228 
TRAVELS IN NORTHERN AFRICA. 
CHAP. V. 
hermee, no strangers, at least very few, choosing to risk a passage 
through their country. They are chiefly Kaffirs, and hve in a state 
of nature, being clad with the skins of beasts, and inhabiting holes 
in rocks, or wretched grass huts. Their camels or maherries enable 
them to perform extraordinary journeys, from which circumstance 
they are constantly shifting their abode. 
^lukni has several times desolated different parts of the country 
of the Tibboo of l^orgoo, and Kawar, and these people now revenge 
themselves on Avhatever luckless whites may flill into their power. 
Their arms in the interior are three light spears and a lance, a 
dagger and sword, and missile weapons called Shangar, which do 
much execution. The Tibboo men of Gatrone are armed nearly in 
the same way ; but their weapons are better finished, and they 
sometimes add a pistol to the list. The wild tribes live chiefly on 
dome dates, and the flesh of their flocks : they have but little corn, 
and are unacquainted with the art of making bread. The seeds of 
the Ivhandal, or colocynth apple, form a principal article of food 
amongst the Tibboo, Tibesty, and Kawar. It is not the ordinary 
custom amongst these people to tattoo or score the skin. 
Of the Tibboo slaves who are brought to Fezzan, the females 
meet with the readiest market, on account of their beauty : the 
H i ales are generally too light for hard work, and are not brought in 
any considerable number. 
December 30th. Thermometer 4°. Tliis day got a good meridian 
altitude of the sun, 83° 26' 50"; which makes the latitude of 
Catrone 24° 47' 57' North. 
Gatrone is a town of itself, principally inhabited by Fezzanners, 
who are all black, and having, as I before observed, the Tibboo 
living outside in huts, with occasionally houses, of which we occu- 
pied one. There is a castle in the centre of the town, surrounded 
by a wall. The Tibboo do not appear to mix with the town's 
