I found at Dugga a large scene of ruins, among which one building was easily distinguishable. It was a large temple of the Corinthian order, all of Parian marble, the columns fluted, the cornice highly ornamented in the very best style of sculpture. In the tympanum is an eagle flying to heaven, with a human figure upon his back, which, by the many inscriptions that are still remaining, seems to be intended for that of Trajan, and the apotheosis of that emperor to be the subject, the temple having been erected by Adrian to that prince, his benefactor and predecessor. I spent fifteen days upon the architecture of this temple without feeling the smallest disgust, or forming a wish to finish it; it is, with all its parts, still unpublished in my collection. These beautiful and magnificent remains of ancient taste and greatness, so easily reached in perfect safety, by a ride along the Bagrada, full as pleasant and as safe as along the Thames between London and Oxford, were at Tunis totally unknown. Doctor Shaw has given the situation of the place, without saying one word about any thing curious it contains.
From Dugga I continued the upper road to Keff[14], formerly called Sicca Venerea, or Venerea ad Siccam, through the pleasant plains inhabited by the Welled Yagoube. I then proceeded to Hydra, the Thunodrunum[15] of the ancients. This is a frontier place between the two kingdoms of Algiers and Tunis, as Keff is also. It is inhabited by a tribe of Arabs, whose chief is a marabout, or saint; they are called Welled Sidi Boogannim, the “sons of the father of flocks.”
These Arabs are immensely rich, paying no tribute either to Tunis or Algiers. The pretence for this exemption is a very singular one. By the institution of their founder, they are obliged to live upon lions flesh for their daily food, as far as they can procure it; with this they strictly comply, and, in consideration of the utility of this their vow, they are not taxed, like the other Arabs, with payments to the state. The consequence of this life is, that they are excellent and well-armed horsemen, exceedingly bold and undaunted hunters. It is generally imagined, indeed, that these considerations, and that of their situation on the frontier, have as much influence in procuring them exemption from taxes, as the utility of their vow.
There is at Thunodrunum a triumphal arch, which Dr Shaw thinks is more remarkable for its size than for its taste or execution; but the size is not extraordinary; on the other hand, both taste and execution are admirable. It is, with all its parts, in the King’s collection, and, taking the whole together, is one of the most beautiful landscapes in black and white now existing. The distance, as well as the fore-ground, are both from nature, and exceedingly well calculated for such representation.
Before Dr Shaw’s travels first acquired the celebrity they have maintained ever since, there was a circumstance that very nearly ruined their credit. He had ventured to say in conversation, that these Welled Sidi Boogannim were eaters of lions, and this was considered at Oxford, the university where he had studied, as a traveller’s license on the part of the Doctor. They took it as a subversion of the natural order of things, that a man should eat a lion, when it had long passed as almost the peculiar province of the lion to eat man. The Doctor flinched under the sagacity and severity of this criticism; he could not deny that the Welled Sidi Boogannim did eat lions, as he had repeatedly said; but he had not yet published his travels, and therefore left it out of his narrative, and only hinted at it after in his appendix.
With all submission to that learned university, I will not dispute the lion’s title to eating men; but, since it is not founded upon patent, no consideration will make me stifle the merit of Welled Sidi Boogannim, who have turned the chace upon the enemy. It is an historical fact; and I will not suffer the public to be misled by a misrepresentation of it; on the contrary, I do aver, in the face of these fantastic prejudices, that I have ate the flesh of lions, that is, part of three lions, in the tents of Welled Sidi Boogannim. The first was a he-lion, lean, tough, smelling violently of musk, and had the taste which, I imagine, old horse-flesh would have. The second was a lioness, which they said had that year been barren. She had a considerable quantity of fat within her; and, had it not been for the musky smell that the flesh had, though in a lesser degree than the former, and for our foolish prejudices against it, the meat, when broiled, would not have been very bad. The third was a lion’s whelp, six or seven months old; it tasted, upon the whole, the worst of the three. I confess I have no desire of being again served with such a morsel; but the Arabs, a brutish and ignorant folk, will, I fear, notwithstanding the disbelief of the university of Oxford, continue to eat lions as long as they exist.
From Hydra I passed to the ancient Tipasa[16], another Roman colony, going by the same name to this day. Here is a most extensive scene of ruins. There is a large temple, and a four-faced triumphal arch of the Corinthian order, in the very best taste; both of which are now in the collection of the King.
I here crossed the river Myskianah, which falls into the Bagrada, and continuing through one of the most beautiful and best-cultivated countries in the world, I entered the eastern province of Algiers, now called Constantina, anciently the Mauritania Cæsariensis, whose capital, Constantina, is the ancient metropolis of Syphax. It was called Cirta[17], and, after Julius Cæsar’s conquest, Cirta Sittianorum, from Caius Sittius who first took it. It is situated upon a high, gloomy, tremendous precipice. Part only of its aqueduct remains: the water, which once was carried into the town, now spills itself from the top of the cliff into a chasm, or narrow valley, above four hundred feet below. The view of it is in the King’s collection; a band of robbers, the figures which adorn it, is a composition from imagination; all the rest is perfectly real.
The Bey was at this time in his camp, as he was making war with the Hanneishah, the most powerful tribe of Arabs in that province. After having refreshed myself in the Bey’s palace I set out to Seteef, the Sitifi[18] of antiquity, the capital of Mauritania Sitifensis, at some distance from which I joined the Bey’s army, consisting of about 12,000 men, with four pieces of cannon. After staying a few days with the Bey, and obtaining his letters of recommendation, I proceeded to Taggou-zainah, anciently Diana Veteranorum[19], as we learn by an inscription on a triumphal arch of the Corinthian order which I found there.
From Taggou-zainah I continued my journey nearly straight S. E. and arrived at Medrashem, a superb pile of building, the sepulchre of Syphax, and the other kings of Numidia, and where, as the Arabs believe, were also deposited the treasures of those kings. A drawing of this monument is still unpublished in my collection. Advancing still to the S. E. through broken ground and some very barren valleys, which produced nothing but game, I came to Jibbel Aurez, the Aurasius Mons of the middle age. This is not one mountain, but an assemblage of many of the most craggy steeps in Africa.