Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/179

 carried on with the seaports and with the towns of the Sahara during mediæval times, when they were the purveyors of slaves for the Barbary States. Agents and brokers who have settle: in the country, more especially the Jews and the Mzabites, now export the products of the oases far and wider The Naffa oasis has been named Marsat-es-Subara, or the "Port of the Desert," and the place is still shown whence the vessels are said to have set sail, and where the remains of a ship are even stated to have been found.

Throughout the whole of the "Palm Country," the Arab towns have been preceded by those of the Roman period, the remains of which are still to be seen in many places, although the greater part of the materials have been utilised in building convents, mosques, and defensive works. In the oasis of Tozer, the distribution of the water is still regulated by Roman dykes. As in most of the other

cases, the towns are not compactly built, but consist of quarters scattered amid the surrounding plantations. The western oasis of Nafta, which enjoys a sort of religious pre-eminence, a certain number of its inhabitants being "Sons of the Prophet," comprises nine distinct villages and four convents. Tozer, the largest and most populous of all the oases, is divided into nine quarters, and serves as the political capital of the Jerid; El-Udiân, the eastern group of oases, consists of many villages, amongst others, Dgash, Kriz, and Seddada, which are some distance from each other; lastly, an oasis called El-Hamma, or the "Buths," like that in the vicinity of Cabes, comprises four groups of cottages, sheltered by the palms. The copious hot spring (96:8° F.), from which it has received its name, falls into a basin of Roman construction; it is slightly sulphureous, and the natives endow it with astonishing virtues, due to the merits of a saint buried in a neighbouring tomb.

A rock, standing north of Kriz in the El-Udiân oasis, is pierced with ancient