There was a second Corinthian temple situated on a plateau overlooking the valley beneath, from which it must have been a very imposing object. It is now almost entirely destroyed, but the plan of the cella is still visible, and many columns are lying scattered about, as also fragments of the inscription which decorated the frieze. It seems to have been much more entire when Peyssonnel visited it in 1724. He says: ‘There are the remains of a temple, which was an arc open in the middle. It had a great façade of about 100 paces in breadth. The temple was of a semi-circular shape. The façade was supported by columns, and the columns again supported a corridor all round the temple. On these columns there had been large stones inscribed with Roman characters, but we could not collect enough pieces to make out the sense, as everything was destroyed and overthrown. In the middle of the temple there had been an altar raised about six feet and four feet broad. All this débris indicated a great magnificence and a good taste in architecture, and a style more beautiful than that of Zawan (Zaghouan), although of a form very closely resembling it.’[218]
Plate XXV.
J. LEITCH &. Co. Sc.
THEATRE AT THUGGA (DOUGGA)
FAC SIMILE OF ROUGH INDIAN INK SKETCH BY BRUCE.
HENRY S. KING Co. LONDON.
Bruce has left no sketch of this, but there is an unfinished drawing of the theatre (Plate XXV.), which has suffered great dilapidation since his day, and is so thickly overgrown with briars and high rank weeds that it is difficult to see more than the outer walls. These are of solid rubble masonry. The sketch of Bruce is taken looking towards the auditorium, which contains twelve or thirteen rows of seats, occupying about two-thirds of the semi-circular area. Numerous columns are seen in the foreground forming part of the scena.
The other monuments are a triumphal arch of the time of Septimius Severus, represented in the background of one of Bruce’s sketches of the great temple, all the upper part of which has since been destroyed; several large reservoirs, fountains, public buildings of various kinds, in a greater or less state of ruin; besides numerous inscriptions which have already been published by Guérin.
In one of the houses near the temple I discovered a fragment of the inscription first given by Peyssonnel, and copied, without acknowledgment, from his manuscript, by Shaw—interesting, as it records the name of the city in the nominative case. The first two lines do not now exist.
Bruce has given the following inscriptions:—
FOOTNOTES:
[202]Sall. Bell. Jugurth.
[203]Pelissier, p. 251. Guérin, ii. p. 149.
[204]Morcelli, i. p. 318.
[205]Shaw, p. 173.
[206]Peyss. ap. D. de la Malle, i. p. 134.
[207]Temple, ii. p. 71.
[208]The letters within brackets are not given in Bruce’s copy.
[209]Since the above was written I have had the pleasure of meeting Signor Del Monti of Oran, who has recently discovered, near Kleber, in that province, the quarries whence some of the most precious marbles, so prized by the Romans, were obtained. He has been good enough to forward specimens to me, and a complete collection will be sent to the Paris Exhibition of 1878.
[210]Guérin, ii, p. 124.
[211]A better reproduction of Catherwood’s drawing, together with a restoration of the Hieron of Suffetula (ante, p. 181), has been given by Professor Donaldson, in a paper read by him on my recent explorations, before the Royal Institute of British Architects on the 4th December, 1876.
[212]Sir Grenville Temple, ii. p. 73.
[213]Temple, ii. p. 352.
[214]Plates 20 and 48.
[215]Guérin, vol. ii. p. 122.
[216]Dr. Paul Schröder, Die Phönizische Sprache, p. 257.
[217]Gesenius, Monumenta Phœniciæ, p. 187.
[218]Peyssonnel, ap. D. de la Malle, i. p. 128.
LEAVE TEBOURSOUK — VALLEY OF LIONS — AIN TUNGA — TESTOUR.
We left Teboursouk at 6.30 A.M. on April 22. The road led at first through a magnificent grove of olive-trees, which evidently constitute the principal wealth of the country. Still, we saw but few young ones, and I am tempted to believe that the system of taxing these precious trees conduces to their destruction.
Each one, after the age of ten years, pays an annual tax of half a piastre, or threepence, without reference to the amount of fruit it bears, and as trees are rarely productive before fifteen years, the owner of a new olive grove would have little or no return for his money during this period, and a certainty of taxation during the last five years of it. Under these circumstances it is hardly surprising, that he does not feel called upon to make an unremunerative investment of his money for the ultimate benefit of his posterity; he cuts down unproductive trees for the sake of their timber, but takes no steps to replace them. If some system could be devised for taxing the produce instead of the tree itself, the déboisement of the country, which is going on at an alarming rate, might to a certain extent be arrested.
