Beyond this commences a long alluvial plain, which, broken up by several low ranges of hills, extends to the very gates of Bizerta; it is of great fertility, and tolerably well cultivated.
About six miles and a half beyond Es-Sabala, the Medjerda is crossed by a bridge which was built about twenty-five years ago, on the site of an old Roman one. It is a solid structure of seven arches, with a niche between each pair, pierced so as to admit the passage of water when the floods are high. The original structure was entire when Peyssonnel visited it in 1724; it was a tolerably good one, he says, but the arches were badly constructed.[113] This river rises in the beautiful valley of Khamisa, in Algeria, amongst the ruins of Thubursicum Numidarum,[114] and traverses some of the richest parts of Tunis, districts rendered celebrated by many of the most stirring events in Roman history. It is none other than the far-famed Bagradas, on the banks of which took place the combat between the army of Attilius Regulus and the monstrous serpent, 225 years before Christ. Pliny repeats the fable as one well known in his day. They besieged it, says he, with ballista and implements of war, as one would have done to a city. It was 120 feet long, and its skin and jaws were preserved in a temple at Rome until the Numantine war.[115]
The tradition of such animals appears to have lingered long in the country. Leo Africanus says that ‘the Caves of the Atlas contain many huge and monstrous dragons, which are heavy and of a slow motion, because the midst of their body is grosse, but their necks and tails are slender. They are most venemous creatures, insomuch that whosoever is bitten or touched by them, his flesh presently waxeth soft, neither can he by any means escape death.’ Marmol’s account of these marvellous animals is even more amusing. He also says that they are very numerous in the caverns of the great Atlas; their bite and touch are mortal, but they are so heavy and so badly made that they can hardly move, for their body is very thick about the stomach, and the rest slender. They have the head and wings of a bird, the tail and skin of a serpent, the feet of a wolf; they are spotted with divers colours, and they have not strength to lift their eyelids. This pleasant animal is called by the Arabs Taybin, and is supposed to result from the amours of a female wolf and a male eagle.[116] The word Taybin is evidently Thäaban, the ordinary Arabic word for a serpent; and it is quite possible that, as wolves and bears have become extinct in the country, so there may have been larger species of serpents, like the python or the boa, which no longer exist.
The Medjerda has greatly changed its course within the limits of history; indeed, it is constantly cutting through the banks of alluvion, and depositing the débris elsewhere. Even at this season a considerable body of water enters the sea, but it is a mere thread in comparison to the width of its bed after continued rain. A passing shower will sometimes suffice to produce a torrent capable of washing away sheep and cattle, and even travellers.
The plain on the right bank of the river at this place goes by the name of Outa el-Kebir, or the large plain; that on the left is Outa es-Segheir, or the smaller one, while the crossing itself is called El-Fonduk, from an inn on its bank, more dirty and repulsive than such places generally are.
At seventeen miles from Tunis a second and smaller bridge is passed, spanning a watercourse running along the southern base of Djebel Zana. From this point the road to Bou-Shater, the ancient Utica, branches off. We saw it in the distance, and thought of the unnecessary self-sacrifice of Cato, but had not time to visit it. Bruce, however, did so. He says—
I went to visit Utica, out of respect to the memory of Cato, without having sanguine expectations of meeting anything remarkable there; and accordingly I found nothing memorable but its name. It may be said that nothing remains of Utica but a heap of rubbish and small stones; without the city, the trenches and approaches of the ancient besiegers are still very perfect.
Beyond Djebel Zana is another wide plain, called Bahirah Gournata, in the middle of which is a well. To the right is seen Ghar el-Melah, or Porto Farino, formerly an important naval station and arsenal, now neglected and almost in ruins. While we stopped to prepare our breakfast here, Lord Kingston strolled into a neighbouring swamp, and soon returned with several brace of snipe. We did not require them on this occasion, but many a good dinner did his gun find us afterwards, when we would otherwise have been reduced to hard-boiled eggs, or the remarkably tough and stringy animals which are in the habit of producing them.
The hill which bounds the north side of this plain is Djebel Tella; at its foot is a small stream; and from its summit the first view is obtained of the sea and the Lake of Bizerta, along the eastern bank of which the road now runs. At thirty-two and a half miles from Tunis is Menzel-Djemil, well named the beautiful resting-place, despite of the filth with which it is surrounded. The narrow neck of land, which here separates the lake from the sea, is a perfect garden covered with plantations of fruit and olive trees and fields of corn.
Bizerta itself is thirty-six miles from Tunis. Its name is a corruption of the Arab one, Benzerte, which is as evidently derived from its ancient one, Hippo Zarytus, or Hippo Diarrhytus, the adjunct being necessary to distinguish this city from its neighbour Hippo Regius, the modern Bone.