76 
TRAVELS IN NORTHERN AFRICA. 
CHAP. II. 
walled, and appears very inferior to the other two in point of 
neatness, comfort, and convenience, though its aspect is much more 
pleasing, as it is built on a conical hill, on the top of which are some 
enclosed houses, called the Castle. Here there is a well of great 
depth, cut through the solid rock, and evidently not the work of 
the Bedouins. One of the Shreefs took us into a mosque, that we 
might examine a curious stone, bearing an Arabic inscription in 
raised letters, and, from its date, it must have been above six 
hundred years old. It was let into the mud wall, but no one knew 
where it had been found. Mr. Eitchie did not attempt to copy it, 
as we were not yet enough acquainted with the customs of the 
Arabs to know if it would be permitted. The tombs and mosques, 
as at Hoon, were ornamented with quantities of ostrich eggs. 
The natives of Wadan are Arabs of the tribe Moajer ^l^^*, who 
chiefly spend their time in attending their flocks at the Syrtis cj^-all, 
and resident shreefs, or descendants of the Prophet ; the latter 
forming the greater part of the population. There is a chain of 
mountains, a few miles east of the town, called also Wadan, on 
account of the immense number of buffaloes to be found there, and 
which are of three species ; viz. the Wadan, an animal of the size of 
an ass, having very large horns, short reddish hide, and large bunches 
of hair hanging from each shoulder, to the length of eighteen inches 
or two feet : they have very large heads, and are very fierce. 
The Bogra el ^Veish which is a red buffalo, slow in its 
motions, having large horns, and being of the size of an ordinary 
cow ; and the white buffalo of a hgbter and more active make, very 
shy and swift, and not easily procured. The calving time of these 
animals is in April or jNlay. There are also in these mountains great 
quantities of ostriches, by hunting vdiich many of the natives 
subsist. All the Arabs here agree respecting the manner in which 
these birds sit on their eggs, and which I was not before aware of. 
