Page 328 - Third Book of Reading Lessons

READING LESSONS. 32-7
the coast of Guinea, rise the walls of Timbuctoo, the capital of the very interesting empire of Ba barra, a city which constitutes the great mart r the commerce of the interior of A ica. To maintain this com­ merce is the laborious work of the kk baars, or car­ avans, which cross this enormous desert om almost every part of the A ican coast. The mode in which it is traversed is highly curious.
3. The caravans consist of several hundred loaded camels, accompanied by the Arabs who let them out to the merchants r the transport of their goods. During their route, they are often exposed to the at­ tacks of the roving Arabs of the Sahara, who gener­ ally commit their depredations on the approach to the con nes of the desert. In this tiresome journey, the caravans do not proceed to the place of their des­ tination in a direct line across the trackless dese , but turn occasionally eastward or westward, accord­ ing to the situation of certain rtile, inhabited, and cultivated spots, called oases, interspersed in various parts of the Saha , like islands in the ocea . These serYe as watering places to the men, as well as to feed, re esh, and replenish the hardy and patient camel. At each of these cultivated spots the cara­ van sojourns about seven days, and then proceeds on its journey, until it reaches another spot of the same description. In the intermediate journeys, the hot winds, denominated shimie or si oom, are often so
violent, as considerably, if not entirely, to exhale the water carried in skins by the camels for the use of the passengers and drivers. On these occasions it is a rmed by the Arabs, that ve hundred dollars have been eqently given r a draught of water, and that ten or twenty dollars are commonly paid, when
a partial exhalation has occurred.