t 
112 TRAVELS IN NORTHERN AFRICA. CHAP. ill. 
• comparatively few. They are Moslem, and their prayers are in 
Arabic, of which language many do not understand a syllable ; 
those who do pray (and there are many who do not) only repeat 
their belief, viz. " There is no God but God, and Mohammed is his 
prophet," and know very little besides of their religion. They 
inhabit that immense tract of country, known in maps under the 
name of Sahara, or the Great Desert, and are of numerous tribes, 
some of whom have no settled habitations, but wander like the Arabs, ♦ 
and subsist by plunder. They are not cruel on these occasions, pro- 
vided they meet with no resistance ; but should the party attacked 
attempt to defend themselves, their death is certain. 
The Tuarick, or more properly tribes of them, are always at 
war with the Soudan states, and carry off from them incalculable 
numbers of slaves. They are so completely masters of their 
weapons, and so very courageous, that they are much dreaded, 
which enables them to traverse unmolested, and in very small 
bodies, countries full of armed people. Each tribe has some pecu- 
liarity in its dress, or manner of riding and making war. The 
nearest Tuarick to Fezzan are at Ghraat, which is ten days from 
Morzouk, and from Oubari, the most western village in the Wadey 
Shiati. Near Sebha (see map) it is seven days west by south. 
Ghraat, walled town, having houses in streets, and 
built of stone and mud, in the same manner as Morzouk. It is 
twenty days from Tuat, ci^jI^I^ and five days from Ganat, which 
place is not, as has been generally supposed, a town, but merely 
a country producing dates, and having a few scattered huts and 
gardens, the wells of which are salt. 
Ghadams, ^^iji^ is twenty days north-west of Ghraat. At 
about the distance of five or six miles from the latter, is a town 
called El Berkaat, c:,,*^^!! famous for the quantity and fineness of 
the grapes produced there. It is also a walled town, but rather 
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