TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 
123 
means of making us acquainted with the circumstance, and of testify- 
ing his friendly disposition, together with his magisterial importance. 
After quitting Sooleb, which, we may here observe, occupies the 
place assigned in modern charts to the Gulf of Zuca, we entered 
again upon marshy ground, and continued our route to Mahkda*; a 
tract of rising ground about forty or fifty feet above the. level of 
the marsh, and terminating in a declivity towards the sea, and in 
perpendicular cliffs on its inland extremities. Near Mahdda we 
perceived the remains described in Della Celia as those of an old 
castle. They are situated on a spot of rising ground surrounded by a 
dangerous marsh, and can only be safely approached by following the 
few narrow tracks winding along the edges of the hollows which 
abound in it. This building is a gusser*, or kusser, highly venerated 
by the Arabs of the Syrt, and takes its name of Gusser el Jebha 
from the son of a celebrated Marabut, of whom Shekh Mohammed 
related to us the follovidng story. 
Sinessah, a holy man of the neighbouring territory of Esha, pos- 
sessed of great influence and property, bequeathed to the inhabit- 
ants of Esha and Sooleb, some three hundred years since, the 
* The noxious qualities of the night air in these swampy regions were occasionally 
severely felt by our party ; one of our servants was seized with a fever while at Sooleb, 
and we were apprehensive that he would not be able to proceed for some days ; but after 
being bled rather copiously he found himself better, and was the next day in condition 
to travel with the camels. The atmosphere after sunset was always very chilly in the 
Syrtis, and there was usually a heavy deposit of dew ; a very offensive smell was also 
experienced in many parts of the marsh. 
t Gusser is a term indiscriminately applied by the Arabs to ruins of every description. 
