MR HORNEMAN's TRAVELS. 
elongated form. This petrified wood was generally 
black, but sometimes lightish grey, when it resem- 
bled natural wood so completely, as to be some- 
times brought in for the purpose of firing. 
After a journey of eleven days, the party ar- 
rived, on the 15th September, at a small village 
situated on a rock, called Ummesogeir. This rock, 
Sequestered by such immense deserts from the rest 
of the world, contains only about 120 inhabitants. 
They are hospitable, simple, and peaceable; and sub- 
sist by collecting dates, which are sold to the Arabs, 
and sometimes carried to Alexandria. Once only, 
it is said, a party of Bedouin Arabs attempted to 
strip them of their little domain ; but they were 
driven off; and the inhabitants ascribe their suc- 
cess to the miraculous influence of one of their 
}ioly men. 
From Ummesogeir, a journey of twenty-four 
hours brought them to Siwah, an extensive oasis, 
containing the only considerable mass of popula- 
tion which occurs on the route to Fezzan. Siwah 
is built upon and around a mass of rock, which, ac- 
cording to tradition, was hollowed out into caves, 
for the abode of the ancient inhabitants. The 
houses, in fact, bear still a resemblance to caves, 
and are huddled together so close, and in such 
confusion, that many of them want light, and the 
whole forms a labyrinth, through which no strange? 
can penetrate without a guide. It was compared 
ii 
