Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/581

 TOPOGRAPHY. 477 fishermen of the Ulud Bu-Sbu tribe lie in wait for these birds when they oome to refresh thoniselves by boating the water with their wiugn. Then ftealing behind the dunes, they suddenly spring up raising loud erien, whieh ao tem'Be* tho ostriches that they rush deej)er into the sea, and ho are eaptured one by one. Like Marocco and tho other Barbery Staton, the Western Sahara ia divided between the autochthonous IJtrbers and tho intruding Arabs. The Ait-Attaa, Dui-Menias, Ikrabers, Dui-HcUals, and other tribes encamp on the step|K's, change ing their quarters according to the state of the grazing-gnmnds, and at timet undertaking long journeys, either for the purposes of trade, or on miMiona of vengeance or plunder. The Arab horsemen of the Sahel are said by Duveyrier to push their Tnaraudingexi>odition8 us far as the njutebetwt'cn Insidah and Timbuktu in order to pillage passing caravans. These raids are accunipaniid by camels ladin with water and suet. They are fed on the suet as long as it holds out, and then killed to supply food for man and beast. Some of these exjKditions last for several months at a time. The caravans equippetl in the regions south of Manjcco are organised either in Tafilelt, or in the oases skirting the great bend of the Wed I)raa, or else in the petty Berber states on the coast. One of their rendezvous is the Tekna oasis, situated in the basin of the " Red Watercourse." But a more favourite station is the little town of Tendcf, founded during the present century exclusively for trading purposes. It forms a group of over a hundred houses of beaten earth, encircled by a few palms, and situated on a we<l flowing towards the Draa basin. The town is inhabited by the Tajukant Berbers, who yield olxxlience to an Arab chief of the Maribda tribe. This market does a considerable trade not only with Maroceo and Sudan, but also with Twat and Arabia. Once a year, about December or Januar}-, the Tajakants assemble hore to form the Kafila-el-Kebir, or " Great Caravan " of Timbuktu, which comprises several hundres(»lute religious tolerance. The Tajakant jKMtple are also far more enlightentd and better educated than most of the other Siiharian tribes. Tlu-y supply teachers to all the surrounding communities. The various tribes of this district arc regarded as belonging to a specially noble lineagt^ ; hence even in Alg<>ria many of the Ik-rlxT clans claim with pride to have come originally from the Si.kiet-el-IIamra count r}'. Topography. On the route from Tenduf to Timbuktu, which runs due south-west along the line of hamadas and sands, the only centres of population that cim be called towns are Taudcni oxxA Araicnti. Tho former, lying near the Wed Teli, in a low-lying part of the Juf depression, is an important station for caravans, which here find water in abundance. But the chief resource of tho place arc iu deposits of