They tell us, that on leaving Ghât we shall _descend_ to Soudan; yet we can not have reached very high ground. We may soon likewise expect to feel the influence of the Soudan rains, and find the atmosphere much cooler in consequence. How the days are shortening now, and how grateful darkness gradually expands its dominions over this arid, scorching waste, as we move south!
On Friday the 5th we only advanced two hours, to a place called Talazaghee,--a small picturesque wady, where, during the season of rain, there are always two or three pools of good water; there is also now a little herbage for the camels. During our ride we met a small slave caravan, and learned the important intelligence that there are several people of the Sultan En-Noor of Aheer at present at Ghât with slaves. This will be useful to us. I wrote to my wife and others by this opportunity, and trust the missives will reach their destination. The weather is cool and pleasant to-day; and we are led to hope that the great heat of summer is already past. The wind followed exactly behind us as we pursued our south-west course. On arriving we found, rather to our surprise, the pilgrim caravan, and our old friend Abd-el-Kader. They have been some time reposing in Wady Gharby collecting provisions, and, I imagine, passing their leisure hours with the Fezzanee ladies, which they could not very well do in Mourzuk. The morality of these people is easy enough, and no doubt the pilgrimage covers a multitude of sins.
Talazaghee is remarkable for some bas-reliefs cut on the naked sandstone rocks of the wady, in a very peculiar style; the principal tableau, if I may so call it, about four feet by three in size, is a battle between two persons, one having a bird's head, and the other a bullock's, with a bullock between them taking part in the fray. Each person is holding a shield or bow. The sculptures are mere outline, but deeply graved and well shaped. There are several other tableaux, representing animals, but chiefly bullocks. This would seem to intimate, that in the days when these forms of animals were chiselled bullocks were the animals employed for the transport of men and merchandise over the desert. No camels occur, as in other tablets. These sculptures are very properly said by our escort to be neither Arab nor Tuarick, but belong to the people that existed before these races. The principal tableau has a very Egyptian look about it; the oxen are well formed, and would do credit to a modern artist. There is one bas-relief figure of an ox with its neck in a circle, as if representing some of the games of the Circus. The other animals most distinctly seen are ostriches; the rocks around are, besides, covered with Tuarick characters, but nothing interesting.