After dinner we spent our evening with other officers at the casino. There I met Ben Jad, an old native lieutenant of Spahis, with a handsome Arab face, and wearing the Cross of the Legion of Honour on his breast. He promised me a good horse for the morrow when I took my way to Duirat, the southernmost village of Tunisia. I met also the interpreter and the lieutenant of the Bureau and Dr. Renaud, their medical man, who talked with me about the country, and promised to do what he could to get hold of some of the Tuareg, whom I so longed to see; but of this he told me there was little hope.
CHAPTER XIV
DUIRAT
The route to the south from Tatuin leads through a valley. At first we traversed the oasis, riding under the shade of the palm trees, then followed the course of the dried-up river bed in the bottom of the valley.
On the top of a hill to our left were a couple of villages. To the right were other dwellings, some of which were caves; others were white houses with vaulted roofs.
An hour later we saw on a height to the eastward the fortress of Beni Barka. This is a village of narrow streets enclosed within a wall. The houses are similar to those of other African villages.
Yet a little farther on we passed another village, which was built in a square, and composed of the same oblong vaulted buildings we had seen at Medinin and Metamer; it also appeared to be fortified.
We then emerged on an open golden-yellow plain that rose gradually to the left, a solitary steep mountain lying to the south. To the west also was a large group of magnificent, precipitous mountains; behind these we were to find Duirat, but to reach it we had to go round the mountain we saw to the south.
When, later, we approached this mountain, we found the ground completely covered with every kind and shape of rocks and stones; never have I seen elsewhere such a rocky waste.
We wheeled round outside this beautiful rocky region, picking our way very carefully lest our horses’ legs should be injured. On the steep slope, broken rocks of every size were tightly packed together, and, at the very top, great beetling crags seemed prepared to plunge down the precipice.