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ALGERIA 
 TO-DAY 
 
ALGERIA TO-DAY. 
 
 BY 
 
 LiEUT.-CoL. GORDON CASSERLY, F.R.G.S. 
 
 Societe de Geographie (T Alger et de VAfrique du Nord 
 
 SL^ 
 
 ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY 
 
 THE FHOTOGRAPHIC SERVICE, GOVERNMENT OF ALGERIA, 
 
 AND THE AUTHOR 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 FREDERICK A. STOKERS COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
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 MAIN H*BRA>tY.AOR»CULTUrt 
 
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 MOKTHOMBBIILAMD ntBM LIMITBD, THORNTON STIIBBT, NBWCASTLB-ON-TVNB 
 
TO 
 
 BASIL CAVE, C.B. 
 
 H.B.M, CttHtul-General in Algeria 
 AND TO 
 
 MRS CAVE 
 
 IN TOKEN OP ADMIRATION OF 
 
 THE GOOD WORK THAT THEY HAVE DONE FOR 
 
 THE EMPIRE 
 
 BY THEIR EFFORTS TO STRENGTHEN 
 
 THE FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN 
 
 THE FRENCH AND THE BRITISH PEOPLES. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Through the dark centuries of Moslem domination 
 the Barbary States were a menace to the world, as 
 well as a curse to themselves. The countries that 
 under the Romans had held great cities, supported 
 teeming populations, fed with their surplus the 
 hungry millions of Europe, became a wilderness 
 again. 
 
 To France was it granted to restore them 
 to civilisation. And well has she performed her 
 task. In Algeria, in Tunisia, she has accomplished 
 marvels ; and what she has achieved there she is doing 
 to-day in Morocco. Old Rome never sent more 
 splendid Proconsul to Africa than the great French 
 soldier who is redeeming the Moorish Empire. In 
 ten brief years Mar^chal Lyautey has given peace, 
 security and justice to a land that in all her history 
 had never known them. 
 
 vii 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 All honour to the country he serves ! In her 
 far-stretching North African Empire her devoted 
 sons have built a monument more enduring than 
 brass. And on it is graven 
 
 To THE Eternal Glory of France. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 OLD ALGIERS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Atlas Mountains from the sea — Hills and plain — 
 Algiers — An African Marseilles — The new city — 
 The old Pirate Town — The watch seaward — 
 Arabian Nights' streets — Departed grandeur — 
 Veiled beauties — The Market — A native coffee- 
 house — Moslem musicians — The Streets of the 
 Trades — A Mosque — The Daughters of Joy — A 
 dancing girl — The Thieves' Bazaar — The Cemetery 
 of El Kettar— A child's burial— The Kasbah— The 
 Hill of Soap — The failure of Charles V. — El Biar — 
 Cathedral and Winter Palace — The Palace of the 
 Dey's Daughters . . . . -9 
 
 CHAPTER n 
 
 THE NEW ALGIERS 
 
 The Place du Gouvernement — The meeting of East and 
 West — The New Mosque — The Great Mosque — 
 The Inner Port — A Spanish relic — Sea pictures — 
 Convicts — The modern city — Square de la Re- 
 publique — The Opera House — A poet slave — A 
 prophecy — The Palace of the Janissaries — The 
 pageant of Algerian life — The Boulevard Laferriere 
 — The Societe de Geographie — Mustapha Superieur 
 — The Colonne Voirol — The Summer Palace — The 
 Bardo— The Sahel Hills— Jardin d'Essai . . '2y 
 
 CHAPTER HI 
 
 THE PEOPLE OF ALGIERS AND THEIR WAYS 
 
 The population under the pirates — The native in- 
 habitants — Their mixed origin — Their dress — 
 
 ix A 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Women's costumes — The Jews — A Moslem gentle- 
 man's house — Negro soldiers — The Mozabites — 
 The legal position of Moslems in Algeria — The 
 proportion of natives to Europeans — How_.Alg£iia - 
 is governed — The European element — Modern 
 buildings — The flat roofs of Algiers — Life in 
 A lgiers — Social customs — Gaieties — The Carnival — 
 "Commercial Algiers — Its export trade — Language 
 and education — Algiers as a winter resort — The 
 climate of Algeria — What Algeria offers . . 43 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE STORY OF NORTH AFRICA 
 
 Prehistoric Africa — The Legend of Hercules — Its 
 meaning — The Iberian invaders — Their character- 
 istics and their descendants — The Phoenicians — The 
 Carthaginians — The Romans — The prosperity of 
 Barbary under Roman rule — Its exports — Hatred 
 of Rome — The Vandals — The Byzantine Empire — 
 Christianity in Africa — The coming of the Arabs — 
 — Okba-ben-Mafa — The Moorish conquest of 
 Spain — The second Arab invasion of Africa — The 
 splendour of the Caliphs and Kings — The rise of 
 the Barbary pirates — The Spaniards in Barbary — 
 The legendary founding of Algiers — The early 
 history of Algiers — Its naming — The Barbarossas — 
 The suzerainty of Turkey — The Regency of Algiers \ 
 — Its organisation, government and armed forces— tV 
 The pirates — At war with the world — Christendom 
 under tribute — Failure of attempts to destroy 
 Algiers — Dey Hassan — A fatal blow — How France 
 avenged an insult — The taking of Algiers — The fall 
 of Constantine and Oran — Abd-el-Kader — The con- 
 quest of North West Africa . .61 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 ALGERIAN PICTURES 
 
 A splendid canvas — An old-time picture — Algiers under 
 the pirates — Galley-slaves — Christian captives — 
 
CONTENTS XI 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Janissaries and sea rovers at variance — The Slave 
 Market — True Christianity — The fall of Algiers — 
 The last of the tyrants — A President of the Republic 
 — A picture full of colour — Veiled desert-riders — 
 Street Arabs — A desert vendetta — A gallant 
 Frenchman — The convict ship . . -79 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 FROM ROSE TOWN AND THE STREAM OF THE MONKEYS TO 
 THE KSAR OF BOGHARI 
 
 A trip into the interior — A morning scene in Algiers — 
 The Square de la Republique — The diligence to 
 Blida — Its passengers — Over the Sahel Hills — The 
 Mitidja Plain — The contrast of East and West — 
 Wayside villages — Vineyards and cornfields — A 
 fruitful land — Birkadem, Birmandreis and Boufarik 
 — A memento of the brave — Blida — Its holy founder 
 — The pirates' Capua — The Little Rose — The punish- 
 ment of its sins — The quarter of the Painted Ladies 
 — Respectable Blida — The Government Stud Farm 
 — Ahmed-el-Kebir — Oranges — The Atlas Moun- 
 tains — The Djurdjuras — Winter sports — Les 
 Glacieres — The Gorges of the Chiffa — The Beni- 
 Salah — The Stream of the Monkeys — Friendly 
 apes — By rail to Boghari, Medea and Berouaghia — 
 Boghar, the '' Balcony of the South "—The lure of 
 the Ksar of Boghari — The daughters of the Ouled- 
 Nail — The desert men's beacon . . -99 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 KABYLIA AND THE KABYLES 
 
 The home jof the Berbers — The Kabyles— Their 
 
 characteristics and their country — Their customs — 
 Their virtues and their failings — Their women 
 — Berber independence — Their numbers — A journey 
 into Kabylia — The way to Tizi Ouzou — The 
 countryside — The Djurdjura Mountains — Tizi 
 Ouzou, capital of Kabylia — A Kabyle village — 
 Kabyle women and children — The men — School- 
 boys — A Saturday fair — The road through Kabylia 
 — Fort National — African snow . . . 120 
 
xii CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 SOME ALGERIAN CITIES 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Constantine — The city on a rock — Its many sieges — The 
 Gorge of the Rummel — The bridges — The approach 
 to Constantine — A City of Contrasts — Little 
 witches — Chemin des Touristes — A fearsome 
 gorge — In the abyss — Roman baths — Dark caverns 
 — Towards Tunis — A cork-oak forest — Hammam 
 Meskoutine — The Accursed Baths — The legend — 
 Roman ruins — St Augustine's birthplace — Roads 
 and the flag — Oran — Algerian railways — A flourish- 
 ing city — The Spanish connection — France's 
 colonising policy — Sidi Bel Abbes — The Foreign 
 Legion — A fertile country — Tlemgen — Algeria's 
 treasure house — Departed glories — The City of 
 Victory — Mansoura and Abou Yakoub — Koulouglis 
 — The citadel — Sidi Bou Medine — A sweetmeat- 
 maker saint — The road to Morocco — A contrast — 
 The triumph of French administration — What 
 France has achieved in Morocco . . . 13^ 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 FROM THE SEA TO THE SAHARA 
 
