PRIPOM TAs AND OF LITTLE PROMISE 
traffic depended on them; Arabs from 
the coast poked their long guns into 
every one’s face as the crowd nervously 
made way for them. Tuaregs, Turks, 
Albanians, splendidly grown Turkish 
soldiers in torn uniforms, all acted their 
part with the greatest entrain.” 
At Gatrun, south of Murzuk, the in- 
habitants show all the characteristics of 
the Bornu people. As a matter of fact, 
the Bornu rulers of the Sefiya dynasty in 
the XIIIth century A. D. included Fez- 
zan in their empire. They founded in 
that country slave colonies for the work- 
ing of the Natron mines and for the pro- 
tection of the caravan trade. The capital 
of the Bornu empire was Kuka, on 
Lake Chad. The actual Shehu of Bornu 
is still the owner of a certain number of 
date palms in the oasis of Murzuk. 
In Tejerri, the most southern inhab- 
ited place of Fezzan, we find Tubbu 
Reshade, representatives of that lawless 
desert tribe which has its headquarters 
in the rocky highland of Tibesti. The 
old castle of Tejerri, which is perhaps of 
Roman origin, serves to the inhabitants 
as a refuge in times of invasion by desert 
brigands. 
UNDER THE PROPHETS GREEN BANNER 
Besides these more or less distinct 
races, there are the dark and not espe- 
cially characterized Fezzanis. They are 
probably but a bare 40,000 in number. 
In about eight inhabited places they fight 
a hard struggle against the dunes which 
threaten to invade the few cultivated 
lands. The products are hardly suffi- 
cient to maintain the frugal inhabitants, 
and this compels many of them to go to 
the coast towns, to Tripoli and Tunis, 
and earn a livelihood there as servants 
or artisans. These have a touching af- 
fection for their country, and after some 
years they return home with the money 
earned. Cattle-rearing is of small im- 
portance in Fezzan. The land has no 
large pasture grounds, and the Fezzani 
drives his cattle and sheep to pasture on 
the steppes of the Syrt. 
All these different peoples are united 
under the green banner of the Prophet, 
or convent of purity. 
1041 
who in our days has his most fervent 
followers in North Africa. The re- 
ligious brotherhood of the Senussiya has 
branches in nearly every town and vil- 
lage. Its meeting-places, or Sawyas, are 
convent, mosque, school, and hospital in 
one. The teaching is puritanism and 
uncomprising hatred of everything that 
is foreign and infidel. 
That, however, does not mean that 
every follower of the Senussiya is a dan- 
gerous enemy of the European; he 
merely avoids all intercourse with him. 
Some Europeans have even experienced 
kindness and hospitality from fervent 
Senussis. That, of course, was only pos- 
sible provided they did not offend the 
Islamic creed or violate Eastern cus- 
toms. Turks themselves failed repeat- 
edly to get into contact with the leaders 
of the sect; but a change came not long 
ago when a political understanding be- 
tween the Senussis and Stambul became 
so far a fact that a Senussi mission was 
dispatched to the Sultan. 
The headquarters of the sect are in 
the Libyan desert, probably in the oasis 
of Kufra. ‘There is the Sawya-el-Istat, 
The headquarters 
were first at Benghazi, but later, it was 
said after representations from the Eu- 
ropean consuls, they were removed fur- 
ther inland. The sect is very strong in 
Cyrenaica and Fezzan. One of the tenets 
of Senussism has had some slight effect 
on commerce, viz., that of tea-drinking. 
The old sheik of the Senussi, seeing the 
gradual spreading of alcohol among the 
North African Mohammedans, advo- 
cated the substitution of tea, and since 
then the drinking of very strong tea, to 
which a large quantity of sugar has been 
added, has become quite a mania, which 
cannot fail to damage the nervous sys- 
tem of the people. 
The chief industries of Tripoli town 
are leather and metal work; also the 
esparto-grass business and sponge fish- 
ing. Sponge fishing is of considerable 
importance, but it is almost entirely done 
by Greeks, who appear once a year with 
a flotilla in Tripolitan waters, and there- 
fore this industry affects the country 
