At first the hill-sides were bare and arid, soon little patches of cornland began to appear, and when at length we found ourselves on the top and well into the Hamada of the Oulad Ayar, we were delighted to see an amount of cultivation and a richness of soil which we had not met with since our arrival in the country.
When Sir Grenville Temple passed through this district in 1832[172] the people had just killed three lions, whose skins they were sending to Tunis. These animals have now almost entirely disappeared from the Regency. It is said that one is occasionally to be heard of in the neighbourhood of Kef, but even that is doubtful; they are certainly extinct everywhere else.
He also met two Mamelukes who had been sent to collect the duties on tar and pitch, which were made in great quantities in the neighbourhood. The Aleppo pine has not disappeared as completely as the lions; and we did see some branches of it at the Kaid’s encampment, but we never met a tree growing in this part of the country, and it is probable that in a very short time this also will disappear.
On the top of this range is a large fertile plateau, about a thousand feet above the level of the plain below, where we found the tents of the brother of the Kaid of Oulad Ayar. He insisted on our resting in his camp, and gave us a delicious repast of excellent bread, dates and fresh milk. From this place to Mukther, wherever the soil was not tilled, it was covered with a carpet of grass, clover and trefoil, as rich as an English meadow, well watered by streams and springs, a perfect paradise after the dreary region of the Sahel from which we had just emerged. The climate too had changed entirely, partly owing to a general change of weather and partly to the height at which we were. The sky became slightly overcast, a fresh, cool breeze succeeded to the sirocco which dries up every mucous membrane in the body and makes life almost a burden; and our tempers improved and our spirits rose as the glass fell. This is the highest point in the country round about. The streams from its north-west slopes flow towards the Medjerda, while those on the south-east find their way in the direction of the Chotts, or are lost in the great plain of the Sahel.
About 2½ miles from Mukther we passed a mausoleum which the natives call Beit el-Hadjar, the stone house. This was also observed by Bruce, who says:
The 10th November, passed a sepulchral monument about three miles from Mucter, square, oblong, with pilasters in front and in the angles, with rude ill-executed Corinthian ornaments. Did not design it. That night lay in the mountains in the districts of the Welled Ayar, above which place is their gellah or fortress.
This fortress is a mountain peak somewhat resembling a castle, and to which they are in the habit of driving their flocks for safety in times of danger. The monument has certainly no architectural merits, but it is constructed in a solid and careful manner of finely-cut stone.
It is rectangular in plan; on each side are six Corinthian pilasters, and four on each end, surmounted by a bold and massive entablature. Within, it is divided into two chambers, each 9 ft. 9 in. broad. The inner or mortuary one is 6 ft. 9 in. long. Several columbaria exist in the walls. It had two doors; the outer one has disappeared, but it must have been of a single slab of stone turning on pivots, the holes for which still exist. Another door in the partition wall led into an outer chamber 10 ft. long, with seats in the wall, and lighted by a window. This door is still lying on the floor; it was decorated with a bas-relief representing a winged figure holding some large object in his right hand. Above the aperture of the door half of a wreath of laurel is sculptured on the wall. The roof was of immense blocks of stone laid across, one of which still exists in each chamber. This is evidently the building erroneously laid down in Ste. Marie’s map as ‘Mausolée de Verrius,’ but the tomb of C. Verrius Rogatus, described by Sir Grenville Temple,[173] is situated on the opposite side of the city, near the aqueduct.
The ruins of Roman constructions which we had observed all along to-day’s route became more frequent as we approached Mukther. Instead of encamping within the circle of the ruins there, we proceeded a little further on, and pitched our tent in a charming dell, full of clear springs and rich grass, and shaded by a grove of fig-trees, nearly south-west of the koubba of Sidi Ali ben Omar.
Here, again, the old scene of wrangling took place before we could get any supplies. The Khalifa of the district told us that the people were completely poverty-stricken, they had not wherewithal to nourish a single horse or mule. Sheep were as much a matter of ancient history as the Roman cities (the hills were covered with both!), and that if we insisted on camping there, we must supply our own provisions, and our animals must be satisfied with the grass which grew on the ground.