Some palms rise here and there in clumps, but are not very productive;
and dates are imported from Fezzan. The tree most frequent is the
tholukh; but there is also another common tree, called the arak. In the
open country, the wadan, the gazelle, and the ostrich are found, and the
people hunt them with dogs. Good water is supplied by wells and streams,
in sufficient quantities to irrigate the fields of ghaseb, wheat, and
barley. Rain is abundant some years, but fails in others; torrents are
continually descending from the mountains: one stream flows through a
space of two days' journey. If these accounts be correct, the country
must be one of the most interesting in Africa. They say, that on account
the height of the mountains some of the inhabitants do not see the moon
for fifteen days together. A Sultan rules paternally in this
out-of-the-way country, where the Mohammedan religion reigns paramount.
My informant made me pay three Tunisian piastres and two common
handkerchiefs for a vocabulary of the language of the Tibboos of
Tibesty. A visit to this singular oasis might repay a hardy traveller;
but the people of the country have a faithless character, and it would
be dangerous to trust to their promises of protection.
The Tibesty Tibboos must not be confounded with the Tibboos of the
salt-mines of Bilma, who have recently made their submission to the
Porte. There is little connexion between the people, although they speak
a similar language.
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