Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/529

 TOPOOBApnr. OS the wife cspcciully being forbidden by social etiquette to make the remotest allunion to the subject. She neither uddresses her husband in public, nor eatii with hira ; nor has ho on his part any longer the right to let his glance fall on his father-in- law or mother-in-law. In fact, he ignores his wife's rebtious, and is even required to change his name, like those guilty of murder. Topography. The chief centre of population in Tibesti is Bnrdai, situated in a vallev on the north-cast slope of the mountmns, about the middle course of an euneri, or wadv, which after receiving several tributaries flows northwards in the direction of Wau. The thermal waters of the famous Veiikeh, or " Fountain," belong to the basin of this torrent. Around Bardai stretch the most extensive palm groves in Tibesti ; hence this district is visited by nearly all the Tedas in search of dates. They also frequent the surrounding hills with their flocks, and most of their traders hold commercial relations with Murzuk in Fezzan. Others migrate to the southern oases of Borku and the neighbouring territories ; but they have lost the route to the mysterious Wadikur oasis, which lay live days' journey to the south-west of Kufra, and which is described in legend as abounding in a rich vegetation. Like all the oases the route to which has been forgotten, it is a " paradise lost." In Borku, oases fed by sweet or brackish waters fill all the depressions, and yield better dates than those of Tibesti. The dum-palm also flourishes, and several Sudanese plants might here be successfully cultivated. But at the time of Nachtigul's visit the gardens were mostly ubaiidoniHl, the palm groves in many places invaded by the sands, the villages forsaken by their inhabitants, and their huts made of matting overturned by the wild beasts. The Aulad-Slimans, and even the Tuaregs of the western steppes and the 2klahamids of "NVaday, pay regular visits to these oases, plundering the granaries, capturing women and children, slaying all who resist their attacks. Thus deprivixl of all their clTccts, the Dazas either set to work again, or else take to marauding in their turn in order to collect enough money to ransom their enslaved families, whom fresh razzias may presently again sweep into bondage. Their existence is that of wild beasts beset on all sides by hunters. In Borku the largest and best-defended oasis is Wun, which lies in one of the southern river valleys draining through the Bahr-el-Ghazal basin to Lake Tsad. At the palm groves of Wun bt^gins a line of little-known oaaos stretching away between two parallel mountain ranges towards the north-west. The Oases along thr Fezzan and Lake Tsad Roitb. The great caravan route between Murzuk and I^ke Tsad, which must sooner or later be replaced by the locomotive, is the most imiwrtant of all highwajrt oitMaing the Sahara from north to south. Here the space between the two cultivated