About a mile beyond the town the road emerges into open ground, and for a short distance follows the course of the Oued Khalad, which is crossed and recrossed many times. The alternation of hill and dale is most picturesque, and the great want in Tunisian landscape, the absence of wood, is to some extent supplied by the unusually fine tamarisks which fringe the river’s banks. The water was low during our visit, but evidently the stream never becomes actually dry, as it was full of little fish. Quantities of blue jays and blackbirds added their share of attractions to the scene.
This is the Oued el-Asood, or valley of lions, of which Sir Grenville Temple remarks: ‘As the surrounding country abounds in lions it is not prudent to remain here after sunset. Sixteen of these animals had been seen together here four evenings before.’
At seven and a half miles from Teboursouk is Ain Tunga, a delightful roadside fountain, near which is a venerable old olive-tree affording an impenetrable shade. We met here a party of the Oulad Ayar, who had been to Tunis to sell their produce and were returning to their homes in the neighbourhood of Mukther; they travelled like the patriarchs of old with all their belongings about them, houses, wives, children, cattle and sheep. They were busy washing their clothes at the spring, an operation which did not tend to increase its purity. But questions of cleanliness are the last that ever enter into the consideration of modern Arabs; they think nothing of drinking the water of a source, which they are in the very act of polluting, and it is no uncommon thing to see what appears to be a clean bed of sand covered with water, but if a little of the gravel is turned over, a layer of black putrescent mud is seen to exist below it.
Plate XXVI.
J. LEITCH &. Co. Sc.
THEATRE OF THIGNICA (AIN TUNGA)
FAC-SIMILE OF ROUGH INDIAN INK SKETCH BY BRUCE.
HENRY S. KING Co. LONDON.
Here are the extensive ruins of the ancient Thignica. Bruce is absolutely silent regarding his visit to this place; nevertheless he has left five sheets of drawings illustrative of it:—
1. Perspective pencil sketch of temple; too faint for reproduction.
2. Very rough pencil sketch, with dimensions, of plan of temple, details of base of order, echinus and fillet, and of a remarkably fine soffit. On the back are careful sketches, in Indian ink and pencil, of other details of the same building.
3. Careful sketches in Indian ink of details of cornice and soffit. On the back is a drawing in pencil of capital of order.
4. Careful sketches in Indian ink of details of architecture.
5. Slight perspective sketch in Indian ink of other ruins at Ain Tunga, including the theatre and arch, but not the Byzantine fortress. (Plate XXVI.)
The last-mentioned is now the most conspicuous ruin in the place. Bruce has left no sketch of it; indeed, throughout all his wanderings he paid no attention whatever to buildings of this period, which, though by no means uninteresting from an historical point of view, are absolutely devoid of any architectural merit.
The exterior walls are in a very perfect condition, as are also the towers at each angle, but the interior is so choked up with a rank growth of weeds and scrub, that to examine it is almost an impossibility. Numerous inscriptions are still to be seen here, which have been given by Guérin; the most important one, in six fragments, records the full name of the place, ‘Municipium Septimium Aurelium Antoninianum . . . . Herculeum Frugiferum Thignica,’ and commemorates the reconstruction of its market-place in the time of Alexander Severus and of his mother Julia Mamæa, A.D. 222-235.[219]
The Corinthian temple must have been almost as fine as that of Dougga; the portico is now entirely destroyed, and all that remains are the angles of the cella. The masonry was of an unusually fine quality, and the columns were magnificent monoliths. In Bruce’s time the portico was still entire, with the exception of one angle of the pediment. It was a tetrastyle closely resembling the Temple of Jupiter and Minerva at Dougga, but even richer and more ornate in some of its details; it has not the defect observable in the latter, the want of antæ; pilasters being distinctly marked in the plan at the end of the cella walls.
Bruce records on one of the sheets a fragment of inscription which has been mentioned by subsequent travellers, and which still exists:—
The dimensions marked on the plan are as follows:—
| Feet. | Inches. | |
|---|---|---|
| Width of building | 38 | 0 |
| Depth of portico | 25 | 0 |
| „ „ cella | 42 | 10 |
| Diameter of column | 3 | 1 |
Three other inscriptions were copied by Bruce; the first has the remark attached to it, ‘This is now in the Bey’s garden, Tuburbo.’
There exist also several other remains of less interest: a small and plainly constructed arch and theatre of rubble masonry, a Christian basilica, besides traces of various other buildings scattered about, which are figured in Plate XXVI.
