On the left side of the plinth is a folding door just shutting, symbolical of the terrestrial home which is being closed for ever. Above the cornice on the same side is another one opening, representing the life to come. This is confirmed by the opposite side, which bears on the plinth the figure of a winged child with reversed flambeau, while above it is a cock crowing, to represent the opening day. The cock is standing on a figure resembling a loop; it may possibly be intended for a serpent, the emblem of immortality.
At Guelma, the commandant-superior kindly provided us with tents and spahis for our intended explorations; but before commencing these, we visited the hot springs of Hammam Meskoutin, which none of my companions had seen. We also paid a visit to the ruins of Tibilis, which, though easily accessible from Guelma, are rarely visited by the tourist. They are close to the village of Ain Amara, on the highway between Guelma and Constantine.
Just after passing the 87th kilometric stone, a narrow path to the left descends a steep ravine, in which flows the Oued Announa, and mounts to the plateau on which stood the Roman city of Tibilis. The distance in a direct line is not more than three quarters of a mile from Ain Amara—by the road it is about a mile and a half.
The ruins stand on an open platform scarped on all sides except the S.W., where it joins the lower counterforts of Ras el-Akba. The view in the opposite direction looking eastward towards Guelma is extremely fine, and these two considerations, capability of defence, and a picturesque situation, appear here, as everywhere else in Algeria, to have determined the selection of the site. The ruins are worthy of a visit, though by no means in the best style of Roman art. They consist of a triumphal arch of the Corinthian order, with a single opening; on each side are two pilasters, the capital of one only exists; in front of these were disengaged columns, which have entirely disappeared, as also the whole of the entablature.
There are the remains also of what appears to have been another triumphal arch or one of the city gates, with two openings of equal size. The piers, which supported the arches, had a double Corinthian fluted pilaster embracing each angle, or eight pilasters to each pier. There is a Christian basilica, probably of the Byzantine period, and several other buildings of greater or less importance, fragments of the city walls, and frusta of columns lying about in every direction.
Announa was first described by Peyssonnel, who says:—
‘The numerous ruins in cut stone still remaining, show that it must have been a large and beautiful city; four gates similar to those of Paris, though smaller, still remain. They are detached works with pilasters of the order Corinthian-Ionic. Two of these are double, like that of St. Bernard at Paris. Towards the mountain are the ruins of a church, above the door is a cross pattée with an A and a P under the limbs of the cross. There are also great fragments of columns, of which some are four or five feet in diameter, and 30 or 40 feet long, others smaller.’[19] Shaw also mentions Announa by name, but there is no reason to believe that he ever actually visited it.
No important inscription has ever, as far as I am aware, been found here, by which the age of this city may be determined; but, to judge from those hereafter mentioned as existing in the entrance to the cave of Djebel Thaya, the third century was probably the culminating period of its prosperity. Few of the monuments are at all likely to have been built at a period anterior to this date.
There is a little wayside inn at Ste. Cécile, the junction of the Oued Bou-Hamdan and Oued Cherf, near which the road to Hammam Meskoutin branches off. On a previous visit to this place, I witnessed a rather curious experiment in vivisection. Our party had come unexpectedly upon the good people, and found that they had absolutely nothing to give us for supper, not even the usual standing dishes of omelette and sausages. I asked the hostess if, living so close to two rivers, she never had fish; her countenance cleared up at once, and she said that if we cared for the fish of the country, we might have as many as we pleased in ten minutes. She sent her son, with a casting-net, to the river, and he soon returned with a magnificent basketful of barbel, some weighing nearly half a pound. No time was to be lost—we were starving—so our hostess at once emptied the fish into a tub, cut them open, cleaned and brushed out their inside with a little broom made of twigs, and threw them into another tub of clean water. To our astonishment, the fish swam about as if no such liberties had been taken with their interiors, and so continued to swim about, until subsequently transferred to the frying-pan! If my story is discredited, I shall have the satisfaction of knowing that Shaw shared the same fate when talking of his lion-eaters, and Bruce’s raw beef was long considered an impudent fiction.
We slept at the hot springs of Hammam Meskoutin on the night of the 14th April, and on the following day made an excursion on horseback to Roknia, a distance of about six miles.