The Arabs
Aimed Blows At The Limbs With Their Muskets, Jesting At These Melancholy
Remains Of Mortality.
Their road lay between the two tribes of Tibboos and Tuaricks, and they
passed through the villages and settlements of the former.
The Tibboos
carry on a traffic between Mourzouk and Bournou, and subsist chiefly on
camel's milk. They are of a gay disposition, and delight in dancing and
singing. Though black, they have not the negro features; and Denham says
that the females have some pretensions to beauty. They live in constant
dread of the Tuaricks, who often make hostile ravages upon them. The
unresisting and peaceful Tibboos, on their approach fly with their goods
to the summit of the rocks. The Tuaricks, again, in spite of their
constant feuds with the Tibboos, are hospitable and kind to strangers.
Though a wandering horde, and professing to look with contempt on all who
cultivate the soil, they are yet the only African tribe who possess an
alphabet; and they inscribe their records upon the faces of dark rocks
and stones.
About a mile from the little town of Bilma, the capital of the Tibboos,
they came to a spring of water surrounded by green turf, the last spot of
verdure they saw for thirteen days. They passed over loose hillocks of
sand, into which the camels sank knee-deep. Some of these hills were from
twenty to sixty feet in height, with almost perpendicular sides. The
drivers use great care as the animals slide down these banks; they hang
with all their weight upon the tails, to steady their descent; otherwise
they would fall forward, and cast their burdens over their heads.
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