1038 
in the Jebel Gharian. This remote Jew- 
ish colony is of very old date. Very 
likely the immigration of Jews into 
Tripolitania took place under the Roman 
rule, about 300 A. D. 
The Jews of Gharian live, like their 
Berber fellow-men, in underground 
houses, and their underground syna- 
gogue at the village of Tegrinna is one 
of the most interesting buildings in 
Tripolitania. 
We do not need to describe these un- 
derground houses, as they differ but 
little from the underground houses in 
Tunis, so masterly described by Mr. F. 
FE. Johnson in the September number of 
the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE. 
Some confusion prevails as to the dif- 
ference between Arabs and Berbers. In 
Tripoli every native calls himself with 
pride ane ial. SoANsi lay imachenmone acta: 
certain number of Arabs came into the 
country with the Mohammedan conquest 
of North Africa in the sixth century 
A. D. But the peninsula of Arabia was 
never so densely populated that it could 
send away many emigrants. The Arabs 
conquered North Africa and converted 
its population to their religion. A few 
of the conquerors remained in the coun- 
try, and these are still fairly pure repre- 
sentatives of their race; they live as 
nomads, or Bedouins, in tents, and move 
with the seasons from one camping 
ground to another. Their number is 
difficult to estimate, as we find them now 
in the steppes of the Syrt, now in Cyre- 
naica or Fezzan. ‘Their numbers have, 
however, been well estimated at about 
50,000. A few Arabs, however, have 
become sedentary and cultivate a little 
land around Benghazi. 
The rest of the population of Tripoli, 
and that is the sessile part, are Berbers; 
their blood is mixed with that of Arabs, 
and also of negroes. The negro ele- 
ment, which we find everywhere in 
Tripoli, has its origin in the slave traffic 
of former days, which brought thousands 
of Sudanese to the coast of the Mediter- 
ranean. 
In Cyrenaica we find the same kind of 
population—sessile Berbers and nomad 
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 
Arabs—but Berbers and Arabs are in 
Cyrenaica more mixed. 
Among the inhabitants of Fezzan are 
representatives of nearly all North Afri- 
can peoples. In the Wadi Shiati, south 
of the Hamada el-Homra, there are 
Arab tribes, while the inhabitants of 
Sokna and Bonjem are Berbers. Mur- 
zuk, that great intermediary station be- 
tween the Mediterranean and Lake Chad, 
is a town of easy morals, and its popula- 
tion is a mixture of all the North A fri- 
can races. 
MURZUK, IN SOUTH TRIPOLI 
Mr. Hanns Vischer, one of the few 
travelers—they are not more than 
three—who visited Murzuk in the last 
20 years, gives us in his “Across the 
Sahara” a picture of the life in that town 
which we should like to quote: 
“During the day all Murzuk can be 
seen in the high street, walking or riding 
along through the deep sand toward the 
market at the east end, to which the 
peasants bring their produce from the 
gardens to sell to the Turkish officials 
and the soldiers of the garrison. An 
occasional trader, too, from Bornu or 
the Sudan may sell some of his goods 
before going on toward the coast. Some- 
times Tuaregs and Tubbus bring their 
dates here or put up a camel for sale; 
and, side by side with sugar, scented 
wood, and tea, are to be found the glit- 
tering gewgaws from Tunis and Tripoli. 
Glasses, beads, scents, and colored silks, 
cheap productions of European markets, 
are there, which give the whole scene a 
merry coloring and please the Murzuk 
people, reminding them a little of former 
days, when the immense caravans from 
Bornu camped round the town and 
Tripoli and Benghazi sent thousands of 
camels through the town each year... . 
“Around the grass shelters under 
which the wares were laid out, there was 
as much life and animation as in any of 
the great African markets. Hausas, 
Kanuris, Bagirmis, and Fellata slaves 
jostled sulky Tubbus; old Murzuk tra- 
ders who has seen better days passed up 
and down, full of importance, as if the 