About four miles further on we came to Testour. Shortly before reaching the town we crossed the Oued Siliana, close to its junction with the Medjerda, at a spot which had once been spanned by a Roman bridge. The ruins of this were perceptible on either side; it was entire during the visit of Sir Grenville Temple in 1832, and he mentions having crossed over it.[221] Beyond we enter the valley of the Medjerda, whose course, as far as we could see it, was marked by orchards and fields of corn, more like a bit of English scenery than is usually met with in Africa.
The modern city is built on the site of the ancient Bisica Lucana, a city unknown to history, but which may probably be the Visica mentioned in Morcelli’s ‘Africa Christiana.’[222]
Shaw records an inscription found here, bearing the ancient name of the place, COL. BISICA LVCANA,[223] which he probably copied from Peyssonnel, who says that it existed in the market-place.[224]
There are still many inscriptions scattered about; the most interesting are two milliary columns, erected during the reign of Aurelius; one is in the house of a ropemaker, and the other in the vestibule of the Djamäa el-Kebir. The former indicates a distance of LXIX and the latter LXXI miles from Carthage. They have been given by various travellers.[225]
I am not aware whether anything of unusual importance was going on at the capital during the time that we were travelling in the interior, but we found, almost invariably, that the head man was absent at Tunis, and it was his Khalifa, or representative, who received us. Here the Khalifa also was away, and there was no one in his place to offer us hospitality; we were not at all sorry to be thrown on our own resources, as supplies were readily obtainable, and we were permitted to purchase them in the open market and to lodge our animals in the public fonduk. The notables of the village received us on our entry, and informed us that the shop of the barber had been cleared out for our reception. They made many excuses for the poorness of the accommodation; every other place, they assured us, was swarming with fleas, and this was the only comparatively clean place in Testour. It might have been so we did not try any other; but we would gladly have compounded for any number of fleas, if thereby we could have secured exemption from the attacks of more voracious insects. To add to our other miseries, it commenced to rain hard almost immediately after our arrival, and continued without intermission all night; so there we lay in a miserable cell, 10 feet square, without even attempting to sleep, making periodical attacks upon the enemy, and oppressed with a horrid dread that after so much rain we should find the Medjerda too full to be fordable in the morning.
Testour is a squalid village, whose sole merit is to have wide and airy streets. The houses are built of a poor sort of rubble, consisting of half-burnt bricks and small stones, and roofed with tiles, only too ready to lend themselves to the prevailing inclination of the place to fall into ruin. Still it is not quite without remains of former grandeur; the minaret of the great mosque, though in a very dilapidated condition, is a good specimen of Moorish architecture, and has been tastefully decorated with coloured tiles. This was probably the work of the Andalusian Moors, by whom the village was peopled, on their expulsion from Spain.
Pelissier describes it as badly built, with a population of two or three thousand inhabitants.[226] Guérin says that it was in decadence during his visit, and contained two thousand souls, including a few hundred Jews.[227] Things have gone badly with it since then, as the population cannot now be more than one thousand, and the Jews are to be counted by the score instead of the hundred.
It is situated in an exceptionally favourable position, on the right bank of the Medjerda, almost dipping into the stream, and on the great highway between Tunis and Keff, and so on into Algeria. Its soil is extremely fertile, and its orchards, which fringe both banks of the river, supply all Tunis with fruit.
If, therefore, we have a right to expect anything like a prosperous village in the whole country, Testour is the place where it ought to exist. Long years of misgovernment, of rapacity in high quarters, of brigandage encouraged for private ends, and of Mohammedan intolerance for everything like progress and civilisation, have produced their natural results. No nation can remain stationary; if it does not progress, it must rapidly retrograde; and nowhere is the contrast between ancient magnificence and present decadence more plainly visible than in the Regency of Tunis.
It was very pleasant here to witness the treatment of a poor half-witted fellow, evidently the village imbecile. Instead of being pursued with hoots and jeers, or at best regarded with indifference or contempt, as might possibly happen in a Christian country, everyone had a kind word to say to him, most of the elderly men stopped and kissed him tenderly on the cheek, and all seemed thoroughly to understand, that exceptional kindness was due to one, whom God had seen fit to deprive of His most precious gift.
FOOTNOTES:
[219]Guérin, ii. p. 151.
[220]There are several other inscriptions given, but as they are copied in Guérin and other authors, I omit them.
[221]Temple, Excurs. in Med. ii. p. 63.
