TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI.

123 means of making us acquainted with the circumstance, and of testifying his friendly disposition, together with his magisterial importance.

After quitting Sooleb, which, we may here observe, occupies the place assigned in modern charts to the Gulf of Zuca, we entered again upon marshy ground, and continued our route to Mahkda*; a tract of rising ground about forty or fifty feet above the. level of the marsh, and terminating in a declivity towards the sea, and in perpendicular cliffs on its inland extremities. Near Mahdda we perceived the remains described in Della Celia as those of an old castle. They are situated on a spot of rising ground surrounded by a dangerous marsh, and can only be safely approached by following the few narrow tracks winding along the edges of the hollows which abound in it. This building is a gusser*, or kusser, highly venerated by the Arabs of the Syrt, and takes its name of Gusser el Jebha from the son of a celebrated Marabut, of whom Shekh Mohammed related to us the follovidng story.

Sinessah, a holy man of the neighbouring territory of Esha, possessed of great influence and property, bequeathed to the inhabitants of Esha and Sooleb, some three hundred years since, the * The noxious qualities of the night air in these swampy regions were occasionally severely felt by our party ; one of our servants was seized with a fever while at Sooleb, and we were apprehensive that he would not be able to proceed for some days ; but after being bled rather copiously he found himself better, and was the next day in condition to travel with the camels. The atmosphere after sunset was always very chilly in the Syrtis, and there was usually a heavy deposit of dew ; a very offensive smell was also experienced in many parts of the marsh.

t Gusser is a term indiscriminately applied by the Arabs to ruins of every description.