174 THE MEN OF THE DESERT. 



it adheres to any foreign body. Cattle feed upon it eagerly. It 

 certainly facilitates digestion, and contains all the assimilating prin- 

 ciples which form the constituents of the wholesomest vegetable food. 

 Such as it is, the lichen esculentus is an inestimable boon to the 

 wandering tribes of the Desert, who would perish of hunger in years 

 of famine but for its heaven-sent nutriment. 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE MEN OF THE DESERT. 



WHEN I use the terms " Men of the Desert," " Populations of the 

 Desert," evidently I must not be understood to employ them in their 

 absolute sense. Man, no more than that other so-called " lord of 

 animals" the lion, makes a voluntary sojourn in countries where 

 game, verdure, and fresh water are wanting. The peoples whom we 

 entitle " Inhabitants of the Desert" are then, in reality, those who 

 dwell upon its borders or in its oases, but whom the necessity of 

 traversing and frequently abiding in it has familiarized with its 

 gloom and its peril, as a similar necessity has familiarized the mariner 

 with the ocean. We have seen, however, that some pastoral tribes 

 pitch their tents and pasture their flocks in those districts where 

 vegetation is favoured and cherished by a supply of rain or subter- 

 ranean waters, and which should more accurately be designated as 

 Steppes than Deserts. Some authorities have, indeed, affixed the 

 name of " the Saharan Steppe" to the region of high table-lands 

 which lies at the base of the Atlas range. 



Other groups, who are partly shepherds and partly hunters, 

 inhabit, in the Southern and Western Sahara, those plateaux where 

 ostriches, gazelles, and hares abound. The more peaceful and indus- 

 trious tribes occupy the oases. As for those who encamp or habi- 

 tually wander in the Sandy Desert where all cultivation is impossible, 



