If by a few days journey, when five and seven have been mentioned before, we may understand three, or thereabouts, the place in question, should lie in the parallel of 28° 50′; at about midway between Cairo and Siwah;[35] and 89 G. miles to the westward of Bahnasa, at the canal of Joseph. Hence it falls very near to Bahnasa, in the Oasis, which has been already placed,[36] at 83 from the forementioned place.
Ptolemy places the Lesser Oasis in lat 28° 45′: and at 75 G. miles to the west of Oxyrinchus, taken for the last mentioned Bahnasa. He no doubt meant to express some particular point in the Oasis; and that point, probably, the principal town, which may have been on the site of Bahnasa in the Oasis. So that there is a general agreement between the ancient and the modern accounts of it.[37]
But Mr. Browne, when at Charje in the Greater Oasis, was told, that the southern part of the Lesser Oasis, named by the inhabitants Al-wah-el-Gherbi, was only forty miles distant to the northward. This being the case, the Lesser Oasis should have an extent of more than 100 miles from north to south: that is, more than the other tract, of the same name, denominated the Greater; but which may, nevertheless, be true, as the term greater or lesser, may refer to other qualities than dimensions. Mr. Browne describes the Greater Oasis (which he had traversed throughout) to consist of large detached spots or islands, like Siwah, extending in a chain from N to S, and separated by intervals of desert from two to fourteen hours of travelling. The Lesser Oasis, most probably, is much of the same nature; but is, by general report, inferior to the other, and vastly inferior to Siwah. See an account of the Oases in the Geog. of Herodotus, Sections xx. and xxi.
Mr. Browne adds, that the Lesser Oasis is a kind of capital settlement of the Muggrebine (or western) Arabs, who pass from it, to the western extremity of the lake Kairun; whose shore, on that side, is also in their possession. (Pages 132, 170.)
Thus, our modern travellers have fixed, pretty satisfactorily, in the view of general geography, the positions of all the three Oases: but it would be more satisfactory to have correctly the latitude of the northern extremity of the Lesser one, as well as some account of the number and position of the islands contained in it.
IV. Valleys of Schiacha, and Gegabib.
At the distance of about three days journey to the westward of Siwah, Mr. Horneman came to Schiacha, a fruitful valley on the right; and, as appears from a circumstance that occurred during the unpleasant visit of the Siwahans, there were many little bogs, in the neighbourhood of their camp, in that valley. Again, at six hours farther, was Torfaue, where they also obtained fresh water. Moreover, in the way from Siwah to Schiacha, at the distance of 6 or 7 miles from the former, he saw at the foot of the hills, a lake, implied to be of fresh water, (see Journal, [page 57,]) of several miles in extent.
Combining with this, the remark of Mr. Horneman, that they had travelled by a chain of hills from Siwah; that these hills were a continuation of those which they had always seen to the northward of their route through the Desert; and that they “rose immediately from the level ground of the Desert, without any declivity, and without any arenacious, or other cover, only the bare rock being seen;” one may conclude, that the valley described, at the foot of these hills, is much of the same nature, with that of Mogara. Moreover, it appears, that he considered the whole extent of the hills, from the Bahr-bela-ma to Schiacha, at least, as one continued ridge; and which has an abrupt declivity to the south. The continuity, however, remains to be proved.
The remarkable valley of Gegabib, famous for its dates, cannot be far from the neighbourhood of Schiacha and Torfaue; since Mr. Browne says, page 26, that when he had advanced two journies to the north-westward of Siwah, he was not far from Gegabib. Mr. Beaufoy calls it, from the description of Ben Ali, “a narrow plain, sandy, and uninhabited, but fertile in dates;” which, he adds, are gathered by the people of Duna on the sea coast, eight journies distant.[38] As Mr. Horneman remarked no date trees on his way from Siwah to Augila, his route must have been wide of this valley or plain, and no doubt to the south of it. This seems proved by Ben Ali’s description of the route from Augila to Siwah, which lay “across the extensive mountains of Gerdoba,” to this valley; since Mr. Horneman left the mountains to the northward of him, the whole way.
As the dates of Gegabib are now gathered by the people of the sea coast; and those of Augila in ancient times, by the Nasamones of the coast of the Syrtis; so the people of the same coast, aided by the modern Augilans, undertake expeditions ten days journey inland from Augila, to steal men and dates, at present![39] So that this system of inroad, from the quarter towards the coast, inland, seems to have been practised at all times; and I shall have occasion to remark it again, hereafter. Augila was an inhabited place in the time of Herodotus, and yet the dates were carried off by strangers: and it seems the present Augilans retaliate on others, the injuries sustained by their ancestors.