 The three zones of- Algeria — Tlie Tell, the Tablelands 
 an3~THe Sahara — The climates of Algeria — The 
 ram fall — The flora — The iron road to the desert — 
 The railway to Biskra — Among the mountains — 
 The Iron Gates — The Hants Plateaux — Bordj-bou- 
 Arreridj — Setif — El-Guerrah — A night's halt — 
 Batna, Lambessa and Timgad — Ruined Roman 
 cities — Roman penetration into Africa — Snow on 
 the tablelands — Ain Touta Mac Mahon — The last 
 Arab revolt — The Aures Mountains — El Kantara — 
 The Gateway of the Desert — The first vision of the 
 Sahara — The Senegalese barracks — A diy river — 
 Desert soil — Oases — Biskra, New and Old — The 
 Streets of the Ouled Nails — A desert fairyland — 
 The Villa de Benevent— In Old Biskra— Hot 
 springs in the Sahara — La Fontaine Chaude — Sidi 
 Okba— The Zab— The Ben Gana— Caid Ali-ben- 
 Gana . . . . . . . i^i 
 
CONTENTS xiii 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 FROM BISKRA TO TOUGOURT 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The desert train — Varied passengers — The surprises of 
 the Sahara — Water in the desert — Appropriate 
 railway stations — Mirage — The salt lakes — Chott El 
 Melghir — Desert storms — Saharan ice — The useful 
 palm — Dates — France developing the desert — 
 Tougourt — The City of the Sands — The market- 
 place — A deep well — The Caid of Tougourt — 
 History and legend — The end of a Saharan day . 170 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 SHEIKHS, SAINTS AND SECRET SOCIETIES 
 
 The Governor-General in the Sahara — His guests — ^The 
 aeroplanes of Beni Mora — Rain from Heaven — 
 Oumache — A desert wedding party — Tolga — Desert 
 warriors — Arab chiefs — Goums — France's sway 
 over the Sahara — In the town — The Grand Mara- 
 bout — A young Ben Gana — Fantasia — Moslem 
 democracy and aristocracy — The Zmala — Sheurfa 
 — The military nobility — A Caid at home — The 
 hospitality of the Caid of L'Arba — A link with 
 Napoleon III. — Th^' harem — Spiritual leaders — No 
 Moslem clergy — Religious confraternities — The 
 House of Islam and the House of War — The 
 Sennoussi — Their founder — The Aissaoua — The 
 Tidjania — Anti-Christian societies . . . 186 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE SAHARA 
 
 The Fable of the Sahara — Varied character and climate 
 of the desert — Its flora and fauna — Water under- 
 ground — The making of a desert — A thousand kilo- 
 metres into the Sahara — The Souf — The lakes of 
 Tougourt — Temassine — Ouargla — The Azdjer 
 Hills — The Ahaggar Mountains — The ^ Air — 
 Iferouane — Cultivation in the Air — Fashions — 
 Agadez— The Damergou— The Niger River — 
 
xiv CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 French exploration and conquest — Saharan Arabs, 
 sedentary and nomad — The region of Touat — The 
 customs and commerce of the Touatians — Bedouins 
 — Their character, ways, food, manners and reUgion 
 — Arab superstitions — Surprising discoveries — M. 
 de la Ronciere — The Citroen cars — The Sahara con- 
 quered at last ...... 208 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE TOUAREG 
 
 A mysterious race — Early explorers — Barth — Duveyrier 
 
 — Flatters — Marquis de Mores — Foureau — The 
 numerical strength of the Touareg — The combat of 
 Tit — The name of the Touareg — The Azdjer and 
 the Ahaggar — Origin — Customs — Noble tribes and 
 imrad — The atnr'ar — Tobol — The amenokal — The 
 pursuits of the Touareg — Their weapons — Their • 
 customs — Inheritance — Freedom of women — 
 Musical evenings — Convenient beliefs — The 
 difficulties of marriage — A proposal — The wedding 
 
 — Divorce — Death and burial — Superstitions — 
 Vampires and sorcerers — Djinns — Religion — Fe- 
 male education — Dress — Veiled men — Touareg 
 chieftains at Algiers ..... 228 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 ALGERIA TO-MORROV^ 
 
 Algeria's prosperity dependent on European control — 
 France'^ success in Algeria — Danger to European 
 predominance — Captain Peyronnet's opinion — In- 
 creasing disproportion between the races — How to 
 preserve white supremacy — How to develop 
 European colonisation — North Africa's population 
 in a hundred years — M. Saurin's plan — M. Lutaud's 
 opinion — Algeria must remain French — Example of 
 Morocco — Algeria's need — Her future — What she 
 has done for France . . 248 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Algiers from the Air . 
 
 . Frontispiece 
 
 A Street in Old Algiers 
 
 Tofacepage 
 12 
 
 In the Market . . . . 
 
 
 14 
 
 Outside a Native Cafe . 
 
 
 14 
 
 A Dancing Girl 
 
 
 20 
 
 The Street of the Tailors 
 
 
 26 
 
 In the Palace of the Daughters of the Dey 
 
 
 36 
 
 The Admiral's House . 
 
 
 30 
 
 Boulevard de la Republique, Algiers . 
 
 
 34 
 
 Place du Gouvernement 
 
 
 . 38 
 
 The General Post Office and a Newspaper 
 
 Office . 
 
 38 
 
 Women of Algiers 
 
 
 44 
 
 Shoppers .... 
 
 
 48 
 
 The Summer Palace, Mustapha Sup^rieur 
 
 
 94 
 
 The Gorge of the Chiffa 
 
 
 112 
 
 Ouled Nail Dancers 
 
 
 118 
 
 Kabyle Boys, Tizi Ouzou 
 
 
 132 
 
 African Snow— Fort National in Winter 
 
 
 134 
 
 Constantine and the Gorge of the Rummel 
 
 
 138 
 
 Oran ..... 
 
 
 144 
 
 XV 
 
XVI 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 To fact pa^e 
 
 The Gorge of El Kantara and the Aur^s Mountains 
 
 from the Sahara . 
 
 
 
 . 162 
 
 A Village of Old Biskra 
 
 
 
 . 162 
 
 In the Biskra Oasis 
 
 
 
 168 
 
 Ca'id Ali-ben-Gana 
 
 
 
 168 
 
 Tougourt from the Air . 
 
 
 
 180 
 
 The Palms of Tougourt 
 
 
 
 180 
 
 Tribal Chiefs in Tolga . 
 
 
 
 190 
 
 In Tolga 
 
 
 
 190 
 
 The Grand Marabout of Tolga 
 
 
 
 194 
 
 H amma-ben-Gana 
 
 
 
 194 
 
 A Goumier 
 
 
 
 198 
 
 Men of the Camel Corps in the Sahara 
 
 
 246 
 
 Map of the Sahara 
 
 Front end paper 
 
ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 OLD ALGIERS 
 
 The vessel nears the North African coast. Out 
 of the blue depths of the Mediterranean rise the 
 rugged crests of the Atlas Mountains, seeming to 
 support the heavens on their snow-clad shoulders. 
 Below the white peaks the clouds gather and leave 
 the sky clear and blue, almost as blue as the waters 
 in the long sweeping curve of the crescent bay below, 
 here fringed with yellow sand, there edged with black 
 cliffs and glistening rocks, and everywhere backed by 
 the steep green slopes of a chain of low hills. Hills 
 climbing abruptly from the water's edge and crowned 
 with dark pinewoods or white villas in verdant gardens 
 flaming with the reds of roses and poinsettia and 
 bougainvillea. Between the hills and the snow- 
 topped mountains lies a narrow, fertile plain, the 
 Mitidja, now in spring-time blazing with the varied 
 hues of wild flowers, the yellow of oranges, the green 
 of cornfield and vineyard. 
 
