Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/561

 TILLULIN— TIDIKELT— IN8ALAH. 461 The Tsabit oa«i9, altliouj^h Irwi cxtoniii%e. enjoys fp^ter oommerdal and strategic iiniK)rtanco, thaiikH to itn situation on the greet caravan route. Uriuken, iu capital, is still one of the most |)opulous towns in Twat, although in the yew 184«, during a civil war between the oases it lost half of its inhabiUnUand palm grorei^ Towanls the mwxXi follow in succession thooaaefl of Sba, Buda, and Tiinini. At the time of Itohlfs' visit, the group of twenty hnmlets constituting Timmi wm the most flourishing in the whole of Twat. Adrar, its capital, which poMMMs • permanent market, enjoys this advantage in common with Timimun in the Ourars district, and the town of Tmnentit, which lies 6 miles farther south, at the farther side of a saline depression where no water is ever colUn-ted. Tamentit, the largest town in Twat, fonns an inde|)en{U'nt republic, administered by a jomaa, or assembly of notables, and a sheikh. The population is not only Mussulman, but mainly conijKJsed of a Taibiya confraternity, which sends iU offerings regularly to the Shcrif of Wezzan in Marocco. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of Tamentit are of Jewish descent, like those of several other dis- tricts in Twat. Forcibly converted into fierce Mohammedan fanatics, and almost assimilated to the Negro type by the intermixture of races, they have at least preserved their Hebrew origin, the characteristic qualities of tact in the adminiNtra- tion of affairs, and much skill in the exercise of all the industries. Their jewellers, armourers, locksmiths, boot and shoe makers, and tailors, have opened workshops in the bazaar, and the quality of their ware yields iu no respect to that of their brethren in the large towns of Algeria and Marocco. TiLl.ll.lN — TiniKELT IXSALAII. In the courtyard of the citadel at Tamentit the natives show with pride a " stone fallen from heaven," a black jwlished block, which is probably a meteorite. According to the local tradition, it was formerly a mass of solid silver, but was afterwards changed to iron, doubtless in consequence of the depravity of mankind. South of Tumentit, where the oases take the name of Twat in a more s|MH^ial sense, the plantations are grouped under the general denominations of Jilad iSali and Blad Reggan. They are continued southwards along the course of the Wed Messaud as far as Tilhilin and Taurirt, at the confluence of another wed descending from the eastern plateaux. This district is one of the most densely inhabittnl in the whole region of palm groves. But farther on all cultivation gives place to the de«ert, in the midst of which the river disappears, either absorbed in a salme depreMion, as Hohlfs was assured by the natives of Twat, or else in a gi>rge through which it effects a junction with the Teghazert, another stream flowing from the southern slopes of the Ahaggar highlands. According to M^f. Pouyanne and Sabatier, who have collected reports from a large number of the inhabitants, this watercourse, interrupted only by a range of sandhills which may be traverseil in less than two hours, would apiK»arto belong to the fluvial basin of the Niger, its confluence with that river being through a succession of marshy depressions alternately dr}' and flooded. But in this direc-