Many of the other marks shown in the plates are probably derived from these wasms. The bedawin Arabs are nearly always illiterate, but are accustomed to communicate with each other by marks scratched on the ground in the same way that gypsies make use of a “patteran.” See [p. 180] ante.
Such marks, for instance, as No. 50, derived from the Malif wasm, and 171 and 183, from the
brand, are very possibly produced in this way.
Many of the simpler signs occurred repeatedly, and in addition the group shown in No. 2 was seen twice, and that in No. 14 several times, while the combination No. 25 in one place was repeated no less than thirty-three times in three horizontal lines. Similar marks to those No. 95 occurred in several places, generally in groups of three, placed as shown in the plate.
No. 18, the seal of Solomon, is not uncommonly seen in the rock inscriptions of the Western Sahara. It takes several forms, each of which may have a dot in the centre, thus:
. Its commonest form seems to be that shown in No. 18, but sometimes one of the triangles of which it is composed is drawn with a heavier line than the other, thus:
. It is also represented in at least one case-on the Col de Zanaga, in the Figuig district—surrounded by a waved line producing a kind of rosette