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Travels in the great desert of Sahara, in the years of 1845 and 1846. Containing a narrative of personal adventures during a tour of nine months through the desert amongst the Touaricks and other tribes of Saharan people; including a description of the cases and cities of Ghat, Ghadames and Mourzuk / [James Richardson].

  • Richardson, James, 1806-1851.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Travels in the great desert of Sahara, in the years of 1845 and 1846. Containing a narrative of personal adventures during a tour of nine months through the desert amongst the Touaricks and other tribes of Saharan people; including a description of the cases and cities of Ghat, Ghadames and Mourzuk / [James Richardson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    bury them. The Genii listened to his request, detached this piece of rock from their great palace, where it has rested, occasionally rockingsay the people, to this day —a memento against murder and crime ! For this service the murderer begged the Genii to accept of some of the spoil, but they refused to accept of gold tainted with blood; and, on the contrary, the avenging spirits of justice pelted him with pieces of rock till he died. He was fairly stoned to death, and his bruised and broken carcase was left unburied, a horror to all passers-by! We see the Genii are a moral people, and in general the Mussulmans of The Sahara speak of them as a good sort of folks, not unlike Puck and his merry * There is an extraordinary co-resemblance between this Saharan rocking, or logging, stone, and that of our own in Cornwall, much noted and visited by all classes of travellers. Among the truly romantic coast-scenery of Cornwall, at the south-west angle of the county, are the celebrated Logan, or rocking-stone, and the lofty granite rocks called Tiergh Castle. Here is a reef of rocks jutting into the sea, on the summit of one of which is a large single mass of stone, weighing about sixty tons, resting on a sort of pivot, so near the centre that the whole block may he easily made to oscillate or log, to and fro. This logging stone has created astonishment amongst the illiterate, and given rise to many fabulous stories; whilst others have imagined it was placed here by the Druids, to overawe and terrify the vulgar. Geologists, however, says Dr. Paris, readily discover, that the only chisel ever employed has been the tooth of time—the only artists engaged, the elements. Some years ago, the upper, or logging-stone, was thrown from its equilibrium by the bodily exertions of some sailors ; hut a general cry of indignation having been raised against this wanton act, it was shortly afterwards reinstated in nearly its original position by the perpetrators of the mischief, who, while thus making honourable amends for their former folly, evinced great ingenuity and skilfulness.—Fisher s Views in Devonshire and Corn¬ wall.