MOORISH WOMEN IN A STREET IN TUNIS.
After taking leave of the Bey I returned to my hotel. First I glanced through my letters, and, after a bath and having dressed, I enjoyed an excellent breakfast, at which I met M. Gauckler, who promised to help me make various purchases,—which promise he faithfully kept. On the whole, I cannot sufficiently thank him for all his valuable assistance. As it turned out that many of the photographs I had taken were failures, he handed me a collection of views of the whole of Tunisia, photographed for the “Service des Antiquités,” and which had in great part been exhibited in Madrid in 1892, and presented me with all those that I selected, that I might make any use of them I pleased. Thanks to his generosity, I am able to adorn my book with many of these interesting pictures. He also undertook the troublesome task of bargaining on my account with the Jews and Moors who were to pack all I had bought.
During my absence he had been engaged in making excavations, and had brought back some fine mosaics for the museum at Bardo. Under his direction the latter will be enlarged, and will in time contain some priceless treasures. A law now prohibits the exportation of antiquities of any kind to foreign countries. Still, under certain circumstances, exceptions are made, as, for instance, with regard to some objects found at Carthage, which I had acquired, and which, during my absence in the south, were stopped at the custom-house; but, on our Consul applying to M. Gauckler, he had them passed for me.
The remainder of the day I spent in the shops of the Sok, and in paying visits, amongst others to Drummond Hay, who had long expected my return. I found him in his beautiful government house, near the “Porte de France,” where I also called on his wife. They invited me to spend a day with them in the country, where I had an opportunity of thanking Drummond Hay for his valuable assistance and advice, without which my journey would have been made with no fixed purpose, and, notwithstanding all the kindness and hospitality so generously shown me, it might have had a far less interesting result.
SUPPLEMENT
The Tribes of Tunisia—A Synopsis
From a geographical point of view the actual Regency of Tunisia does not comprise an entire country; in features it does not differ from the rest of Barbary, since its mountains form part of the same system as those of Algeria and Morocco. Its chief rivers have their sources in Algeria, and, as in the above-mentioned countries, mountains, high tablelands, and the belts of the Sahara succeed each other from the north to the south, each with its special aspect, climate, fauna, and flora.
But Tunisia is better situated than Algeria, for its coast trends towards the south, thus bringing every part of the country near the sea. For it is a fact that the palm groves of the oases about Gabés extend right up to the Mediterranean, and there, though virtually in the heart of the Sahara, one may yet feel the mild influence of the sea.
The whole of Barbary is in a geological sense sundered from the rest of Africa, being in reality a continuation of Southern Europe, of which the mountain formation is found again here. The climate, therefore, resembles that of the Mediterranean littoral. In the interior of Tunisia, indeed, it may be extremely hot, but the average heat over the whole country is about 76°. The winter lasts only during the two months of January and February, but the summer from May to October.