Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/392

 816 NORTH-WEST AFRICA. to the south-west of Wargla are still discovered its houses, with their sculptures, wood carvings, ornaments of all sorts, even their very wells. According to the local tradition, the epoch of the Arab invasion coincided with, the abandonment of this city, which, to judge from its buildings, was evidently a Berber settlement, and is still claimed as their property by the Mzabites. But vestiges even of an older period are also numerous at the foot of the plateaux. Along the edge of the escarpments skirting the "Wed Maya are seen villages of the Stone Age, with work- shops of chipped flint implements, and many other objects bearing witness to the relations maintained between the Saharians of that epoch and the populations dwelling on the shores of the Indian Ocean. Not far from Sedrata rises the old natural stronghold of Khrima, which might have served as a refuge for the Ibadhites when driven from Wargla. From this citadel they may have again retreated towards the valley of the Wed Mzab, whence their present appellation of Mzabites. According to an Arabic manuscript, com- municated to M. Terry by a descendant of the old sultans of the country, as many as 125 towns existed in the thirteenth century in a region where are now found two only, Wargla and Ngu9a. El-Golea — Geryville. Although lying south of the o2nd parallel and five degrees of latitude from the Mediterranean seaboard, Wargla is not the most advanced French station in this direction. El-Golea, over 540 miles nearly due south of Algiers by the Laghwat-Mzab route, was first visited in 1859 by Duveyrier, who was here insulted and threatened with death. In 1873 a French column penetrated to this place, which, although no longer held by a French garrison, recognises by a tribute the authority of the Algerian Government. El-Golea lies beyond the basin of the Wed Maya, and from the mound crowned by its castle is visible the dried-up bed of the Wed Seggwer, which is followed by caravans proceeding to Twat and Timbuktu. A little to the west begins a zone of large dunes, which correspond to the eastern arega between Ghadames and the Ighargar basin. The gardens of the oasis, comprising about sixteen thousand palms, occupy the edge of this zone, and are watered by wells and ^/b^^ro^s, or underground channels. But the sands are constantly threatening the cultivated tracts, whose Berber inhabitants are mere serfs in the hands of the nomad Shaanba-Mwadhi, and of the Ulad Sidi-esh-Sheikh marabuts. Wargla, El-Golea, and Metlili are the three towns round which gravitate the Sbaanba (Shaamba, Shamba) pastoral tribes, who own houses and gardens in these places, and never fail to pay them two yearly visits during the shearing and date- harvest seasons. While the bulk of the clan roam over the steppe with their flocks, a few remain in the oases to look after the tribal interests. Thus the Shaanbas enjoy at once the produce both of their live stock and of their gardens. They also engage in trade, and act as carriers and escorts to the Mzabite mer-