[222]Morcelli, i. p. 357.
[223]Shaw, i. p. 169.
[224]Peyss., ap. Dureau de la Malle, i. p 139.
[225]Guérin, ii. p. 160.
[226]Peliss., p. 25.
[227]Guérin, ii. p. 159.
TESTOUR TO EL-BADJA BY THE MOUNTAINS — EL-BADJA.
April 23.—The rain ceased with the appearance of daylight, and though tired and unrefreshed from want of sleep, all our miseries were forgotten at the thought of leaving this unenjoyable place. We sent to have the state of the river examined by experts, and to our great contentment it was pronounced fordable, though not without difficulty, and at a point a little further up the stream; our horses and mules were ordered round, and to our amazement they came covered with clotted blood; every animal, including even the horses of our escort, had been bled in both shoulders to relieve their fatigue and to fit them for the heavy work still before them. They presented a most ghastly appearance; no attempt had been made to remove the blood from their legs, and each limb was decorated with a tuft of hair, which, with a common pin, had been used to close the vein after the operation.
I am not veterinarian enough to pronounce an opinion as to the necessity of this operation, but the Arabs have universal faith in its efficacy, and I am bound to state that the animals went none the worse for it, and bore their fatiguing journey in a manner that daily excited our admiration. The mules seemed absolutely incapable of fatigue, and our plucky little horses were as fresh after a march of twenty-five or thirty miles as they were at starting.
The ordinary high road between Testour and El-Badja is along the right bank of the Medjerda, to Medjez el-Bab, whence it proceeds in a north-westerly direction. This was the route followed by Bruce, who thus narrates the commencement of his journey:—
From Tunis we ascended the Bagrada, now called the Medjerda; we went to Bas el-Bab; found there ruins of indifferent taste; designed nothing; came to Dougga.
The Bas el-Bab here mentioned is evidently Medjez el-Bab, which was called by several of the old writers Basil-Bab, and by Peyssonnel Bebo. Bruce made, as he says, no finished drawings here, but amongst his sketches is a rough outline, with details, of the gate, described by Peyssonnel.
‘One sees still an ancient gate, made like a triumphal arch, where there remain two mutilated figures, one of which holds a head in his hands, the other has them joined together. It has the following inscription:—
We preferred a less easy but a shorter and far more picturesque route over the mountains, nearly due north in its general direction, and joining the main road at a point where a bridge has been commenced over the Oued Zergäa, fifteen miles from El-Badja.
I am not aware that this route is ever dangerous, but just before leaving Testour an old Jewess came and with tears in her eyes implored us to allow her son to make the journey to Badja in our company; he was taking some donkey saddles, which he had made, to the market there for sale. Perhaps they might have been tried on the backs of the wrong animals had he crossed the mountains all alone.
At first our road lay up the stream, to avoid the ordinary ferry, which was then impracticable. A Roman bridge had once spanned the river at this point; its remains may still be seen, and a new one is imperatively required, as for a great part of the year the river cannot be crossed in safety.
It was most pleasant to ride amongst the well-kept and highly cultivated gardens which fringe the river-side; everything testified to the richness of the soil and the effect of abundant irrigation. Even the lentisk, which in the shape of tufts of scrub, covers the whole country, seemed to have changed its nature, and grew here to the size of forest trees, shading the road with its dense evergreen foliage.
After crossing the river, which was not done without some risk to our baggage, we skirted the base of a very picturesque mountain, Djebel es-Sakhera, whose red scarped sides and serrated peaks make it a conspicuous landmark for many miles around. On the south flank of it some Roman ruins were pointed out to us, but the spot was far out of our road, and time would not permit us to make a closer inspection of them.
At the foot of the mountain runs a stream, the Oued el-Malah, or Salt River, frequently dry, but during the winter months full of water, rendered brackish by the salts with which the soil is impregnated. To the right of our road are the remains of a stone building, once the Bordj of the Oulad Ayar before their migration further south. We also noticed several miniature zaouias; evidently funds were not forthcoming for the erection of a regular koubba, so a model of one had been constructed about three feet high, of mud and stone, surrounded by a low wall, and here let us hope that the holy man may sleep as soundly in the bosom of the fertile earth, as under a more pretentious edifice.
