(or BELED) EL-JEREED, an extensive territory in Africa, immediately to the south of the kingdoms of Algiers and Tunis, from which it is separated by the range of the Atlas. On the southern side it passes gradually into the great desert of the Sahara, the character of which it in some degree partakes. The northern districts indeed are tolerably watered by streams descending from the Atlas, some of which spread even into considerable rivers, that never reach any receptacle, but are either absorbed by the sands or diffused into shallow and extensive lakes. Some of the districts thus irrigated possess a considerable share of fertility; but the greater number labour under severe drought, which always increases till the country assumes the arid character of the desert. It is only in a few spots that the grains and fruits which are carried to such perfection in Barbary can be raised with advantage. The date, peculiarly adapted to dry soil, is almost the exclusive product, and forests of the tree producing it cover a great extent of the territory. It forms the food of the people, and their chief article of export, by which they obtain the few foreign luxuries in which they indulge. They likewise rear sheep and goats, and employ themselves in the chase of the ostrich for the sake of its valuable feathers, which form another article of trade. The name of the country is commonly supposed to be derived from jerid, a date; but Dr Shaw conceives that jeridde, dry, is the true etymology.

The people of this district, exposed to the direct rays of a burning sun, are lean and swarthy, with a shrivelled ap- pearance, and their eyes are frequently subject to inflammation, in consequence of the reflection of the rays from a naked arid soil; yet the plague, which commits such havoc in the cities of Barbary, never attacks the Bled-el-Jereede, notwithstanding the constant intercourse between the two places. The inhabitants in general reach a good old age, of which they often exhibit the appearance without any decay in the faculties of body or mind. They are composed of a mixture of Arabs and native Africans, partly living in rude villages, partly wandering in tents. In some places, where rain scarcely ever falls, the people construct their dwellings of the salt with which the territory abounds; but a casual shower often melts these frail habitations. Another characteristic feature is the occurrence of water, which is almost uniformly found on digging to a certain depth beneath the arid surface, and to which the natives give the appellation of the sea under ground. When the soil is dug into, it rushes forth, sometimes in such quantities as to drown the workmen employed. By bringing up this subterranean store, fertility is communicated to the most barren soils; but the labour of the operation is such that it can be practised only to a limited extent.