It is at this stage that the natives prefer it, and the most rigid Mohammedan, who would shrink with horror at the thought of taking a glass of wine, thinks it no sin to drink a cup of this intoxicating beverage. Without scruple or shame he drinks it publicly, for to him it is only the sap of the palm. If left to stand for another day, it changes to a most nauseating liquid and is unfit for use.
Barca is the eastern division of the province of Tripoli. It lies between the Gulf of Sidra and Egypt. No definite line separates it from Egypt, but several roving, independent tribes serve as a living boundary line between the two races and their countries.
On the south, Barca consists of a desert plain descending gradually to the northerly depressions of the Libyan Desert. The greater part of the province is an oval plateau. It has, in turn, been held by the Egyptians, Byzantines, Persians, and Arabs, and comprised the Cyrenaica of the ancient world.
Many remnants of ancient towns, particularly in the northwest, bear testimony not only to the important place it held in the past, but to the celebrated fertility of the soil. At the present time the fertile tracts cover only about one fourth of the entire province. In the eastern portions only naked rocks and loose sand greet the eye.
Among the productions of Barca are rice, dates, olives, and saffron. Excellent pasturage is afforded to cattle, and the horses are as much celebrated as in days gone by.
The climate of Barca is very agreeable and healthy in the more elevated portions—often twelve hundred feet high—and in the sections exposed to the sea breezes.
CHAPTER LXXIX.
FEZZAN.
As we journey to the south, on the road to the Soudan, we find the great oasis of Fezzan, which extends far into the midst of the Great Desert. The rocky plateau of Hammada forms a natural defense for it on the north, and the superstition of the native Bedouins serves as another obstacle, in addition to those nature has placed along the road.