 And set in the curye of the lovely bay, in the 
 
 9 
 
10 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 emerald crescent of low hills, the white houses of 
 Algiers climb on each other's shoulders up the steep 
 slopes to stare out seaward as in the past centuries 
 when every sail winging its way towards them came 
 to fill them to the eaves with wealth or to batter them 
 down with fire and iron. 
 
 Algiers— El DJezair, " The Islands," the old 
 Arabs called it from the rocky islets before it — its 
 story running in legend and history from Hercules 
 and his Quest of the Golden Apples through the long- 
 forgotten chronicles of Numidian, Roman, Vandal, 
 Byzantine, Arab and Turk to the last of the Bourbon 
 kings. Napoleon the Little and the French RepubHc 
 to-day. Less than a century ago the headquarters of 
 the cruellest pirates that the world has known — and 
 now a bright and beautiful city of modern France. 
 With its mixed population of over two hundred 
 thousand the capital, no longer of a colony, but of a 
 Department of France; for such Algeria is with its 
 representatives in the Senate and the Chambre des 
 Deputes in Paris. An up-to-date city. To the eye 
 a second Marseilles with its walled harbour where beside 
 the quays lie great steamers being loaded with the 
 produce of a bountiful land in cask and case piled high 
 on the wharves. 
 
 From the decks of the ships it looks just a modern- 
 built town ; for all along the high, cliff-like wall above 
 the harbour and stretching north and south on either 
 hand over the sea it is a city of long blocks of six- 
 storied stone or stucco houses in European mould, of 
 shady squares where palm-trees wave above electric 
 trams, of theatres, hotels, restaurants and cafes. Of 
 
OLD ALGIERS 11 
 
 shops that would not disgrace Paris. Of crowded 
 streets where automobile and motor-lorry dispute the 
 right of way with tram and five-horsed wagon loaded 
 with wine casks. 
 
 But raise your eyes beyond the level new city over 
 the harbour. Look up where the close-clustering 
 white houses of the native quarter, the old Pirate Town, 
 climb one above the other up the steep hillside as 
 though striving to gaze over their neighbours' heads 
 out to sea. For here dwelt the piratical people that 
 lived by bloody crime on the face of the waters. Every 
 being in it, man, woman and child, Moorish pasha or 
 Christian slave, had a personal interest in watching 
 each sail that lifted above the distant horizon. It 
 might be an Algerian rover loaded with plunder and 
 chained captives. It might be the herald of a Prankish 
 fleet coming to batter down the pirate stronghold and 
 set the wretched slaves free. The flat roof of every 
 house, then, must show its occupants the coming ship 
 that might be friend or foe, might bear the master of 
 the household back enriched with spoils to deck his 
 wives with further jewels or else bring the news of his 
 death in battle, news that would scatter those wives to 
 other harems or, if youth and beauty had deserted them, 
 to the slave-market or the beggars' corner. Upward 
 and still upward, house topping house, until comes the 
 dwelling of the biggest pirate of all the scoundrelly 
 crew, the Kasbah, once the palace-fortress of the Dey, 
 the tyrant of Algiers, who claimed his share of the 
 booty that each murderous seafarer brought home, 
 whether it were plunder from sacked towns on European 
 shores or weeping women from Italy, France or Spain. 
 
12 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 To outward appearance this Moorish quarter has 
 changed but little since those pirate days. Streets, 
 alleys rather, traverse it, steep and narrow — so steep 
 that frequently they must become staircases to climb 
 the hillside. So narrow that three men cannot walk 
 abreast, and the pedestrian must flatten himself against 
 a wall to let a tiny, loaded donkey go by. Their very 
 names are fascinating — Rues du Chameau, de la 
 Girafe, des Abencerrages, de Tombouctou, des Sarra- 
 sins. Has not Rue Lalahoum or Rue des Abderrames 
 the Arabian Nights' touch? Has not Rue de Nuit a 
 mysterious, and Rue des Dattes an exotic, sound? The 
 houses hemming them in thrust out their upper stories 
 supported on inclined wooden struts' until they are not 
 a yard apart and often are built completely across, so 
 that the narrow lane must pass under them in a dark 
 tunnel. The few windows, small square openings, 
 are barred with gratings bent outward; and here and 
 there from them a pretty, painted face looks out and 
 smiles invitingly on the wayfarer. 
 
 But usually the houses present a blank front to the 
 outer world, blank, that is, but for an arched, carved 
 door with a small, twisted column on either side and a 
 stone crescent above it. One of these doors open and 
 three tiny children toddle out laughing, one a boy in 
 a red fez and a small shirt, the others little girls with 
 flowered blouses, coloured skirts, and gaudy handker- 
 chiefs twisted around their heads. The open door gives 
 a glimpse of a wee, tiled hall with a dwarf staircase twist- 
 ing up out of sight. Farther down another door stands 
 invitingly open. Pass through it out of the dim alley 
 and you are in another world. A bright courtyard open 
 
Photo. Service, Government of Algeria. 
 A STREET IN OLD ALGIERS. 
 
OLD ALGIERS 18 
 
 to the blue sky above, two, three tiers of galleries with 
 gaily-tiled parapet walls supported on carved stone or 
 marble pillars, a vine swinging across the void, flowers 
 in pots or a bo.ugainvillea dashing a note of glowing 
 colour into the court on which, as in the days of yore, 
 veiled women look down and call shrilly to the unveiled 
 serving-maids seated on the paving-stones below 
 cleaning great brass water-jars of old and graceful 
 design. 
 
 But the glory has departed ; pasha and pirate have 
 had their day, and their mansions, too often, have fallen 
 from their high estate. Instead of one rich man 
 peopling the chambers that open on to the tiled galleries 
 with his harem of silken-clad wives of many races and 
 filling the dark cellars and noisome dungeons below 
 with wretched slaves, a dozen or more poor families, 
 Arabs, Jews, Maltese, Spaniards, crowd into the 
 one-time pasha's palace. Too often the beautiful 
 courtyards are turned to utilitarian purposes; and a 
 carpenter's bench or a grocer's counter replaces the 
 marble fountain that once filled the air with the tinkle 
 of falling water. 
 
 Out again into the dark lanes and vaulted tunnels. 
 Stand aside and let this porter pass. Bent double he 
 lurches heavily up the steep ascent, a band around his 
 forehead helping to support the weight of the immense 
 package on his back. With his red cap twisted about 
 with a dirty kerchief, his torn shirt and baggy trousers, 
 his bare feet thrust into heel-less slippers, he resembles 
 — and is alike to him in feature as in faith — a kamal, 
 or porter, of Constantinople toiling up the equally 
 steep streets of Stamboul. 
 
14 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 Out of a dim alley come two white-robed female 
 figures, veiled to the dark eyes that, lustrous and beau- 
 tiful, shine under the black eyebrows and fair foreheads. 
 Massive silver and gold necklaces hang on their bosoms, 
 their henna-tipped fingers are loaded with rings, broad 
 silver bracelets adorn their wrists and heavy anklets 
 surround the silk-stockinged legs thrust into dainty 
 slippers. Unlike the women of other Mahommedan 
 countries they do not avoid the gaze of the unbeliever; 
 rather do they seek it challengingly. For many of the 
 veiled beauties of Algiers are not averse to an affair 
 with a European ; for they know that he is more chival- 
 rous in his love than are their countrymen. With a 
 lingering backward glance these two enter slowly a 
 carved marble portal leading into a hall walled and 
 floored with flower-designed porcelain tiles. Inscrip- 
 tions in French and Arabic tell that this is the entrance 
 to Moorish Baths, open to men until noon, to women in 
 the afternoon. And the fair ones flock to it; for it is 
 their lounge, their club, their glimpse of social life out- 
 side the harem, their Gossip Exchange. It and the 
 Mahommedan cemeteries on Fridays, when only 
 women may visit them. 
 