The road, which had been rising rapidly, now culminated in a wild and picturesque pass over the top of Djebel Kulb-raha (Heart’s Content). There is an utter absence of trees all over these hills, but they are covered with a thick growth of under-shrub, principally of lentisk, jujube, wild olive, cistus, rosemary and diss grass. From this we descended rapidly to the Oued Zergäa, and soon found ourselves in the nearest approach to civilisation we had witnessed since leaving Susa. A calèche and pair was resting by the side of the high road, the course of which was marked by telegraph posts!
The road itself would not be considered very good elsewhere, but it is perfectly practicable for wheeled conveyances, and in fine weather it is no doubt a fairly good one. The lentisk bushes were being cut down in great quantities, to be burnt for the sake of the alkali which their ashes contain, and which, with olive oil, is used to make the soft black soap of the country.
When we had crossed a rather barren ridge we suddenly found ourselves in the plain of El-Badja, a continuous stretch of as fine corn-land as it is possible to see in any country. Not only is the soil naturally fertile, but the crops seem to be cultivated and kept clean with the greatest care. Altogether we pronounced it the best specimen of Arab agriculture we had seen in Tunis.
This town of El-Badja is the chief place of a district, which, together with the territory of the Bou-Salem and that of Tabarca, is governed by a Kaid, a fine old Miralai, named Si Ounas el-Adjaimi. He had taken part in the Crimean War and had evidently formed many friendships amongst the European officers there. He was liberal in his ideas, of great intelligence, and a most kind and courteous host. He lodged us in an excellent suite of apartments on the ground floor of his house, and sent us our meals from his own kitchen.
Native cookery throughout Tunis, at least in the houses of the upper classes, is far superior to anything I have seen in Algeria, probably because the old and faithful family slaves, who are usually charged with it, have become extinct in Algeria. Slavery is abolished in Tunis also, but the institution dies hard, and little boys and girls of tender age are still to be found in many families, but whether they have been born there or imported, was a question which we did not think ourselves called on to resolve.
This city is mentioned by Sallust under the name of Vacca or Vaga; the latter was probably the authentic one, as it is found in more than one inscription still existing. During ancient and mediæval times, it was renowned for its richness and commerce. Sallust says that it was a regular resort of Italian merchants, ubi et incolere et mercari consueverunt Italici generis multi mortales.
It has ever been one of the most important corn markets in Ifrikia, by which name the northern part of the Regency has always been called since it was the Provincia Africa of the Romans.
El-Edrisi (A.D. 1154) says: ‘It is a beautiful city, built in a plain extremely fertile in corn and barley, so that there is not in all the Moghreb a city so important or more rich in cereals.’
El-Bekri calls it the granary of Ifrikia, and says that its soil is so fertile, its cereals so fine, and its harvests so abundant, that everything is exceedingly cheap, and that when there is famine elsewhere, here there is abundance. Every day, he says, 1,000 camels and other beasts of burden carry away corn, but that has no influence on the price of food, so abundant is it.[229]
El-Badja is situated on the slope of a hill, with a commanding view of the plain beyond. The selection of the site was, no doubt, influenced by the existence of a copious spring of fresh water, which the Romans carefully led to a central position and enclosed within a vaulted chamber of their usual solid construction; this exists uninjured to the present day, but the drainage of the town has been allowed to flow into it and utterly pollute its waters.
It is impossible to imagine a city more filthy; the fable of King Augeas, with his stable of 3,000 oxen uncleaned during thirty years, is actually realised. The inhabitants have large flocks and herds, which they drive into the town every evening, and from its streets and houses nothing is ever removed. The old Roman drains are choked up, so that the rain, instead of washing down the streets, only dissolves the black abominations with which they are filled, and makes walking about an impossibility to one who is not hardened to it. Putrid animal and vegetable matter festering in the sun poisoned the air, and we did not require to be told that fever and other preventible diseases were common, especially in the summer months, and that the mortality is sometimes very great. The wonder to our mind was that anyone escaped, and that such a state of things did not bring back the plague, which used to commit such ravages on the Barbary coast.
The ancient city was surrounded by a wall, flanked by square towers, and on the culminating point of the enclosure was situated the citadel. No doubt, this was originally constructed by the Byzantines; the trace was adopted by the Arabs; but as the walls were not continued as the town extended, they soon ceased to surround it, and were allowed to fall into decay. The only part in a relative state of preservation is the Kasba, a great part of which seems to me the original construction of Belisarius or Solomon. Many tombstones and fragments of sculpture are built into the walls, and several interesting inscriptions recording the name of the place, which have already been given by M. Guérin.[230]
The Kasba is a half-ruinous building, on the terrace of which are mounted a few old pieces of ordnance; the view from it is splendid, but what most interested us was the prison in the interior, which, as an exceptional favour, we were permitted to visit. We entered by a small door, three feet and a half high and thirteen inches broad, leading into a passage of the same width in the thickness of the wall.
