24 
OASIS OF MIZDAH. 
season tlie green leaves sprout out all over tlie 
white burnt-up shrub. All vegetation in the desert 
that is not perfectly nev/ seems utterly withered by 
time. There is scarcely any medium between the 
bud and the dead leaf. Infancy is scorched at once 
into old age. 
As we advanced, the country appeared to put on 
sterner forms, until suddenly, in the afternoon, the 
rocks opened to disclose the Wady Esh-Shrab 
nestlino- amidst limestone hills, and containing' the 
pleasant oasis of Mizdah. Its beauties consist, in 
reality, but of a few patches of green barley and 
scanty palm-groves ; but, in contrast to the sultry 
desert, the scene appeared really enchanting. 
We have now left the Troglodytes behind us. 
Mizdah (eight summer and ten winter days from 
Ghadamez, three short days from Gharian, and the 
same from Benioleed) is built above-ground, and 
consists of a double village, or rather two contiguous 
villages, inhabited by people of the Arab race. 
Each division is fortified after a fashion, with walls 
now crumbling, and with round crenulated towers. 
One large tower, some fifty feet high, has stood, they 
say, four hundred years. I asked. What was the 
use of these fortifications? and was naively told 
they were for the purposes of shamatah^ " war," or 
rather " rows." And true enough, before the Turks 
extended their power so far, these two beggarly 
villages, fifty miles from any neighbours, were in 
constant hostility one with the other. Each had its 
