The kingdom of Fezzan contains 101 towns and villa ges, among which there are few places of any note, and still fewer whose positions are ascertained. The principal are, Mourzouk the capital, frequently called Fezzan, which is situated nearly in the centre of the country, is a walled town, and contains many ruins of ancient buildings, amidst its cottages of earth and stone. Zawila or Zuila, supposed to be the Cillaba of Pliny, is about 70 miles eastward of l\Iourzouk, was once the capital of the kingdom, and is still a place of considerable importance in the country, as being the residence of many of the leading men, and of the relatives of the sovereign. Its environs are well wa tered, remarkable for fertility, full of groves of date-trees, and better cultivated than most other places. It contains many vestiges of ancient splendour, cisterns, vaulted caves, Sec. which some writers consider as the remains of Roman architecture ; but the ruins, which Mr Horneman observ ed, were entirely of Mahommedan origin. Jerma, or Yerma, unquestionably the Garama of the Romans, and the capi tal of the country at the time of its being subdued by their arms, is situated as far to the west as Zuila is to the east of Mourzotik, and is full of majectic ruins, and ancient inscriptions. Temissa, about 120 miles eastward of the capital, is rather a garrison than a town, built on a hill, and is surrounded by a high wall; the inhabitants of which derive their chief subsistence from the date trees, and em ploy themselves in keeping sheep and goats. The ruins of this place are merely dilapidated houses, built of lime stone, and cemented with a reddish mortar. patron, or Ga tron, about 60 miles south of Mourzouk, is remarkable only for the multitude of common fowls reared by its in habitants, and the abundant crops of Indian corn in its neighbourhood. Illemtra, about 60 miles south-cast of the capital, is an inconsiderable place, but the province, which bears its name, is remarkable for the quantity of trona, a species of fossil alkali, which floats on the surface of its numerous lakes. Teghery, about 70 miles south-west of the capital, is a small town, nearest to the western fron tier. To the north arc Sockna, Stbha, Min, and ll'aden.
The population of Fezzan is calculated at 70,000 or 75,000 souls, all professing the Mahommedan religion. The genuine natives are described as a people of ordinary stature, deep brown complexion, black short hair, regular features, and feeble limbs. Their whole appearance and gesture is said to denote an utter want of energy either in mind or body, which is ascribed to the oppressive nature of their government, and to the extreme poverty of their diet, which consists chiefly of dates, ;.,id a kind of farina ceous pap, with sometims, though rarely, a little rancid oil or fat. It is a common periphrasis to designate a rich man, by saying that he is one who cats bread and meat every day. But though remarkably abstemious in diet,
they are greatly addicted to drunkenness. Their beverage is the juice of the date tree, called Ingibi, which, when fresh, is sweet and pleasant, though apt to produce flatu lency and diarrhoea, or a liquor prepared from the dates, called buss, which is extremely intoxicating. Their ordi nary amusement in their evening meetings, is drinking, with the occasional addition of a dancing girl, whose musi cal instrument is a rude kind of guitar, and whose motions arc sufficiently lascivious. The manners of the females, in general, are unusually licentious, and they are vehe mently fond of amusement, especially of (lancing in the open places of the towns and villages, at all hours of the day.
Their habitations are as wretched as their subsistence. They are all extremely low, with no other aperture for light than the door, and arc built with stones or bricks of a calcareous earth mixed with clay, and dried in the sun. The walls are covered over with white mortar ; and the whole operations of building and plastering, are perform ed without tools, entirely by the hands of the labourer.
The dress of the Fezzaners consists of a shirt or frock, generally blue, made of a coarse linen or cotton cloth, brought from Cairo, and the abbe of their own manufac ture. The richer class wear the Tripolitan habit, with a Soudan shirt over it of variegated pattern and colours. The ornaments of the women consist chiefly in necklaces of glass beads, or pieces of agate with a round silver plate in the front, trinkets made or silver bells, coral and amber suspended from the tresses of hair on the head, and rings of glass, horn, brass or silver, to the number sometimes of nine or ten on each arm and leg.
The principal diseases of the natives, are a fever and ague, which is particularly dangerous to foreigners ; hm morthoids or piles, which are supposed to be aggravated by the immoderate use of red pepper ; the small-pox, in which an application of tamarinds and onions is said to be employed with good effect to preserve the eyes; and the venereal disorder, with which the natives are said to be in fected only once in the course of their lives, and which they generally cure without much difficulty, by the use of salts and coloquintida, or powerful cathartics, washing the sores, at the same time, with natron water or dissolved soda. Their surgical art extends only to the setting of a simple fracture and occasional blood-letting, which is al ways done by cupping, and never by venesection ; and their practice of medicine is confined almost entirely to amulets, consisting of sentences front the Koran, written on a slip of paper, which the patient wears about his neck, and is sometimes compelled to swallow. See Playfair's Geogra phy, vol. vi. ; Rennel's Geography of Herodotus, p. 566, 618 ; and Horneman's Travels in Africa, p. 62. (q)