 The narrow alley dives into another tunnelled 
 passage under the houses and emerges on a wider 
 space, a market. Here spread out on the ground or on 
 rough stalls are meat, fruit, vegetables, bread. Arab 
 and negro dealers shout out their wares and their prices 
 in Arabic and in French, while tall men in white burn- 
 ouses, shrouded Moorish women and dark-haired, 
 bare-headed Maltese girls chaffer and bargain with 
 them excitedly. Buyer and seller shake their hands 
 
IN THE MARKET. 
 
 Photo . by the Author. 
 
 OUTSIDE A NATIVE CAFfi. 
 
 Photo, by the Author, 
 
OLD ALGIERS 15 
 
 in each other's faces, scream with rage, call on Allah 
 or the God of the Christians to bear witness, then quieten 
 down and conclude the deal peaceably. 
 
 At the corner of the market-place is an Arab coffee- 
 house — a Cafe Maure. Outside, squatting on the 
 pavement or seated on benches against the wall, are 
 Arabs, Kabyles, men of all classes and ages, merchants, 
 small shopkeepers, clerks, labourers, conversing volubly, 
 playing cards, dominoes, draughts, or merely sitting. 
 Sitting idly, vacantly, unconscious of those around 
 them. No man on earth, Neapolitan lazzarone, Hindu 
 ascetic, Buddhist lama seeking Nirvana, is capable of 
 such utter detachment from the world as the ordinary 
 Arab. 
 
 A few of those gathered in front of the caf6 hold 
 tiny cups of coffee in their hands, taste it, drink it 
 slowly, savouring every precious drop of the penny- 
 worth of fragrant dark fluid. Inside, at the tiled, 
 waist-high fireplace the cook is dipping a long-handled 
 small measure into the steaming copper pot placed on 
 a handful of red embers and filling the cups for the 
 bare-armed attendant to take to customers seated on 
 benches or huddled on mats in the interior of the estab- 
 lishment. The walls are scrawled with crude drawings 
 of mosques, palm-trees, tigers and elephants — these 
 last by an artist who had evidently never seen either 
 animal — or adorned with chromos of French Presidents 
 and European royalties, even German, indifferently. 
 
 A grey-haired, wild-looking old man in ragged 
 garments, hung round with the skins of small animals, 
 strumming a one-stringed guitar made from the shell 
 of a tortoise ia,nd glung round his neck, enters the caf6. 
 
16 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 Half shambling, half dancing, he wanders among its 
 clients, holding out a hand for money. As he moves 
 he sings in a high-pitched, nasal voice ; and the contrast 
 between the old Eastern love-song and its singer 
 is striking. In better-class establishments situated 
 nearer the French quarter and patronised by well-to-do 
 Arabs you will often find quite a superior orchestra. 
 Three or four respectable-looking, black-coated, white- 
 collared gentlemen in red fezzes — or, as this headgear 
 is termed in Algeria, checchias, pronounced " shess- 
 hias " — play strange instruments — a big guitar, a big 
 drum called a teboul, a long one, the derbrouka, like 
 an Indian tom-tom, a gha'ita or sort of flageolet shaped 
 like a doctor's stethoscope, and perhaps a tambourine, 
 the tar — ^while they sing in nasal tones. And the 
 expensively-burnoused or frock-coated clients, most of 
 them probably educated at French lycSes, listen in 
 appreciative silence to music that to the less 
 accurately-trained European ear sounds unmelodious, 
 even discordant. 
 
 To the poor native the cafe is a club, a hotel, a home. 
 He brings his crust of bread, his handful of onions, to 
 eat there, he sleeps on its benches or on the pavement 
 against its wall. And once or twice a day he spends 
 two sous in it for a cup of coffee. 
 
 From the market-place lead narrow streets and, as 
 in Eastern cities — Cairo, Tunis, Delhi, Canton — each 
 is. lined with shops devoted to one particular trade. 
 Down this one are the tailors. In the square holes 
 devoid of counters, tables or chairs, white-burnoused, 
 bearded men who look like Biblical patriarchs, squat on 
 the floor and sew furiously. On the walls hang the 
 
OLD ALGIERS 17 
 
 duller garb of men, burnous, haick, hlafa, gandaura, or 
 else, bright with tinsel and gay colours, the more 
 attractive wear of women. 
 
 In the next street brass-workers hammer at bright 
 pots and tall water-vessels, denting patterns into them 
 with sharp-pointed instruments struck with mallets. 
 Or tinsmiths display piles of saucepans and coffee-pots. 
 In the tiny shops of the next crooked lane cobblers 
 stitch rapidly at red leather babouches — the easy native 
 slipper — or work beautiful designs with gold and silver 
 thread and spangles on dainty little shoes for women's 
 feet. 
 
 Here is a break in the trades' guild character of the 
 shops. For outside this one a small crowd is eagerly 
 watching the movements of a youth seated before a 
 tiled stove running up into a pointed chimney and with 
 a small table beside him. In a dish he is mixing white 
 batter, rolling it, pulling and twisting it with nimble 
 fingers, then dipping it into oil and placing it in the 
 stove. His hand dives in once or twice after it, turning 
 it, then with tongs he draws out a crisp, golden puff, 
 lays it on a small square of newspaper, puts it into 
 an eagerly-outstretched palm and accepts a coin for it. 
 And the buyer turns away, contentedly munching the 
 succulent morsel, while his place is taken by another 
 expectant purchaser. 
 
 The next street blazes with colour. For here 
 black-bearded Mozabites — heretical Mussulmans from 
 the district in the Sahara called M'zab — in flowing Arab 
 garb or hook-nosed Jews in semi-European attire dis- 
 play a wealth of rainbow-hued, long-fringed silk shawls, 
 gay-coloured bodices and jackets, and skirts and other 
 
 B 
 
18 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 garments, pink, blue, yellow, red, with leather belts gold- 
 buckled and heavy with bullion and gold-embroidery, 
 white wool or silk and wool gandauras, and sheikhs* 
 crimson burnouses worked with gold or silver. 
 
 Then the jewellers' street. Here many of the shops 
 have glass windows; and set out in them are massive 
 silver bracelets three or four inches wide, gold and silver 
 ear-rings three inches in diameter, huge necklaces of 
 broad, beautifully designed flat silver and gold orna- 
 ments, filagree rings, heavy anklets. And always a 
 multitude of tiny gold or gold-washed hands inset with 
 coral or turquoise, the universal Arab mascot, kamsa, 
 " five," they call it because of the five fingers. The 
 Europeans term it " The Hand of Fathma," daughter 
 of the Prophet. Every Arab woman — and many a 
 foreigner — ^wears it; and on the wall of every Moorish 
 house is the imprint of this luck-bringing hand. It is 
 borne on the company colours of the regiments of 
 Tirailleurs Indigenes, formerly called Turcos. 
 
 Dazzling white in the brilliant sunshine the walls 
 of this mosque almost blind one's eyes by their glare. 
 But enter it — you pass into dark, cool shadows, a silent 
 interior bare and restful. Through the past centuries 
 bearded Moslems with the blood of the unbelievers red 
 on their hands have gathered here to bow down towards 
 Mecca and beg Allah's aid in fresh crimes — but they 
 thought them meritorious deeds, by the truth of the 
 Most High ! And every Friday the faithful come here 
 still — and who shall say that none of them mutter in 
 their beards curses on the Christian dogs that rule 
 them? 
 
