688 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ENTERTAINING VARIETIES. 



THE MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON; 



OR, 



TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES OF HAKIM BEN SHEYTAN. 



Translated by F. L. 0. 

 INTRODUCTION. 



The result of the first Tunisian expedition to the interior of Africa 

 is too well known to require here more than a general mention. After 

 the treaty of Khundabad, the commander of the exploring-party tried 

 to reach the Mongha highlands by following the valley of the Bar- 

 el-Nun, and had already crossed the foot-hills that form the western 

 boundary of the Fant hunting-grounds, when the vanguard of his aux- 

 iliaries was routed by an attack of the Galla marauders, who captured 

 sixteen of his companions, including his five Tripolitan merchants, and 

 effected their retreat across the mountains before the arrival of the 

 Khundabad rescuing party. But this very disaster, which defeated 

 the immediate object of the explorers, helped to enlist the aid of the 

 Tripolitan Government, and thus led to the marvelous discoveries of 

 the second expedition. 



In the last week of November, 1878, the command of Marut Pasha 

 assembled at Wady el Kamr, where they were joined by a troop of 

 Tunisian volunteers, mostly relatives of the captured merchants. Ha- 

 kim Ben Sheytan, the medical and ^Mem-scientific attache of the expe- 

 dition, had been appointed at the special recommendation of the mollah 

 or high-priest of Tripoli, who had also induced the government to fur- 

 nish the commissary supplies from the Dey's own Beit-el-Habbada or 

 body-guard barracks. The caravan reached Moorzook in midwinter, 

 and, in spite of the doctor's protest, the commander attempted to cross 

 the Bedeyat lowlands before the end of the rainy season. The Harra- 

 Ghul, the terrible jungle-fever of the waddies, bi'oke out before they 

 had reached the Soodan hill-country ; the Tunisian volunteers, and at 

 last even the pasha's veterans, were decimated by the epidemic, and 

 upon their arrival at Darfoor all but twenty of them had to be sent to 

 the Arabian hospital. But the instructions were very stringent : the 

 sick were left in charge of a native surgeon, and with twenty-five 

 followers, including Dr. Sheytan and three Darfoor guides, the com- 

 mander continued his journey to Galla-land. They followed the wind- 

 ings of the Bar-el- Adda, a stream that takes its rise in the Mountains 

 of the Moon, and at last reached the land of the Khundi Fants, and 

 made their way to the chief village, where the news from the frontier 



