BAR 



275 



BAR 



Bare*. Long. ; and in breadth about ISO miles, from 28 to 

 .- ' 31 North Lat. The etymology of the name is ex- 

 tremely uncertain It has been explained as signify- 

 ing " a blessing," and derived from the Arabic barac 

 " to bless." Others have considered it as taken from 

 Barca, a brother of queen Dido, who is supposed to 

 have founded the city of Barca. The modern Arabs, 

 however, are said to understand it as denoting " the 

 place of hurricanes." In ancient history it formed a 

 part of that immense tract of country, which bore 

 the general name of Libya ; and was then divided into 

 two provinces, which were called Libya Cyrenaica, 

 and Libya Marmarica. 



The modern state and history of Barca are very 

 imperfectly known. It is described as a tract of dry 

 barren sand, almost entirely destitute of vegetation, 

 incapable of culture, and rarely yielding a spring of 

 fresh water. A few spots of verdure, consisting 

 chiefly of the different kinds of kali or glasswort, oc- 

 casionally relieve the eye of the traveller, and furnish 

 a slender refreshment to his suffering camel. At 

 long and dreary intervals are found some fertile places, 

 called oases, or islands, where the towns and villages 

 are situated, and where a little millet, maize, and 

 sometimes abundance of dates are produced. In 

 many of the more desert parts, the surface of the 

 ground is covered with a saline crust ; and, in the 

 regions towards th^ south, great quantities of pe- 

 trified wood of various forms and sizes, even large 

 trunks of trees, particularly of oak, are found in the 

 aad. 



The principal towns along the coast of the Medi- 

 terranean are, Zoara, Soluk, Bernie, Bengasi, Tau- 

 chira, Tolemata ( Ptolemais,) Barca, the capital of the 

 country, Curin (Ci/renc,) Derna, Cape Luco (Pro- 

 montorium Carylonium,) Porto Mesulman (Calabath- 

 muif) Rameda, Bareton (Paratonium.) The inha- 

 bitants of these maritime places, in their general cha- 

 racter and customs, resemble the other natives of Bar- 

 bary. They profess the religion of Mahomet ; are 

 considered as under the protection of the Porte ; and 

 are tributary to the Basha of Tripoli or of Egypt, 

 according as they approximate to either of these 

 kingdoms ; but very little is known respecting their 

 political state, or commercial intercourse. 



The Barcan desert is separated from the Libyan, 

 on the south, by a chain of rocky mountains, among 

 which the most considerable towns and villages are 

 situated ; and where the climate and soil are more fa- 

 vourable, than in any other part of the country. The 

 chief of these towns, which have been noticed by tra- 

 vellers, are, Mogara, Ummesogeir, Biljoradeck, Si- 

 wah, where very extensive ruins have been observed, 

 and where the oracular temple of Jupiter Ammon is 

 supposed to have been situated ; Mojabra, Melidilla, 

 and Augila, which is mentioned by Herodotus as be- 

 ing ten days journey from the city of the Aminonians, 

 and which has been remarkable, both in ancient and 

 modern times, for the great abundance and superior 

 flavour of its dates. The houses in these towns are 

 generally placed on the side of the mountains, and 

 have very much the appearance of caves in the rocks. 

 The soil in their neighbourhood yields pomegranates, 

 iigs, olives, apricots, plantains, a little wheat, a con. 



siderable quantity of rice of a reddish hue, but pr'm- Barcarolle, 

 cipally dates. A few sheep, goats, asses, oxen, and Barcelona, 

 camels, are kept by the natives ; but, for want of v-*"' 

 pasture, the cattle are frequently supported by the 

 fruit of the date tree. The inhabitants are engaged 

 chiefly in agriculture and gardening ; and sometimes 

 carry on a petty traffic with the Arab caravans from 

 the cities on the coast, or with those which pass be- 

 tween Fezzan and Egypt. Some of them, by these 

 means, acquire considerable wealth ; but they are in 

 general remarkably poor and dirty. They are fre- 

 quently almost entirely naked ; and their dress, at 

 most, consists only of a large wrapper of coarse wool- 

 len cloth. Sometimes, under this, they wear a white 

 cotton shirt with wide sleeves, reaching to the feet, 

 a Tunisian cap of red worsted or cotton, character- 

 istic of the Mussulman, and slippers of the same co- 

 lour. They subsist chiefly upon dates, rice, milk, 

 flat cakes of unleavened bread, or thin sheets of paste, 

 fried in the oil of the palm tree. They drink great 

 quantities of a liquor made from the date tree, which 

 they term date-tree water ; but which has often, in 

 the state in which it is used, an inebriating quality. 



Of the more central parts of Barca, scarcely any 

 thing whatever is known. Few travellers have at- 

 tempted to explore its pathless wastes of barren and 

 burning sand ; where they could have no other guide 

 than the compass or the stars, and where they would 

 be continually exposed to the cruel rapacity of the 

 most savage and brutal of all the Arab race. The few 

 wandering tribes who traverse these dismal regions, 

 are described as peculiarly hideous in their aspect, 

 ferocious in their manners, meagre and ravenous in 

 their whole appearance. They are wretched and in- 

 digent in the extreme ; and subsist principally by 

 plundering the date villages, and levying contribu- 

 tions from the caravans, which pass along the coast 

 of the Mediterranean, or by the borders of Libya. 

 They are almost continually engaged in these preda- 

 tory excursions ; and are said to commit the most 

 atrocious acts of cruelty upon those, who fall into 

 their hands. Yet, with aM their exertions and ex- 

 pertness in robbery, they are said to be frequently in 

 such a famishing state, as to pledge, or even sell, their 

 own children, for the necessaries of life, to the Sici- 

 lian and other Christian traders, who occasionally 

 come upon the coast. See Ancient Univ. Hist. vol. 

 xviii. p. 228. Modern Univ. Hist. vol. xviii. p. 518. 

 Brown's Travels in Africa. Hornemann's Travels in 

 Africa, (q) 



' BARCAROLLA, the name of the airs sung by 

 the Venetian Gondolieri. (to) 



BARCELONA, the Barcinona of the Romans, 

 is the capital of the province of Catalonia, and one of 

 the principal cities of Spain. It is situated on the 

 Mediterranean between the rivers Bezos and Llobre- 

 gat, in a beautiful and fruitful country, which forms 

 an oblong irregular plain, encircled with hills on one 

 side, and bounded by the sea on the other. 



Barcelona was founded about 250 years before 

 Christ by the Carthaginians, who called it after their 

 general Hannibal Barcino. After having passed un- 

 der the dominion of the Romans, the Goths, and the 

 Moors, Barcelona was besieged in A. D. .802 by 