 The nearer the church — 'tis fln old Baying. And 
 
OLD ALGIERS 28 
 
 sharply away, So thaf the eye ranges over the deep 
 valley of Bab-el-Oued with its gardens and houses to 
 the bright red scars of quarries and cliffs in the green 
 hillside opposite crowned with the domes of the famous 
 church of Notre Dame d'Afrique facing across the 
 Mediterranean to its sister Notre Dame de la Garde on 
 the height above the harbour of Marseilles. 
 
 Here where one stands on the summit above the 
 steeply-descending pathway are the densely-crowded 
 graves of the Arab cemetery of El-Kettar. A very 
 few are marked with white domes, most have thin white 
 stones at head and foot, some are but green mounds. 
 A grave-digger in a garment of ragged sacking and a 
 wide-brimmed straw hat is digging languidly, while a 
 couple of urchins stare with interest at brown bones and 
 a skull in the mould that he has thrown up. 
 
 Across the drawbridge a small procession of natives 
 in red checchias and coats and trousers follow towards 
 the cemetery a man in a worn burnous who carries in 
 his arms a tiny packet tied up in white cloth and covered 
 with a gold-fringed, parti-coloured silken pall. Beside 
 a little open grave he stops and, pulling off the cloth, 
 lays the white package tenderly on the ground. Stand- 
 ing over it he looks down at it sadly and raises his hand 
 to his head in prayer ; while his friends seat themselves 
 on adjoining mounds, light cigarettes and chat uncon- 
 cernedly. The grave-digger comes to the party; and 
 after a word with him the sorrowing father lifts up the 
 tiny body of his son — it must be a boy, for a girl would 
 be treated with scant ceremony — and lays it gently in 
 the shallow grave. Then while the earth is being 
 thrown in he sits with hands stretched out, palms 
 
24 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 uppermost, and chants in a high-pitched tone, while 
 his friends, seated or standing, some smoking but all 
 with similarly outstretched hands, interject responses. 
 In a few minutes the simple funeral is over. The 
 friends go off chatting gaily ; while the father, the gold- 
 fringed pall over his arm, accompanies the sexton to pay 
 for the little grave. 
 
 On this sad Garden of Allah the walls of the Kasbah 
 look down. Here in this palace, fortress, prison, the 
 last Deys of Algiers shut themselves away from their 
 discontented subjects and the guns of their stronghold 
 frown threateningly on the murmuring city beneath. 
 Here surrounded by soldiers and slaves the Pirate Lords 
 lived out their days in debauchery and cruel tyranny 
 until in 1830 the very last of them, Hussein Pasha, saw 
 from his windows France's avenging squadron manoeuv- 
 ring in the bay below him and her brave soldiers swarm- 
 ing up the wooded slopes of El Biar above and knew 
 tliat his rule was ended. 
 
 To-day from the walls of the Kasbah one looks down 
 on a larger, grander city than Algerine pasha ever knew, 
 on a splendid harbour where a great fleet may ride at 
 anchor, on the beautiful bay curving by Mustapha 
 Superieur, Hussein Dey and Fort de I'Eau to the green 
 point of Cape Matifou exactly opposite. And across 
 the low hills and the plain the eye ranges to the cloud- 
 capped peaks of the Djurdjura Mountains in Kabylia. 
 
 Beyond the Kasbah the road goes on by groves of 
 ragged-barked eucalyptus trees and just under the hill- 
 top that is the highest point above the city seen from 
 the streets below. The Koudiat-es-Saboun or Hill of 
 Soap it is called; and on it the Emperor Charles V. 
 
OLD ALGIERS 25 
 
 camped with a big army in 1541 and looked down 
 exultantly on the pirate town that he had sailed across 
 the Mediterranean to destroy. He was sure of victory. 
 He could see his enormous fleet at anchor close inshore 
 a couple of miles away where to-day is the Jardin 
 d'Essai, or Botanical Gardens. But Hell fought for 
 its own. A storm arose and wrecked his countless 
 ships. The rain that drenched his soldiers in their 
 bivouac damped their courage as well as their powder, 
 so that they fled before a handful of Moslem mercen- 
 aries — and Algiers was reprieved for three hundred 
 years until in 1830 French troops stormed the fort that 
 in 1545 Hassan-ben-Kheir-ed-Din built on the spot 
 where Charles had camped. Sultan Kalassi he called 
 it; Fort I'Empereur it is termed to-day. Now it is a 
 military prison. In front of it towers a tall granite 
 obelisk, a monument to the African Dead, visible from 
 far out at sea. 
 
 Beyond this hilltop the road winds up to higher 
 ones, giving glorious views over valleys in which white 
 villas nestle in bright gardens, over coastline and blue 
 sea, until it reaches the suburb of El Biar on the sum- 
 mit of the line of the Sahel Hills and passes on through 
 vineyards and cultivation to Ben Aknoun and the 
 interior. 
 
 But turn back from the Kasbah and go down to the 
 city again by the tortuous Rue Rovigo that twists 
 between modern residential buildings in the steep 
 decline and between arcaded sidewalks lined with the 
 shops of M'zabite and Jew sellers of silks and jewellery 
 until it emerges on a small square in which the cathedral 
 that was once a mosque lifts its twin towers above its 
 
26 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 neighbour, the modest Winter Palace of the Governor- 
 General, formerly the residence of Hassan Pacha. 
 Thus the headquarters of Moslem creed and dominion 
 shelter now an alien faith and rule. Facing them is a 
 white building that was the Palace of the Daughters 
 of the Dey, the exterior plain and unpromising, the 
 interior a gem of Moorish architecture and ornament. 
 In the exquisite tiled courtyard where twisted marble 
 pillars and white arches support the galleries with carved 
 wooden balustrades one can fancy that the negro seated 
 by the exquisite fountain is the fierce guardian of beauti- 
 ful Mauresque princesses lolling on gold-embroidered 
 divans in the gilt-ceilinged chambers upstairs. 
 
 A few score yards lower down Old Algiers and 
 New meet in the spacious Place du Gouvernement. 
 
 And here the modern city begins, more sombre in 
 hue than the Old that earned the name of La Ville 
 Blanche from the brightness of its whitewashed houses. 
 But seen from far away across the bay the crowded 
 masses of buildings of Algiers sweeping up the hillside 
 from the blue sea to the dark green of the eucalyptus 
 woods above are snowy under the brilliant African sun 
 and still merit the title of the White City. 
 
Photo, by the Author. 
 THE STREET OF THE TAILORS. 
 
 Photo, by the Author. 
 IN THE PALACE OF THE DAUGHTERS OF THE DEY. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE NEW ALGIERS 
 
 The Place du Gouvernement is a medley of strange 
 contrasts of buildings and races, with its mosques and 
 its modern hotels, its tall palms waving oyer news- 
 paper kiosks, its European and its African loungers 
 on the promenade by the balustraded wall above the 
 Inner Port that once sheltered pirate galleys and now 
 holds motor-boats and submarines. 
 
 On three sides are French cafes, shops and hotels. 
 The fourth is partly occupied by the white walls and 
 rounded domes of a mosque, the Djama El Djedid (or 
 " New Mosque "), built in 1660. Above it rises a 
 square minaret a hundred feet high from which only 
 a century ago the voice of the muezzin — the priest who 
 called the Faithful to their prayers — floated out over 
 the harbour and bade the pious pirates climb up the 
 steep slope to the mosque and there give thanks to 
 Allah for victory over the accursed Christians. But 
 Modernity has made even this tower her own and 
 placed a great illuminated clock in it, has massed 
 electric trams in its shadow, has planted before it a 
 bronze equestrian statue of a former Royal Governor- 
 General of Algeria, the Due d'Orl6ans, to show that 
 France rules over Islam in this land now. 
 
 8'Z 
 
28 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 The ground plan of this mosque is in the form of 
 a Grecian cross; and legend says that a Christian 
 slave charged with the building of it purposely gave 
 it this abhorred design in despite of his Moslem 
 masters who did not discover the fact until the edifice 
 was completed. Then the impious blasphemer paid 
 for his crime with his life; but the mosque was not 
 destroyed. In the fountained courts beggars shelter 
 and footsore wanderers rest their weary bodies in the 
 House of Allah, in the dim, many-arched interior 
 white-robed men turn their faces to Mecca and bow 
 their faces to the mats in prayer. 
 
