Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/522

 428 NORTH-WEST AFRICA. and his cattle. A little grass and a few shrubs spring up in the hollows, wherever the moisture can be stored ; acacias also of various species, and one or two other plants, develop here and there a few thickets of stunted growth. In Tibesti is found the northern limit of the higlik, or "elephant tree " {balanites uEgt/ptiaca), and of the bifurcating dum-palm. The date grows in a few favoured ravines, but yields an indifferent fruit, never in sufficient abundance for the local requirements. In a few places where the rocky soil is covered with a little vegetable humus, the natives cultivate wheat, the Egyptian durra, and the dukhn of Kordofan. The poverty of the Tibesti fauna corresponds with that of its flora. The only wild animals are the hyaena, jackal, fox, sable, the wadan and other antelopes, besides some cynocephali, who feed on the acacia, and are respected by the Tibbu hunters, believing them to be " bewitched human beings." The ostrich has become rare ; but above the hilltops still hover the vulture and raven, while flocks of doves whirl round the bare rocks. Swarms of pigeons also frequent the thickets of Borku. But domestic animals are necessarily rare in a region where the few human habitations are scattered over a vast area. Amongst these oxen appear to have been formerly included, for Nachtigal discovered sculptures representing them led by bridles twined round their horns. Now, however, the ox has entirely dis- appeared, and only a few horses still survive in the Domar Valley, south of the main range. There is an excellent breed of camels, resembling those of the Ahaggar Tuaregs, with long legs, swift and surefooted in climbing rocky hills, but more difficult to feed than those on the Mediterranean coastlands. They are well cared for by the Tibbus, who also possess a hardy breed of asses, some slughi- hounds, and short-haired goats of good stock. The broad-tailed sheep of Egypt and eastern Mauritania is unknown in Tibesti, where it is replaced by a magnificent species with long legs and tail, covered with a thick coat of black fleecy wool. Of their skins the natives make splendid winter robes. Inhabitants of Tibesti — The Tibbus. The Tibbus, or rather Tubus, according to Nachtigal, are the " Men of Tu," that is, of the rocks, and their Arab name, Tubu Reshadeh, is merely a repetition of the same designation, Reshad having the meaning of *' rock," or " mountain." The Tibbus, called also Tedas in the north, are in fact essentially rock-dwellers, and a large number are even troglodytes, inhabiting natural caverns, or else spaces amid the boulders roofed in with branches of the palm or acacia. The Tibbus range over a vast extent of the Eastern Sahara, where they are the dominant race from the southern part of the Kebabo oasis in Kufra to Fezzan, and from Wajanga to Kawar, on the route between Murzuk and Kuka. Their domain thus exceeds 200,000 square miles in extent. The race appears to have undergone a general displacement in the direction from north to south. At least they formerly possessed the Kufra oases, where they now hold only a few poor tributary villages; their settlements have also become rare in Fezzan, whereas in the south their emigrants have established themselves in large numbers in Kanem and Bornu.