The inhabitants of Geläa have little or no arable land, but they are famous for the manufacture of bernouses. They make a considerable quantity of olive oil, and are renowned merchants, purchasing the carpets and haiks of the south, and selling them at the markets of Constantine and other great towns. Between the two villages are a number of small springs, quite dry in summer, so that for several months in the year the water supply of each village has to be brought from the valley below.
In the upper village is an ancient mosque, with some good wood-carving over the door; in the cemetery attached is buried the celebrated Bach-Agha el-Mokrani. His body was brought here after the battle of Oued Souflat, where he was killed. It is much to be regretted that his tomb should be quite unmarked. The Commandant Supérieur of Aumale, Colonel Trumelet, has had the happy idea of marking the spot where he fell by a stone bearing this inscription:—‘Ici tomba, mortellement frappé par les balles du 4ème de Zouaves, le 5 Mai 1871, le Bach-Agha de la Medjana, El-Hadj Mohammed ben el-Hadj Ahmed el-Mokrani, chef de l’insurrection.’
The connection of the Mokrani family with Geläa dates from the sixteenth century, when one of their ancestors, Ben Abd-er-Rahman, established a little principality here after the expulsion of the Spaniards from Bougie. The last of these princes was murdered by his subjects in A.D. 1600.
Mokrani owned several houses in Geläa, and his brother was at one time Kaid of the Beni Abbas.
There is a large guest-chamber in the upper village belonging to our friend who had entertained us at Boni, but we were only permitted to see it. We were conducted to the house of the other Sheikh—of the Oulad Aissa—and installed there as honoured guests. If the first Sheikh resembled our jovial host at Timegad, this one might be compared to the more refined and imperial-looking Kaid of the Oulad Abdi. He received us with the most perfect grace, and with a cordiality which made us instantly feel at home. The Kabyles are renowned for hospitality, but very few are celebrated for their cuisine. A traveller must have been difficult indeed to please had he not been satisfied with the excellent fare provided by our host. It is not the custom here for the women to appear before strangers, but the ladies of our party visited them in their apartments, and were surprised to find a little girl who had been taught by the Sisters at Bone, and who spoke French with perfect facility. The delight of the poor child at finding ladies to whom she could speak in French would have been ludicrous had it not been so touching. She would hardly allow them out of her sight; she insisted on sharing their bed-room, and kept them awake all night with her chattering, and, to crown all, she stained their hands and nails with henna—an operation which in their ignorance they permitted, and which had the startling effect of producing an indelible stain of a bright orange colour, which adorned them for several months after their return to civilised life.
M. Daly became quite enthusiastic about the decoration of the doors in our host’s house, which he copied with most minute accuracy. The designs were quaint but not inelegant, and the colours harmonious, being only red and black.
One of the most interesting sights of Geläa is the extraordinary method employed for storing grain—in enormous baskets of alpha grass, fourteen or fifteen feet high, and ten feet in diameter at the thickest parts, resembling gigantic bottles with the necks knocked off. These are raised about a foot off the ground, and four or five of them are placed side by side in a room. In these vessels, called Zaräa, a reserve supply of corn has been known to keep perfectly good for fifty years. The family of Mokrani were in the habit of keeping their corn in this way on account of the exceptionally good climate of the village, but the stories which have obtained currency of the immense treasures concealed by them here are pure inventions. In troublous times, before the French conquest, such may have been the case, but for many years before the insurrection the treasures of Mokrani had vanished into debts. Somewhat similar grain-baskets, but of a much smaller size, were observed by M. Pricot de Ste. Marie in the island of Djerba; and amongst the Ouerghemma, in the Regency of Tunis, they were in the form of pears, four-and-a-half feet high, and they preserved the grain perfectly, though exposed to the full inclemency of the weather.[97]
There is a direct route from this village to Akbou, but we preferred to make a détour in order to see Ighil Ali, the most considerable village in the Beni Abbas.
We started on the morning of May 21, and after passing through the village we descended a path so steep and difficult as hardly to be practicable for mules. On reaching the bottom of the hill, however, it improves, and soon the high road between Bordj bou Areredj and the Oued es-Sahel is reached. The scenery is still remarkably grand, but less green than before reaching Geläa. The ground is poor, schistose, and only adapted for the cultivation of fig and olive trees, which constitute the principal riches of the country. About halfway is the village of Zeina, the only one we actually passed, though we saw many crowning the heights around.
After about four hours’ riding we reached Ighil Ali; in fact, there are three villages placed so close together as to form but one—Ighil Ali, Tizairt, and Azrou.