 Around a side door squat shapeless bundles of 
 white clothing the livelong day through, veiled 
 Moslem women, some with hands outstretched for 
 charity, others weeping silently while they wait to be 
 summoned before the Cadi in his office in the 
 sacred building to hear with unavailing protests his 
 pronouncement of their divorces from husbands whose 
 love has passed to newer wives. 
 
 Beside this mosque is a larger one, the Djama El 
 Kebir (" The Great Mosque "), supposed to have been 
 built early in the eleventh century of our era. Its 
 street front in the Rue de la Marine is an arcaded 
 gallery supported on white marble pillars, having in 
 the centre a fine black marble fountain. 
 
 The prayers of the Faithful in both mosques are 
 disturbed by the constant rumble and clanging of the 
 tramcars around the Place du Gouvernement ; for most 
 of the city lines start from or pass it and in the even- 
 ings it is bordered with long queues of white toilers 
 waiting to be conveyed to their homes in the suburbs 
 
THE NEW ALGIERS 29 
 
 of Algiers. All day long the square is filled with a 
 medley of races — Arab and Kabyle men in flowing 
 burnouses, veiled women whose shrouding white 
 outer garment, if displaced, gives a glimpse of bright 
 pink or scarlet or blue jackets underneath, dark-faced 
 Sicilians, Maltese and Spaniards from the poorer 
 quarter of Bab-El-Oued (" The Riyer Gate ") which 
 begins on the north of the Place. 
 
 The white mass of the Djama El Djedid fills but 
 half of the east side of the square, leaving a wide gap 
 towards the sea that gives an unrestricted view of the 
 glorious panorama of the harbour, the bay, the 
 curving coastline with its green hills and far away 
 beyond them the lofty peaks of the snow-clad 
 mountains of Grand Kabylia. 
 
 Lean on the balustraded railing of the wall that 
 on the seaward side falls forty feet to the wharyes 
 below and look down on the busy port, the Inner 
 Harbour of which is very much as it was in the days 
 of the pirates. That charming little white Moorish 
 building with its domed roofs and high arches is the 
 French Admiral's House — but it was once the 
 residence of the Turkish Minister of Marine, the 
 Oukhil-el-Hardj. 
 
 Behind it from a polygonal stone bastion rises the 
 white tower of a lighthouse. That bastion, the Peiion, 
 is all that is left of a formidable fort built by the 
 Spaniards in 1510 when they seized the rock on which 
 it stands. A rock only a few hundred yards from 
 Algiers, but which a garrison of a hundred and fifty 
 men held for nineteen years, while they fought the 
 Algerines almost daily ; until Keir-ed-Din, one of the 
 
80 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 famous Barbarossa brothers, with a tremendous force 
 captured the fort and barbarously slew the few of its 
 defenders that remained alive. With the material of 
 the demolished fort he built a mole to join the rock to 
 the mainland and form the protected Inner Harbour 
 that exists to-day. One bastion was left and on it 
 was erected this tower to serine as a lighthouse. And 
 now four hundred years afterwards with modern 
 appliances it guides peaceful merchantmen and 
 friendly warships instead of the bloodstained pirate 
 craft of Old Algiers. 
 
 This Inner Port that was big enough to shelter 
 the long-oared galleys of the Barbary rovers is too 
 small for present-day uses and long stone piers 
 enclose a great stretch of the bay beyond it and form 
 the Outer one that can rival any in the Mediterranean. 
 But Algerian commerce demands still more; and an 
 enormous projected extension will make vaster still 
 the harbour that is the reason of Algiers' being. 
 
 What fascinating sea pictures it offers to your 
 view as you look down on it from the Boulevard de la 
 Republique by the Place du Gouvernement ! Over 
 the water dances a flotilla of white-sailed boats 
 manned by swarthy-faced fishermen, or a piratical- 
 looking felucca from Sicily or Spain slinks in with 
 a furtive air — no craft could look honest with that 
 lateen rig. A couple of submarines creep just awash 
 into the Inner Harbour and moor where the corsairs 
 of old cast anchor. Perhaps a British super-dread- 
 nought flying an admiral's flag at the fore, her quarter- 
 deck bright with long lines of white-clad officers and 
 sailors and ranks of blue-uniformed Marines present- 
 
/ 
 
 // 
 
 t i 
 
 1 J ,i l<i.< ■'^ 
 
 Photo. Service, Government of Algeria, 
 THE ADMIRAL'S HOUSE, ALGIERS. 
 
THE NEW ALGIERS 81 
 
 ing arms while the band plays the Marseillaise, steams 
 out in state, and a covey of top-heavy destroyers hover 
 like anxious chickens around her as she puts to sea. 
 
 Or maybe a many-decked transatlantic liner rounds 
 the harbour wall, drops anchor and discharges seven 
 or eight hundred hustling American tourists who have 
 just six hours to see Algeria. 
 
 Perhaps a more gruesome, more tragic sight than 
 these. Near the harbour-mouth lies an ordinary- 
 looking grey steamer — a tramp in ballast she seems. 
 Nothing about her to attract your attention for the 
 moment. But beneath you on the wharves is the long, 
 low building of the railway station — conveniently 
 close to the dock. A couple of hundred Senegalese 
 soldiers in red caps with blue tassels and khaki 
 uniforms, and parties of police of all varieties, agents 
 de ville in greenish-khaki, gendarmerie in blue, agents 
 de StlretS, appear from nowhere and converge on the 
 station. Around it they form a cordon, clear a broad 
 space between it and the edge of the quay, drive 
 back a crowd of curious sightseers or more interested 
 observers, and stand on guard, the soldiers with 
 bayonets fixed, the police with revolvers in their belts. 
 
 And in the harbour a navy launch with armed 
 sailors puffs up and scatters a flotilla of small boats 
 filled with shore-folk, Arab men and an occasional 
 white-shrouded woman, swarthy-faced Spanish youths 
 and weeping girls. What does it all mean? 
 
 A shudder seems to run through the waiting ranks 
 of soldiers as they come to attention, a shudder 
 repeated through the spectators. For a long train 
 steams slowly into thq station. On the end platforms 
 
82 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 of every carriage stand armed police and the red caps 
 of soldiers are seen at many windows. But when the 
 train draws up and police and troops descend the 
 mystery is explained. For after them come dark-clad 
 men in pairs — they are chained in couples. Five 
 hundred and fifty convicts, European and native, bound 
 for the French penal settlement of La Guyane across 
 the ocean. They are dressed in a dark blue uniform 
 with sailor collar showing white shirt or jersey under- 
 neath, and a round woollen cap on their close-cropped 
 skulls. They are clean-shaven. A few are old, but 
 the majority are young. Well-fed and smiling, they 
 would draw the remark under other circumstances, 
 " What a cheery lot of boys ! " 
 
 Yet there are all the crimes in the calendar over and 
 over again amongst them. Murderers who have slain 
 in quarrels or revenge, callous brutes who have killed 
 for a few francs. Brigands who have terrorised a 
 countryside for years and slaughtered men, women and 
 children indifferently. Villains that the extraordinary 
 clemency of French justice has spared from the 
 guillotine. 
 
 And now they are marched on board lighters which 
 are towed by a tug to the waiting grey steamer. And 
 all the rowing boats scattered by the navy launch crowd 
 daringly towards them, for their occupants are friends 
 or relatives of the convicts eager for a last look. Men 
 wave their hats, women their handkerchiefs ; but some 
 of the latter need them to wipe their streaming eyes. 
 For in these boats there are mothers, wives, sweethearts, 
 to whom these scoundrels are as dear as though they 
 v^ere honest men. 
 
THE NEW ALGIERS 88 
 
 But each lighter is fringed by rows of soldiers all 
 round its four sides; and the convicts are made to sit 
 down. But here and there an upraised arm from the 
 dark-clad mass waves a handkerchief on chance. And 
 uplifted faces are turned towards the climbing white 
 houses and the green hills of Algiers that few of them 
 shall see again. A good riddance for the colony! 
 
