32 
TRAVELS m AFRICA. Chap. LXX. 
neighbouring provinces, no cotton being cultivated 
in the neighbourhood of the town : but the natives 
do not seem to practise much weaving at home, even 
for their own private use. 
At the time of my visit, the caravan trade with 
Morocco, which is by far the most important, was 
almost interrupted by the feuds raging among 
the tribes along that road, especially between the 
E'rgebdt and Tajakdnt on the one side, and the 
various sections of the Tdjakdnt on the other. This 
is the reason why in that year there were no large 
caravans at all, which in general arrive about the 
beginning of November, and leave in December or 
January. 
These caravans from the north are designated, 
by the Arabs in this region, by the curious name 
akabar (in the plural, akwabir) ; the origin of which 
I have not been able to make out, but it is evi- 
dently to be ranked among that class of hybrid 
words used by the people hereabouts, which belong 
neither to the Arabic nor to the Berber language. 
The same term is even used in Morocco to denote 
a very large caravan or an aggregate of many small 
caravans ; but in Timbuktu the term kafla is quite 
unusual for small parties, the name in use being 
" refega." 
In former times these caravans, at least those 
from Morocco by way of Tefilelet, and from the 
wadi Dark by way of the territory of the 'Arib, 
seem to have been numerous, although they never 
