[242]Desfontaines, ap. Dureau de la Malle, ii. p. 233.
CHAPTER XXXI.
FROM TABARCA TO LA CALLE.
We made a very short stay at Tabarca, only just long enough to obtain the assistance of the Miralai in command to find some trustworthy member of the Khomair tribe to guide us to La Calle, and by his influence to protect us on our way. He induced a highly respected sheikh, Si el-Hadj Hassan, to accompany us, and three of his followers joined us as an escort. We absolutely declined to allow any of the Government hanbas or the Kaid of Badja’s spahis to be of the party, as we were well aware that they were held in small favour, and could render no assistance in these mountains. Throughout our journey they had proved a perfect incubus to us, and though it is impossible to travel in the Bey’s dominion without them, they greatly interfere with the traveller’s enjoyment, and make him painfully conscious that, do what he will, unnecessary exactions are being levied on poor people on his account. In my case this evil was very much lessened by my being able to communicate directly with the natives, but a traveller ignorant of Arabic is entirely in their hands and at their mercy.
There are two roads between Tabarca and La Calle, one by the sea coast, which the Commandant was anxious for us to follow. It has the advantage of being short, though difficult for laden mules, and as it passes through a country almost uninhabited the traveller is less likely to be interfered with by the Khomair. The other is through the very heart of their country, much longer, and in every way more interesting, but it would be quite impossible for a Christian to traverse it without being assured of protection beforehand. This was the unknown region we were anxious to explore, and through which, as far as I am aware, no European has ever passed.
The tribe of Khomair, as the name is usually pronounced—more correctly Akhmair in the plural, and Khomairi in the singular—is one of the largest and most important in the Bey’s dominions. We could not form any accurate estimate of its number, but by all accounts it must have at least 20,000 fighting men, if not more. They are ready enough to admit the suzerainty of the Bey, and to style him Saidna, our Lord, so long as their allegiance is confined to this act, but they steadily refuse to permit any interference on his part with their internal government, and pay no taxes or contributions of any kind. On the contrary, their Sheikhs expect to be subsidised by him, and do actually receive presents of Kisowa, or raiment, from time to time.
Our guide assured us that the country was overrun at one time by lions and leopards, and that red deer were very common. Persons still living have seen all three, but now they are entirely extinct. This is the more extraordinary, as in the comparatively civilised districts of Algeria, bordering on the Tunisian frontier, lions are still found, panthers are common, and the red deer exists in considerable numbers amongst the forests and mountains of the Beni Salah.
Peyssonnel, in speaking of the country between La Calle and Bone, says: ‘As this country is full of lions, tigers, bears, and other wild animals, the flocks of the Arabs are often disturbed, and even the Arabs themselves are not safe in their tents, so that they are obliged to place sentinels, who cry out during all the night, and cause the dogs to bark, in order to frighten away these savage and ferocious animals. The lion, the king of beasts, is not so cruel or so much to be feared as is supposed. He rarely attacks men, still Arabs are found here who have fought and killed lions with their knives, after having received numerous wounds, which these terrible animals have inflicted with their claws and teeth. On the sea coast, where there are woods and quantities of wild boars and deer on which the lions feed, these are less dangerous than in the mountains.’[243]
The tigers here mentioned are probably panthers, or some other of the felines found in Algeria. Bears have long been extinct, although the bones of several species have been found in the cave of Djebel Thaya, and the Abbé Poiret, a zealous and accurate naturalist, saw the skin of one brought in during a visit he paid to Bordj Ali Bey, near La Calle, in 1785.[244] The red deer have quite disappeared from the coasts, indeed from every part of Algeria and Tunis, except in the territory of the Beni Salah.