An occasional visit to the Court of Fezzan is paid by their Chief, who is always received with great hospitality, and after a residence of a few weeks, is dismissed, with a present of a long robe.
The vales of Tibesti are fertile in corn, and pasturage for cattle, of which they have numerous herds, and are particularly celebrated for their breed of camels, which are esteemed the best in Africa. For this fertility they are indebted to the water of the innumerable springs that amply compensate for the want of rain, which seldom, if ever, falls within the limits of Tibesti.
Huts of the simplest construction (for they are formed of stakes driven into the ground in a circular arrangement, and covered with the branches of trees and brushwood intermixed) compose the dwellings of the people.
In return for the senna and the camels which they sell in Fezzan, they bring back coral, alhaiks, or barakans, Imperial dollars, and brass, from the two last of which articles they manufacture the rings and bracelets which are worn by their women.
Among the natives of Tibesti different religions are professed; for some of them are Mahometans, and others continue attached to their antient system of Idolatry.
CHAPTER V.
Mode of Travelling in Africa.
The mode of travelling in Africa is so connected with the commerce, and therefore with the manners of its principal nations, that without some knowledge of the former, a description of the two latter cannot be clearly understood.