 X^ook away beyond the prison-ship to lovelier things 
 to take the bad taste from your eyes ! Across the blue 
 bay the wavelets crisp in crystal lines on white sands 
 below the wooded hills dotted with villas, and beyond 
 the hills the white crests of the snow-topped Djurdjura 
 Mountains melt into the pale blue sky. 
 
 The sea-front of Algiers is as imposing as any in 
 the world. The steep slopes that formerly ran down 
 to the water's edge have been cut away, and on the 
 thus levelled shore wide quays and wharves made; 
 while the scarp is revetted by a great forty-foot wall to 
 support the splendid promenades, the Boulevards de la 
 Republique and Sadi Carnot, lined with great five- 
 storied blocks of buildings that run along above the 
 harbour on deep arches which shelter under vaulted 
 roofs the cat-haunted Fish Market, coal and marine 
 stores, cafis and shipping offices. To these boulevards 
 ramped roads or hydraulic lifts in white stone towers 
 give access from the lower level. 
 
 To north and south high above sea and harbour 
 the modern Algiers stretches away from the Place du 
 Gouvernement in these long regular lines of imposing 
 buildings — hotels, or flats above and offices or shops 
 below opening on to the arcaded sidewalks. To the 
 north a new quarter of blocks of apartment-houses 
 
 c 
 
84 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 reaches out to the great Christian and Jewish cemeteries 
 at St Eugene, beyond it a suburb of villas and summer 
 bungalows perched above the rocky cliffs and sandy 
 coves under steep hills. 
 
 To the south of the Place is the real city, and a few 
 hundred yards on its impressive sea-front is broken by 
 a leafy public garden, behind which is another square. 
 Here the deep shade of bamboo, banyan, banana and 
 palm-trees offers a welcome retreat to the workers in 
 the shops and offices around in the hot siesta hours 
 from noon to two o'clock, when all the business estab- 
 lishments in the city almost without exception close for 
 lunch and rest for their employees. 
 
 In the Square de la Republique behind this 
 garden is the fine building of the Theatre Municipal, 
 the Opera House, the home of grand opera and ballets 
 in Algiers, and in Carnival time the Temple of Terpsi- 
 chore — for here the masked and fancy dress balls of 
 that gay season are held. 
 
 On its fagade is a plaque commemorating the 
 French poet and playwright, Regnard, who was a cap- 
 tive and slave in Algiers. On another building in the 
 Square is an inscription recording a deed of daring 
 that outrivals fiction. When the army of Charles V. 
 was fleeing in dismay from the Hill of Soap before a 
 few thousand janissaries and citizens a gallant band of 
 Knights of Malta turned fiercely on the pursuers and 
 drove them headlong back to the city of Algiers, into 
 which the Moslems fled through the Gate of Bab Azoun, 
 closing it only just in time to keep the daring Christians 
 out. A French knight. Sir Ponce de Balagnier, Sire 
 de Savignac, Standard Bearer of the Order, galloped 
 
THE NEW ALGIERS S5 
 
 up alone under a hail of bullets and arrows, planted his 
 dagger in the wood of the gate and, as he fell dying 
 with a score of wounds, cried, " We shall return ! " 
 Three hundred years rolled by and his prophecy came 
 true. His countrymen returned. 
 
 Around the Square are the most popular cafes in 
 the city which at midday, in the afternoon and the 
 evening are filled with officers and civilians and their 
 families listening to the string orchestras as they sip 
 their drinks, while the clanging trams go by to the 
 suburbs north and south. Beside the Opera House is 
 the Officers' Club housed in a historic building, the old 
 Palace of the Janissaries, of that " Foreign Legion " 
 of the Algiers of pirate days recruited from the criminals 
 of Turkey and Asia Minor and Christian renegades 
 and scoundrels from all European nations. While 
 behind the Opera the Old Town rises in terraces above 
 it to the hilltop, stately streets of seven-storied blocks 
 of buildings in the style of Paris lead off to the south 
 from the Square. And a gently-sloping street goes up 
 to the principal thoroughfare of the new city, the Rue 
 d'Isly, its luxury street lined with cafes and shops 
 worthy of the French capital, the fashionable promen- 
 ade in the afternoons where demoiselles and senoritas 
 — for the Spanish element is strong in Algiers — stroll 
 up and down in affected unconsciousness of the 
 admiring stares of the jeimesse doree. 
 
 The epitome of the mixed Algerian population, the 
 Rue dTsly is interesting and full of colour. Burnoused 
 Arab beggars stately in their rags, and red-capped 
 Moorish town-dwellers elbow Frenchmen, Spaniards 
 and Italians. Black-coated civilians mingle with 
 
86 ALGERIA TODAY 
 
 officers in uniforms of many hues, in the blue tunics 
 and red breeches of Infantry of the Line, the pale blue 
 of light cavalry, the khaki of native regiments, the 
 brilliant scarlet jackets and red burnouses over white 
 of Spahis. Bluejackets with the striped jerseys and the 
 red pompoms on the little caps of the French Navy pass 
 Zouaves in red fezzes — or checchias, as they are called 
 in Algeria — dark blue shell-jackets braided with red 
 and baggy red trousers. Tirailleurs Indigenes — native 
 infantrymen, the Turcos of old — in uniforms similar to 
 the Zouaves but of a delicate turquoise blue with yellow 
 braid stroll by cheery-faced, thick-lipped negroes of 
 Senegalese regiments in khaki. A young Japanese — 
 how came he here? — stands at a street corner selling 
 cheap ornaments. White-bearded Arabs looking like 
 Biblical patriarchs in their rounded headgear, thin 
 cotton drapery thrown over it bound round with camel- 
 hair cord and hiding the backs and sides of their heads, 
 long white woollen burnouses with hoods hanging 
 between their shoulders, and gandauras or long gowns 
 reaching to their ankles, bare feet thrust into heel-less 
 slippers, stalk slowly along. Behind one a pet sheep 
 trots unconcernedly, ignoring dogs and passers-by. 
 
 Tall, fair-faced Berbers from the mountains of 
 Kabylia, with high cheek-bones, blue eyes and sandy 
 moustaches that give them the appearance of typical 
 Scotsmen, in dress similar to Arabs, go briskly by. 
 For these aborigines of North Africa are energetic and 
 businesslike and do most of the outdoor labour of 
 Algiers, work on the quays, drive carts, carry loads; 
 and they sell rugs and carpets in the streets here, as 
 they do in Marseilles and farther afield. 
 
THE NEW ALGIERS 37 
 
 And veiled and white-shrouded Mahommedan 
 ladies with heavy silver rings around bare ankles and 
 naked feet in high-heeled Paris shoes gaze into the shop- 
 windows or stare with the instinctive antagonism of 
 their sex at smartly-dressed French ladies in big hats, 
 long-waisted frocks, short skirts and silk stockings. 
 
 As Algiers is built on steeply sloping hillsides the 
 streets running parallel to the sea are terraced one above 
 the other. From the Rue d'Isly flights of stone stair- 
 ways, the number of their steps reaching the hundreds, 
 lead up to residential streets and on higher still to green 
 slopes and groves of melancholy eucalyptus trees climb- 
 ing to the grey mass of Fort I'Empereur on the summit 
 of the Hill of Soap. 
 
 The Rue d'Isly passes by a depressing statue 
 of Marshal Bugeaud who gained the victory of 
 Isly over the Moroccans in 1844, and ends in the 
 finest open space in the city, the Boulevard Laferri^re, 
 that finds few equals anywhere for the picturesqueness 
 of its surroundings. On one side open to the sea, so 
 that the eye can range over the bay to the villa-dotted 
 hills above the coast and past them to the Djurdjura 
 Mountains beyond. Inland a terraced public garden 
 gay with bright flowers goes up to the tree-clad slopes 
 of the Hill of Soap. 
 