The door is fastened by a curious and complicated system of chains and padlocks; it has a grating, at which there is just room enough for one man at a time to stand and communicate with his friends outside, but anything like a general rush to get out is quite impossible. Beyond this passage is a large and lofty hall, about fifteen paces long and ten wide, with a vaulted roof supported on two square pillars. It was lighted only by two grated openings in the roof, which secure, happily, a certain amount of ventilation, but are in no way protected from the rain. In this place, on an average, fifty prisoners are always confined, and when I say that none of these are ever permitted to leave the room for a moment, and that no attempt is ever made to clean it out, it may well be imagined that the atmosphere is foul and pestilential beyond the power of words to describe; the unhappy wretches are supplied neither with food nor bedding, but are entirely dependent on their friends outside for subsistence. Woe to the unfortunate, who has been brought from a great distance, perhaps from failure to pay his contributions, and whose family are too poor to supply him with food so far from home. The Arab can subsist and keep in good condition on a very small modicum of food; he is very willing to aid others more unfortunate than himself; he cares little for comfort or personal luxuries, and is always ready to submit with patience to what he believes to be the will of Providence, so he probably gets through his period of imprisonment without any very acute suffering; but twenty-four hours here would turn most Europeans into raging lunatics.
We observed two interesting and hitherto unpublished inscriptions high up in one of the pillars. The first was turned upside down, and the light was very bad, so that it took us a considerable time to decipher them. The operation was a most sickening one.
They originally formed part of the same inscription, but an intermediate portion is wanting. The characters in the last line of each are very much more elongated than the others, closer together, and exceedingly difficult to read:—
Another fragment of inscription at the entrance of the prison I believe to be unpublished:—
In the outer wall of the Djamäa-el-Kebir, or principal mosque, dedicated to Sidna Aissa (our Lord Jesus), is a remarkably interesting inscription, which was first noticed by M. Guérin, proving that this had originally been a Christian basilica, and that it had been restored and embellished during the reign of the Emperors Valentinianus and Valens, A.D. 364 to 368. M. Guérin makes a slight mistake in the first line, which obscures the meaning. Instead of
the penultimate letter should be V; the line would thus read
Dyeing is carried on to some extent at El-Badja, but the only distinctive manufactures of the place are wooden sandals used by the women, very tastefully carved out of light wood, generally with an old razor.
In the vicinity of the town is a ruined palace and neglected garden belonging to the Bey, which, like that at Tunis, is called the Bardo. This existed as far back as 1724, when Peyssonnel visited the place.
El-Badja can boast of an excellent bath, which we found most refreshing after our long journey. It has also a telegraphic station. The gentleman in charge of it, M. Ferdinand Gandolphe, is Vice-Consul of France, and the only European resident in the place. He has been stationed here for a year, and he assured us that sometimes he almost forgot how to speak his own language.
The telegraphs throughout Tunis belong to the French Government, which defrays the entire cost, except that the Bey provides station-houses, and what transport may be necessary for the carriage of telegraphic materials. For this he and his superior officers have the privilege of sending telegrams free throughout the Regency and to La Calle, but nowhere else.
The Arabic language does not lend itself very easily to telegraphy; every message must therefore be transmitted in French or some other European tongue. It may easily be imagined what an engine of political power this might become in case of need.
We had occasion to send a few telegrams to our friends at Algiers and Tunis. This is generally a very commonplace operation; we were hardly prepared to see the official rush out of his den, shake us warmly by the hand, as if we had been life-long friends, and volunteer to conduct us all over the place. His existence is a dreary one, and the presence of European travellers an opportunity for a little conversation in his own language too precious to be lost. He was exceedingly civil and attentive to us, and we enjoyed his society quite as much as he did ours.
The Bey has just granted a concession to the French Company of Batignolles for the construction of a railway from Tunis to El-Badja, and so on to the Algerian frontier, following the course of the Medjerda. This will be joined to the existing line between Bone and Guelma by a branch passing through Souk Ahras, and it will probably entail the extension of that line as far as Ain Beida and Tebessa. This concession was offered in the first instance to an English company, and, wisely I think, declined by them. No guarantee of interest has been given, but instead, the Government of the Bey has conceded the lead mines of Djebba to the company, together with the buildings and plant which had formerly been erected for working them.