Travels in the footsteps of Bruce in Algeria and Tunis

by Sir R. Lambert Playfair

There is strong reason for supposing that these are sepulchral chambers similar to the caves at Roknia, and the subject is one deserving the attention of a future traveller. There can be little doubt that the opening of the railway to El-Badja will render this country more easy of access, and less hazardous than it is at present.

We had intended spending the night with the Sheikh Abdulla bin Nasr, chief of the Oulad Nasr, whose douar is on the left or western bank of the Oued Malah (salt river), but when we reached the right bank we found it so swollen that we were reluctantly compelled to abandon the attempt to cross it that night. Fortunately there was a douar belonging to Sheikh bou Real (the father of a piastre) at no great distance, and, seeing our trouble, he offered us the most ungrudging hospitality. The Arabs of this country do not as a rule inhabit tents; their abodes are houses with a permanent wooden framework, roofed with reeds, rushes and straw, with walls of hurdle work, so tightly plaited as to be tolerably impervious to the wind, and quite so to the rain—two or three such houses, according to the wealth of the owner, are surrounded by a low fence of dry thorns, and an aggregation of several such within one common enclosure constitutes the douar.

Our host was evidently a person of some importance; his house was forty feet long by twenty broad, divided longitudinally into two portions. That to the right was raised about eighteen inches above the other, and constituted the family residence and general storeroom. Near one end sacks of wheat were piled up to the roof, forming a partition, behind which the ladies of the family retreated at night. Outside of this were two or three platforms of loose planks on wooden trestles, intended as places of refuge from the main body of the fleas, who usually take possession of the place; on these we slept in tolerable comfort, thanks to the priceless discovery we made, that by tucking the trousers inside the stockings, those disagreeable neighbours are to a great extent circumvented.

We were rather a numerous company, and the space on which it was possible to lie was limited, but we were thankful for any shelter, and when we could not sleep, it was a comforting thing to hear the wind howling around us, and the rain pattering on the roof, and to think what our condition would have been, had we been obliged to pitch our tent on the sodden ground outside. The lower division of the house served as the stable; generally it was filled with our host’s own animals, but he hospitably turned these into the yard in order to accommodate our horses and mules. This arrangement is not without its advantages and disadvantages; it was not pleasant to wade through the liquid manure with which it was carpeted; but, on the other hand, this ‘matter misplaced’ remained there, and could not flow uphill to our beds.

The ladies of the house were not very well pleased at being turned out of their ordinary sleeping-place, and were at first inclined to be sulky; but a little delicate attention to the baby, who was suffering from whooping cough, and a few presents of money, sugar and biscuits to themselves, produced the never-failing result, and they soon became quite devoted to us, and showed their affection by gifts of eggs, milk and dry brushwood to keep up the fire.

The Khalifa or substitute of the Kaid of El-Badja happened to be in the vicinity collecting arrears of revenue. As soon as he heard of our arrival, he came to pay us a visit, pressed us to return with him to his tents, which were a mile or two off, and offered to make us far more comfortable than we could be here; but we had already unpacked, and the weather was not such as to tempt us abroad again. So he accepted our excuses, and having caused abundant supplies of straw and barley to be brought, he remained with us till our departure.

Next morning we rejoiced to hear that the river had sunk sufficiently during the night to be now fordable, but the weather was still bad, and there was every prospect that, should it commence to rain again, the torrent would become as bad as ever.

We therefore started very early, taking especial care to see to the security of our loads, and accompanied by all the men of the village, by whose aid we were soon landed on the further bank of the river.

Here we were met by the Sheikh Abdulla, who pressed us most warmly to spend a day at his douar, but we were obliged to decline, as our time was limited, and we knew not what difficulties might still lie before us. He excused himself from accompanying us in person to Tabarca, as there was a mortal feud between his people and those of Mekna, further west, and though both professed to be the dutiful subjects of the Bey, there had been war between themselves for generations. It was only about a fortnight before, that a party of each tribe had met on the neutral ground between them, and one man of Mekna had been killed. He, however, found us a man belonging to another tribe, who undertook to guide us to the douar of the Sheikh of Mekna.

At the douar of Sheikh Abdulla commences a tract of country, in some places 12 miles broad and tapering to a point westward at Tabarca, called by the natives Belad er-Ramel, country of sand, or Ramel es-Safra, yellow sand. This has been engulfed by the sea-sand, which is advancing imperceptibly but irresistibly in a south-easterly direction, blown by the prevailing north-west winds from the beach.