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In this oasis the palm-groves are much more dense than in any other I have seen. They almost merit the name of forests, both from their size and wild luxuriant appearance. The Fezzanees pay little attention to their culture, and when a tree falls it is frequently suffered to lie for months, even though it block up the public road.
By the side of these streams innumerable palm-groves grow in fact, dates form the staple food of the islanders. And out of the date-tree they get branches for their hedges, stems for their roofs; the leaf provides them with their sleeping-mats, and, when beaten on stones, with fibre, with which they are exceedingly clever in making ropes.
Who but a nation of nomads, accustomed to obey the call to prayer beneath the waving branches of African and Arabian palm-groves, would have dreamed of raising such a House of God?
Their days are spent either floating upon the river within sight of the village and of Thebes, among the temples and tombs on the western bank, or at Karnak, the temple of Luxor, in the antiquity shops, or in the shade of the palm-groves immediately around the brown houses of Karnak and the minarets of Luxor.
Rising early on the 6th, therefore, I determined to press on in advance of the caravan; and starting with warm weather, puffs of wind coming now from the south-east, now from the north-west, very unsteadily the atmosphere was slightly murky, with sand flying about I soon came in sight of the palm-groves of Mourzuk, without making any other rencontre than a Tuarick coursing over the desert in full costume.
The sun has gone down over the Gran Chaco, and its vast grassy plains and green palm-groves are again under the purple of twilight. The scene we are about to depict is upon the Pilcomayo's bank, some twenty miles above the old tomeria of the Tovas Indians, and therefore thirty from the house of Ludwig Halberger now his no more, but a house of mourning.
The villages and palm-groves were shrouded in shimmering mist, quivering heat, and dazzling yellow light; and the passer-by on the raised dykes of the shore bent his head as he dragged his weary feet through the deep dust.
The east of the island is, however, decidedly more populous than the west, as the water supply is better. We were constantly passing the little round-housed villages, with their palm-groves and their flocks. After leaving Tamarida we spent a night at a place the name of which has been variously spelt. We decided to spell it Dihelemnitin. It has otherwise been called Dishelenata, &c.
On the east of the city was the circus, for chariot races, and on the west lay the public gardens and pale green palm-groves, and the Necropolis ornamenting the roadside with tombs for miles along the seashore. Other tombs were in the catacombs underground on the same side of the city.
Before his departure for Constantinople one of his father's palm-groves had occupied the spot where Amru's residence now stood opposite the half-finished mosque.
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