Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/543

 TIIE MEHABI CAMEL. 446 acacias, especially those yielding gum arabic and other essences, derelop %'rritublc' forests. In the neighbourhood of I^uke 3Iihuro, Von Bary even fonnd thickets of trees matted together by creeping plants in a dense mass of impenetrable verdure. The least shower suffices in a few hours to clothe the naked soil i^-ith a carpet of rich grassy vegetation. Duveyrier tells us that ho saw vast arid tracts thus covered in a single day with the softest herbage after a rainy night. Within seven days the young grass, called " spring " by the Tuaregs, is already advanced enough to supply fodder for the herds. Amongst the common plants of the district montion is made of the fulczlez, a species of henbane, whose toxic properties increase in direct relation to the altitude of the ground on which it grows. Almost harmless in the low-lying valleys, it becomes dangerous on the lower terraces, and a deadly poison on the highlands, but not for ruminating animals. Its foliage fattens the camel and gout, but is fatal to the horse, ass, dog, and man. The cultivated flora of the Tuaregs com- prises a very limited number of species : two trees only, the date and fig; the vine, and four kinds of cereals, wheat, barley, sorgho, and millet. The lion does not appear to survive in the Ahaggar uplands, which are also free from the presence of the panther, wild boar, buffalo, rhinoceros, and hipi>o- potamus ; but the Tuaregs are familiar with the sight of wolf and hyscnu. Un the plateaux and in the plains surrounding the Jebel Ahaggar antelopes are numerous, while herds of wild asses are met on the north Tassili uplands. They are too swift to be followed in the chase, but a few are occasionally captured by means of snares. The wild ass is said to attack and kill the domestic species. The Mehari Camel. The margins of the sebkhas and the wooded depressions are enlivened by the flight of a few rare birds, belonging to a very limited number of species. The traveller may journey for a whole week in certain districts of the Sahara without meeting a single winged creature. The Tuaregs have for domestic animals the horse, uss, sheep, goat, slughi greyhound, and even the ostrich. Duveyrier saw one of these tame ostriches, which was tethered like cattle left on the grazing grounds. IJut the Tuaregs' special care is the camel, their most belovetl com- panion, without whose aid they would find it imijossible to supjjort existence in the vost arid spaces stretching across the Sahara from the Wed Kigh to the Niger. It is owing to the camel that the Targui has adopted a nomad in preference to an agricultural life. In many of the upland valleys in the :lhaggar highlands, the inhabitants might be able to live on the produce of the land. But the owner of a camel finds it impossible to settle down in one place. He is compelled, according to the seasons and rainfall, to move about in search of the pasturage most suitable for his camels. The herds consist especially of pack animals, which are occasionally t«quipped for rapid marauding and other expe<litions. But those intended for speed con- stitute a special variety, the so-called mehari, in Berber arhe/am, which is distin-