Note 186 — GOMES EANNES DE AZURARA; (continued 4)

(p. 233). Write.—[This detail is very curious, because it indicates that in the fifteenth century, when João Fernandez journeyed with the caravans, some of those tribes which we suppose to be Berbers had not yet adopted the Arabic characters. It is to be deplored that Azurara is not more explicit in this place, seeing that Arabic authors mention books written in this language. Oudney tells of various inscriptions, written in unknown characters, which he saw in the country of the Touariks. Very few of this tribe speak Arabic, which he was surprised at, because of the frequent communication between them and nations that only speak that tongue.—Vide Clapperton's Travels, and Leo Africanus in Ramusio, etc.]—S. See the Hakluyt Soc. Leo Africanus, pp. 133, 165-7.