The last crowns the hill to the west, while the two others at its foot are separated by an inclined plane, in which is situated the Medressa. It was one of the favourite ideas of Napoleon III. to educate the Arab and Kabyle races in the French language and ideas. Numerous educational establishments were organised with this view, at Algiers, Constantine, Fort National and elsewhere, nearly all of which collapsed with the Empire. Amongst others, a college was established here at which Kabyle youths were taught both Arabic and French. The buildings are still kept in repair, but unused; we occupied them during the day. We remained here instead of putting up at the less comfortable house of the Sheikh; dhifas however were sent in great profusion, and a very cordial reception given to us.
These villages are much better built and more picturesque than most others in Kabylia; many of them have two stories, some even three. The walls are decorated with arches and quaint holes for ventilation, and not a few have arched colonnades. The general appearance of the whole, sloping upwards in a pyramidal form, is not at all unlike many Italian villages. They used to be celebrated for the manufacture of arms, but as that is now a forbidden industry, they have extended their manufacture of bernouses, silver ornaments, etc.; and one of them, Tizairt, is celebrated for its wood-carving. The objects most usually manufactured are maces, not unlike those of Gog and Magog, spoons and trinkets connected by chains cut out of a single piece of wood.
We visited our host, the Sheikh of Tizairt, who has a large and commodious pile of buildings; also the ex-Sheikh, who has built himself a very large house in the French style, and furnished it with chairs and tables, and as many bottles of good things to drink as a buvette at a railway station. He was very anxious that we should recommend him to the authorities, in order that he might be reinstated in his position; but we stopped him at once with the observation that we were guests of Government, as it were, and it would ill become us to interfere with matters which did not concern us. Similar requests were frequently made, but always answered in the same sense.
On the 22nd we set out for Akbou. After leaving Tizairt the road descends rapidly, passing numerous picturesquely-situated Kabyle villages, and enters the Oued es-Sahel, a little below the ruins of Bordj Tazmalt, a fort destroyed during the last insurrection. Here it is proposed to build a village, to which will be attached 6,700 acres of land; each concessionaire will have a village lot, a garden and a patch of olive trees, and two lots of cultivable land, aggregating 80 acres; 1,247 acres are divided into seven farms, and 1,030 are reserved as communal land.
We here entered the great valley called Oued es-Sahel, or river of the coast—known to the ancients by the name of Nasava, or Nasabath—which commences near Aumale, and terminates in the Gulf of Bougie. Like most of the rivers of Algeria, it changes its name according to the territory it traverses; thus it is successively called Oued Akbou, Oued Soumam, Oued Beni Mesaoud, Oued el-Kebir, and Oued es-Sahel. Its average width is about forty yards, but in some places it is as much as two hundred.
After traversing the rich plain of the Beni Melekeuch, covered with corn and olive trees, we pass on our right hand the celebrated Mound of Akbou, and soon reach the village itself.
Akbou is the ancient Ausum, and is the country of the well-known Si Mohammed bin Ali Cherif, who rendered great service to France, and was decorated with the Legion of Honour and created Bach-Agha of Chellata. Having unfortunately allowed himself to be drawn into the insurrection of 1871, he was tried and convicted at Constantine, but subsequently received a free pardon from Marshal de MacMahon, President of the Republic, who better than any man living knew the value of his former services.
A new village has been founded here, to which a vain attempt has been made to attach the name of Metz; it is admirably situated on an elevated mound to the north of the high road, with a charming view looking both up and down the valley. About thirty houses of a superior description were finished at the time of our visit, and the land allotted to the colonists appears to be of an unusually good quality. The great drawback is the want of water, which has to be brought in an open channel a distance of seven or eight miles; this is liable to be deranged by storms, and could easily be cut off by an enemy.
Close to it is the old Bordj of Ben Ali Cherif, purchased by the State before the insurrection, and now used as a residence for the officers of the Bureau Arabe. There are two auberges here, one in the village and the other on the high road below it.
On the opposite side of the river is a ridge of steep hills close to its right bank, called Geldaman, the western point of which has been separated from the rest by the river, and now forms an isolated mamelon in the middle of the plain called the Piton d’Akbou, which is seen from a great distance on both sides. On a small platform at the west side of this hill, and about 100 feet above its base, is a remarkable Roman mausoleum, still in an excellent state of preservation. It consists of a pyramid surmounting a cubical base, three sides of which are decorated with false windows, whilst the fourth had a door, no longer in its place, but also probably of stone. The pivot was of immense size, the hole to receive it being nearly six inches in diameter. The whole structure is raised on four steps, reduced to three on the east side by the slope of the hill. The interior, which is thirteen feet square, has a wagon vault roof, constructed, like all the rest of the building, of finely-cut stone. Three of the sides interiorly are decorated by double arches, once no doubt supported on columns. On the fourth side, the door being a little larger than the false windows, there is one larger arch, and a smaller one on each side. The windows outwardly occupy the position of the interior columns. Of the superior pyramid five courses still remain in place. Above the door was an inscription in white marble, fragments of which still exist in the corners of the panel made to receive it. The execution of the monument is admirable, but the style is debased.