripoli try to shut out the Touaricks as much as possible all times of the day, and especially just at supper-time, for this is the hour when the Touaricks prowl about for their evening meal, like famished evening wolves, seeking whom and what they can devour. Prowling for food is an absolute necessity with them, for generally they have no food; they bring only a very small quantity from their native districts, when they leave to spend some weeks at the Souk. This foraging party therefore came in for supper. Haj Ibrahim tried to work up his courage into rage; but it was useless, for his struggling ire was at once choked and quelled by the accents of thunder which The Giant belched out like old Etna. The Giant opened fire upon the trembling merchant, by asserting the safety and tranquillity of the country: "There are no robbers or freebooters here; you buy and sell, fill your bags with money, and are in peace. Why, then, cannot we eat as the price of our protection?" Resistance being very madness, the supper which Haj Ibrahim had prepared for himself, was brought out to them, the servant crying out, not "Il pranzo è servito !" but, "This is all the supper we have for ourselves !" And like a wise steward, he kept a little back for his lord and master. After unbroken silence, which lasted full ten minutes, when every person seemed to be gasping for breath to speak, and struggling with some terrible inward commotion of the spirit, the supper-hunting Touaricks made a simultaneous

move towards the supper-bowl. About nine big brawny fellows attacked the savoury cuscusou, for Haj Ibrahim had the best kind of provisions brought from Tripoli. The dainty merchant told me he could not eat what was made in Ghat. Now, The Giant did not join the onslaught on the merchant's supper, that did not beseem his dignity as heir of the Sheikhdom of the venerable Berka! The chief of the gang, on the principle of delicacy and generosity, left the spoil to his men. The Giant, like Neptune rising to quell the fury of the tempest, sat reclining in dignity and authority, with a serene brow, calmly looking on, and smoking his pipe. Not a word was uttered, not a sound was heard, but the licking up the food, and the smacking of the lips of these uncouth, unbidden, uninvited guests. As soon as the supper was swallowed up, (only a few minutes,) they all arose, The Giant first rising, with unabashed effrontery, and led the way out. In another moment they were gone and the door was shut. It was like some broken and distempered slumber, and the lamps having nearly burnt out, and all being dim and dark, rendered the illusion complete. The quondam protégé of these chiefs was too ill, too much upset, to speak. I bade him good night, and returned home, half-admiring The Giant and his troop, and abusing the foolish parsimony of the merchant, who ought to have thrown a few lumps of flesh to these hungry and wolfish sons of The Desert, and satisfied them at once. One of the party was Hateetah's brother; and Hateetah told me next day that he himself sent them.

2nd. Our departure is now finally fixed for to-morThe weather is cool, but not so cold as on my

row.

arrival. Within the last three weeks it has gradually become warmer, and the spring enlivening warmth will soon be succeeded by summer's burning reign. Took a very pleasant walk round the Governor's palace, and made a sketch of it, which is subjoined.

Irrigation is the grand means of agricultural production in Sahara. Without irrigation the oases would be mere halting-places for caravans, and would afford but a scanty supply for centres of human existence. But irrigation has not only sustained and sustains the towns and cities of the African Desert, but in Asia it has always been the grand means of maintaining vast populations. The Assyrians of ancient days became great by irrigation. In the prophets we read, "The waters made him (the Assyrian) great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers running round about his plants, and sent out her little rivers unto all the trees of the field. Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of

the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long because of the multitude of waters, when he shot forth. All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all great nations. Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: for his root was by great waters." (Ezek. xxxi. 4-7.) The metaphors are extremely explicit and beautiful, making water the source of the Assyrian greatness. Nothing can show more the power of water in the hot and dry climate of Syria. But the prophet particularly alludes to the system of irrigation, as practised on the banks of the Euphrates, from which river the waters were conveyed in small streamlets and conduits, "running round about the plants" in the gardens, and sent out to a considerable distance in little rills to all the trees of the field. immense parterres of Babylon, artificial gardens supported by irrigation, have been celebrated by the historians of antiquity. In Ghat, Ghadames, and other oases of the Sahara, as well as the greater part of the Tripoline coast, this system of irrigation is now practised to its full extent, and water here shows a power of production with which we are unacquainted in more humid and temperate climes. At this time, the barley and wheat are shooting up simply under the power of water, which is conveyed to them by small ducts of earth, as drawn up from the wells, every four or five days. A bullock, or slave, draws up the water from the wells, which are of very rude construction, but answer the purpose. The water is then poured into a receiver of earth or stone, from which it runs into the small conduits

The