Norwich bulletin., 1920-07-09


 tribes lived in rock salt houses. Actual history in one case parallels the le- gendary account of the defense of Troy. Primitive religions and strange cusr toms fieurished in common with civ ilization advanced enough to take ac curate census of cities.
 ..Antonia Malfante, a Genoese citi- zen, traversed this region and wrote i his descriptive letters, in 1447, from Timbuktu and Touat. Timbuktu was the Chicago of the west African plains; and ~Touat the center of the camel car avan traffic that exchanged the wheat land barley of Egypt for the powdered gold of Timbuktu and the precious salt /! from Teghazza.
 All the places visited by Malfante were so well known to the Jews of his ] time that they were listed in a Catalan atlas prepared three quarters of cen 1 tury earlier for Charles V. according I to NJ. Ronciere. But shortly after Nal. fante's visit, the Jews were driven out of Spain, and since thte Jews were the only ones in Europe who knew of the 1 Nigeria country, and apparently per mitted no Christian to enter there ex- cept Malfante, the Jewish knowledge was lost to Europe Not until Df. Ger hard Rohlfs began his explorations in !, Algeria and Morocco in 1860 did the
 rest of the world again form a-Gentact with the extensive regions of Nal fante's travels.
 Landing at a point west of Algeria Malfante worked his way south to Touat. which Rohlfs believed hims6lt i to have been the first European to visit Yet Malfante dated his first letter from l there four centuries earlier.
 l '.Touat was an oasis, containing from 1 150 to 200 villages, which together l ,1saa cf OnT i21 naf had chief. Travellers became the guests of these chiefs, and Malfante reported their protection superior to 1 that in states like Tlemcen and Tunis One of these towns was Tamentit, now a decayed village, whose people still recall the Jewish epoch Arabian in- vaders earlier had routed the Jews who
 were masters of the Sahara and whose empire extended south to the Niger Tamentit, Malfante wrote, sheltered both-Jews and Mohammedans who iiv- ed in harmony.
 "The native negroes valued coppoI highly, Malfante stated, and used ii for money. Profiteering, apparently 1 is not modern vice. Malfante com plained, The people here do not want i to transact any business, if they do noi make a commission of 100 per cent l And their business was on big scale ] at that. Half million head of cattle l to mention but one item, were brought to market in the caravan season.
 Pushing on to Timbuktu, Malfante's host was the brother of a captain oi desert industry, a man of great wealth and possessed of trade information concerning all of north Africa. From him Maifante learned of such flourish ing places as Teghazza, famous for it: salt mines, and unique for it's architec- ture. The houses were made of rocl salt. Malfante noted that it nevel rained there, or the houses would haTt melted away.
 Another town was famous for it. magicians. It was attacked by numer. ous troops from the south under tn, king of Dahomey. Fifty Mchammedal defenders took refuge on hill and b, night they were eneircled by a human tcerdon, which, lit by camp fires, look ed like a girdle of flame. Thy though themselves lost. Their king was magician. He proposed a duel with hi fopponent in which both of them shout,