Temissa is at present a place of little importance, containing not more than forty men bearing arms. It is built on a hill, and surrounded by a high wall, capable of securing it against hostile incursion if in due repair, but in many parts the wall is decayed and fallen. I was told there were inscriptions to be discovered on some of the buildings, but I found none, and rather suppose none such ever existed, the ruins consisting of mere dilapidated houses, built with limestone, and cemented with a reddish mortar. These remains, however, shew that the ancient inhabitants of Temissa were more expert in the art of building than the present, who have patched up dwelling places in and among the ruins scarcely so comfortable as our sheds for cattle in Europe.
These people have many sheep and goats. Their only beast of burden is the ass. The place is surrounded with groves of date trees, which furnish the chief subsistence; corn is produced, but in very small quantity.
Having visited the town; on my return to camp, I found there a number of the natives, bartering sheep, fowls and dates, for tobacco, butter, female ornaments, and the coarse woollen stuffs with which the Arabs are generally cloathed. The evening closed in mutual congratulation and festivity, and the younger slaves and boys of the camp made a bonfire.
Our journies from this place being intended to be short, we did not decamp the following morning till half an hour after sunrise, and moved on slowly between date trees, on a generally level ground, interspersed here and there with low hills formed by the wind, which had gathered and heaped a deep sand round some of the trees, so that only the top branches appeared. At two in the afternoon, we came in sight of Zuila, and proceeded towards the place destined for our encampment SW. of the town.
SECTION IV.
Of Zuila.
Zuila being a place of importance in the territory of Fezzan, and the place of residence, not only of many leading and wealthy men, but of relations to the family of the Sultan; we halted at some little distance from the town, and prepared to do the proper honours of our arrival.
The merchants, their pages and slaves dressed themselves in their best apparel; and the Sheik ordered his green flag to be borne before him, in honor to the Shereefs who live in this place. We had scarcely formed ourselves in procession, when we perceived twenty horsemen, mounted on white horses, with a green flag carried in their centre. It was the Shereef Hindy, the principal man of the town, who with his eight sons and other relations, was come out to meet us: at some distance followed a great number of men and boys on foot. They joined our caravan, and we passed together near the town, with huzzas and discharge of muskets, till we reached our place of encampment and pitched our tents.
Many other inhabitants then came out to us, some from curiosity, and some to barter their goods; all behaved with the greatest decorum and regularity; but the family of the Shereef was distinguished by its particular complacency and politeness of manners: they wore the Tripolitan dress, but over it a fine Soudan shirt or Tob. The dealings of the caravan, on this occasion, were considerable, and especially with the women, who purchased various articles of ornament, in exchange for garden-stuff, milk, and poultry.
Zuila has received the name of Belled-el-Shereef, or town of the Shereefs: in former times it was an important place, and its circumference appears to have been thrice the extent of what it is now. Some of the Shereef’s family told me, that some centuries past Zuila had been the residence of the sultans, and the general rendezvous of the caravans: and even yet the voyage to Fezzan is termed, the voyage to Seela, by the caravan from Bornou.
This little city stands on a space of about one mile in circuit; as in Augila, the houses have only a ground floor, and the rooms are lighted from the door. Near the centre of the town, are the ruins of a building several stories high, and of which the walls are very thick; and report says, this was formerly the palace. Without the town near the southern wall, stands an old mosque, little destroyed by time, serving as a sample of the ancient magnificence of Zuila; it contains in the middle a spacious hall or saloon, encompassed by a lofty colonnade, behind which runs a broad passage, with entrances to various apartments belonging to the establishment of the mosque. At some little distance further from the city, appear ancient and very lofty edifices, which are the tombs of shereefs, who fell in battle, at time the country was attacked by Infidels.