MERGE TO GYRENE. 
507 
esque, and the additional bustle occasioned by our arrival gave 
great animation to the whole scene. 
“ Benioleet consists of several straggling mud villages on the sides 
of a fertile ravine, several miles in length, and bounded by rocks of 
difficult access. The centre is laid out in gardens, planted with date 
and olive trees, and producing also corn, vegetables, and pulse. This 
valley is subject to inundation during the winter rains, but in sum- 
mer requires to be watered with great labour by means of wells of 
extraordinary depth. It is inhabited by the Orfilla tribe, which 
amounts to about two thousand souls, subsisting chiefly by agricul- 
ture and the rearing of cattle, aided only in a trifling degree by a 
manufacture of nitre ; they are accounted hardy, brave, and indus- 
trious, but at the same time dishonest and cruel. A large and ill- 
proportioned building called the castle, near one of the pleasantest 
spots in the ravine, was prepared for our reception, and a plentiful 
supply of victuals and forage provided. Though commanded at 
almost every point, this is the principal fortress ; it contains several 
apartments, good stabling, and a large court-yard, but the water 
must be drawn from a very deep well at the distance of a musket- 
shot. The walls are badly perforated for musketry, and flanked Math 
round bastions, too weak to bear artillery. 
“ Having found several people here who had recently arrived from 
the place I was bound to, I repeated my inquiries respecting the 
sculpture, and again received positive assurances that I should see 
figures of men, women, children, camels, horses, ostriches, &c., in 
perfect preservation ; and the belief of their being petrifactions Mas 
3 T 2 
