278 
JOURNEY FROM 
Cellarius has, however, been censured by Signor Della Celia 
for having ventured to adopt this derivation, and for “ not know- 
ing that Sert meant desert in Arabic, and that this name is still 
preserved in the bottom of the (Greater) Syrtis But were we 
even to agree with Dr. Della Celia, that the district called Syrt is a 
desert, (which our friend Shekh Mahommed, who lives there, with 
many others, very comfortably, would be very unwilling, and very 
ungrateful to allow,) there does not appear to be any reason why 
the regions in question should be particularly distinguished as 
deserts, when the country which bounds them to the southward, and 
which is much more entitled to the appellation of desert than they 
are, was never called Syrtis either by ancients or moderns. The 
term existed, it is evident, in the age of Scylax and Herodotus, both of 
whom w^e find to have used it ; but, in enumerating the several tribes 
which inhabited the shores of these gulfs, it by no means appears (as 
we have stated above) that the latter of these writers meant to cha- 
racterise their country as a desert, or that he was aware of any such 
meaning implied by the term in question, Syrtis. If, therefore, we 
suppose the word to be of oriental origin, we should rather look 
beyond the language of the Arabs for its root ; and as the Phoeni- 
cians were well acquainted with these shores at a very early period 
of history, we might suppose, with some appearance of probability. 
ing the same derivation. As if (he adds) “ a avqa/, traho, quod in accessu et recessu 
arenam et ccenum ad se trahit et congerit.” (Vid. Eustath. Comm.) Travels in Bar- 
bary, vol. 1. p. 211. 
* Viaggio da Tripoli, &c. p. 62. 
