On arriving we found, rather to
our surprise, the pilgrim caravan, and our old friend Abd-el-Kader. They
have been some time reposing in Wady Gharby collecting provisions, and,
I imagine, passing their leisure hours with the Fezzanee ladies, which
they could not very well do in Mourzuk. The morality of these people is
easy enough, and no doubt the pilgrimage covers a multitude of sins.
Talazaghee is remarkable for some bas-reliefs cut on the naked sandstone
rocks of the wady, in a very peculiar style; the principal tableau, if I
may so call it, about four feet by three in size, is a battle between
two persons, one having a bird's head, and the other a bullock's, with a
bullock between them taking part in the fray. Each person is holding a
shield or bow. The sculptures are mere outline, but deeply graved and
well shaped. There are several other tableaux, representing animals, but
chiefly bullocks. This would seem to intimate, that in the days when
these forms of animals were chiselled bullocks were the animals employed
for the transport of men and merchandise over the desert. No camels
occur, as in other tablets. These sculptures are very properly said by
our escort to be neither Arab nor Tuarick, but belong to the people that
existed before these races. The principal tableau has a very Egyptian
look about it; the oxen are well formed, and would do credit to a modern
artist.
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