Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/515

 NATUEAL DIVISIONS— ENNEDI—WAJANOA. 4t8 where less laborious, the desert routes niuMt become every year lets frequented, since the trade of Europe has begun to penetrate into the ijitcrior of the continent by the great arteries of the S(>negal and Niger. By these changes the desert must, so to say, remain outflanked until the Twat oasis becomes attached to the pn>jectod railway system between the French possessions on the Me<literranean and Atlantic seaboards. At present the total yearly traffic across the Sahara can scarcely exceed £80,000. However shrewd and careful the guides, however patient and enduring the camels, disasters are still unfortunately far from rare. Whoever strays from the path is lost. A prey to hunger and the still more terrible thirst, he is presently seized by some master-thought overriding all reflection ; in his hallucination he fancies himself at the bottom of some dark pit, or ceaselessly climbing some steep hillside. When at last he lies down, his eyes are closed in death, and his IkkIv, around which rises a little dune, becomes rapidly dried up. To ensure their mutual safety, the members of the caravan must keep close together, or at least within sight and hearing of each other. Any lagging behind may prove instantly fatal, as was sho^Ti in such a terrible way during the second expedition sent by the French to Wargla for the purix)se of surveying the route of the future trans-Saharian trunk line. According to the customs and institutions of the various tribes inhabiting the oases and confines of the desert, this necessary sense of solidarity in the caravan is differently understood. In many lierber clans, accustomed to self- government and recognising no master, the group of travellers constitutes a common jemlLa or assembly, in which each gives his advice and fulfils his s{)ecial function for the common good. But the Arab convoy is ruled despotically. Here the khebir is master, and all must obey. Under bis ortlers are the Hhnmh who interpret his will, the fshunf who watch the land, a hhoja who " keeps the log," a crier who announces all decrees, a muezzin who calls to prayer, and a priest who " reads the service." Natural Divisions — Enxedi — Wajaxoa. The natural divisions of the Great Desert are indicated by such mountain ranges or uplands as Tibesti, Tassili, and the Jebel Ahaggar. Were there a suffi- ciently heavy rainfall, these highlands would constitute water-partings for so many distinct fluvial basins draining to the Nile, to the Syrtes, to the Atlantic or the Niger. The eastern basin, specially designated by the name of the Libyan desert, has probably no uplands except some isolated sandstone rocks md sandhills, such as those lying along the route of travellers between the great bt»nd of the Nile and Kordofan. No mountains have anywhere been detected on the distant western horizon, nor have any watercourses been found indicating the presence of high ranges likely to attract niin-bearing clouds. Judging from the natural incline of the borderlands round the margin of this vast basin left still a blank on our map, it would appear to slope gently northwards in the direction of the Egyptian oasea. But the Dar-For highlands, many of whose crests exceed 3,500 feet, are con-