 The other two sides are framed by massive blocks 
 of seven and eight-storied buildings pierced by roads 
 north and south, ornate structures, the long facades of 
 which are broken by countless balconies — each window 
 has one. But at one corner of the great square is a 
 colossal white mass of architecture in the Neo- 
 Mauresque style, high Moorish arched entrances 
 
88 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 adorned with Arabic lettering and ornaments, and lofty 
 cupolas and domes. A building worthy of being the 
 principal mosque in Africa — but it is only the General 
 Post Office ! The Prefecture on the sea-front near it 
 is in the same style. 
 
 Farther up on the same side is a similarly designed 
 building in tasteful Moorish architecture, the offices of 
 a daily newspaper, the Defeche Algenenne, Past it 
 are many-balconied blocks of flats lining stone balus- 
 traded flights of steps leading up to new boulevards 
 on the hillside. 
 
 And in one of these is the headquarters of the 
 Societe de Geographie d Alger et de lAfrique du Nord. 
 For Algiers is not only commercial or pleasure-loving. 
 It has room for learned societies; and this particular 
 one is world-famous'. Many celebrated African 
 explorers have given the first narration of their travels 
 in its hall ; the number of its members runs to thousands 
 and includes the names of famous men ; and under the 
 presidency of the distinguished man of letters, M. 
 Armand Mesple, it has conquered a foremost place for 
 itself among scientific societies of the world. 
 
 Across the Boulevard Laferriere the Rue d'Isly is 
 continued by the Rue Michelet, a long street indeed. 
 For, at first lined with fine blocks of buildings of regular 
 and massive architecture, flats above, shops and offices 
 below, passing the University in its gardens terraced 
 high above it, it runs out of the city to the south and 
 winds ofi and up between the gardens, villas and hotels 
 on the sharp slopes of Mustapha Superieur, giving 
 glorious yiews of the bay and Algiers, to end in a gap 
 on the summit of the Sahel hills about five or six hun- 
 
Photo, by the Author. 
 THE PLACE DU GOUVERNEMENT AND THE NEW MOSQUE. 
 
 Photo, by the Author. 
 THE GENERAL POST OFFICE AND A NEWSPAPER OFFICE. 
 
THE NEW ALGIERS 39 
 
 dred feet above the sea, where a small monument called 
 the Colonne Voirol commemorates the construction of 
 the road by the Foreign Legion under General Voirol 
 in 1833 when the French decided on retaining Algeria 
 and began to extend the zone of their conquests' beyond 
 Algiers. 
 
 But half-way between this spot and the city there 
 is a gate in a high wall recessed in a semicircle at this 
 point and with niches in it containing busts of former 
 French Governor-Generals of the Colony. Beside it 
 is a stable full of long-tailed white horses and red- 
 burnoused Spahis. A sentry stands by the open gate 
 which gives an entrancing glimpse of a beautiful garden 
 full of flowers and palms in front of a splendid white 
 building, all pillars, ornamented arches and domed 
 roofs. It is the Summer Palace of the Governor- 
 General of Algeria, a building well worthy of sheltering 
 an African Proconsul, with its pillared courts, grand 
 staircases, and the splendid ballroom with its wall- 
 paintings, mosaics and carved ceiling. 
 
 Next to it is a less imposing but even more attractive 
 residence set in lovely gardens, the Bardo, formerly the 
 summer palace of the last Dey of Algiers and bought 
 from the Government after his deportation by a French- 
 man whose family still possesses it. With the exception" 
 of the addition of modern lighting and sanitation it 
 remains almost unaltered since Hussein Pacha sprawled 
 on its soft divans in amorous mood with one of his 
 seventy wives, while the other sixty-nine awaited his 
 summons crowded together in the small house standing 
 in the gardens some distance away from the main resi- 
 dence. The embroideries, carpets, tapestries, bronze 
 
40 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 and brasswork, the pottery, the couches and Moorish 
 beds, and the inlaid furniture that fill the chambers are 
 wonderful and priceless. But never in Oriental palace 
 in Morocco, India, China or Japan have I seen anything 
 lovelier than the white inner court with its bathing pond 
 sunk in the marble pavement. A setting for a picture 
 of satin-limbed naiads finer than Alma Tadema ever 
 painted. 
 
 Where the Rue Michelet ends and the road to the 
 interior begins in the gap in the Sahel range the scenery 
 is beautiful. On one side of the pass the hilltop is 
 crowned with a pinewood pierced with many paths and 
 known as the Bois de Boulogne, a favourite resort of 
 the citizens of Algiers on holidays. On the other side 
 of the pass the ground rises in a pleasant region of 
 beautiful villas and gardens lining a hedge-bordered 
 road reminiscent of England running along the ridge-top 
 to El Biar. Behind lies the bay far below with Algiers 
 to the left, while in front a new world opens. For 
 here begins the interior of Algeria; and in tree-shaded 
 ravines the ground falls to the fertile Mitidja Plain 
 beyond which rises up the chain of the Atlas Moun- 
 tains, the plain that in the days of Old Rome helped 
 to earn for the land the tide of " The Granary of 
 Europe." Neglected under the Arabs until it sank 
 back to jungle and feverish swamp, the efforts of 
 French colonists restored it ; and now it is a prosperous 
 region of cornfields, vineyards and orange groves dotted 
 with large European farmhouses and villages. Rail- 
 ways and fine roads traverse it, linking Algiers with 
 the interior. Looking down from the Sahel Hills 
 to-day it is hard to realise how through the last century 
 
THE NEW ALGIERS 41 
 
 every foot of the ground over which the eye wanders 
 has had to be fought for — fought for against bloody 
 pirate and treacherous Arab and deadly fever. A 
 wonderful task this that the French have achieved in 
 the face of countless difficulties and dangers. 
 
 Well, it all looks peaceful and prosperous enough 
 to-day, the well-cultivated countryside, the curving 
 coastline with its many sea-washed towns, the white 
 city and its climbing houses basking in African sunshine, 
 a prize that is a worthy reward of the sacrifices, deter- 
 mination and perseverance of France royal, imperial, 
 republican. 
 
 The flora of Algeria is siimilar to that of Southern 
 Europe; but the stranger to North Africa usually 
 expects to find it a land of tropical vegetation. For 
 that in Algiers he must look in the famous Jardin 
 d'Essai separated from the sandy beach of the bay 
 under the Sahel Hills by the railway and the road from 
 the city under Mustapha Superieur. It is the Botanical 
 Gardens or, rather, the Jardin d'Acclimatation ; for in 
 its thousands of acres are cultivated trees from all parts 
 of the world with a view to their being acclimatised for 
 the benefit of the Colony. A big overseas trade is done 
 in palms, tangerine and banana trees shipped to 
 England, France and other lands ; and the little potted 
 palms one sees on sale behind the Madeleine Church 
 in Paris and in Covent Garden were probably grown 
 in the Jardin d'Essai. Great banyans from India and 
 Burma, Yuccas from South America, cocoa-palms from 
 Mexico, and the tropical countries of Asia, shade the 
 paths on which the citizens stroll on festival days. 
 
 And by it trams and automobiles pass on farther 
 
42 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 out between the fields to the race-course in the sandy 
 dunes where in the past Frenchmen and Arab tribes- 
 men fought to the death and their descendants now 
 gather to witness bloodless contests in this modern 
 phase of life in the New Algiers. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE PEOPLE OF ALGIERS AND THEIR WAYS 
 
 Wide-stretching as it is to-day, spreading out along 
 the coast and up the hills in suburbs and independent 
 communes, Algiers yet holds a scarcely larger popula- 
 tion now than it did in the days of the Turkish Pashas 
 when over a hundred and eighty thousand folk, pirate 
 and slave, janissary and trader, renegade and born 
 Moslem, harlot in the brothel and weeping Christian 
 captive in the harem, were crowded within the narrow 
 walls now outgrown and destroyed. 
 
 The French call the native inhabitants of Algiers 
 Maures or Arabes ; and the Englishman terms them 
 Arabs. But these indigenous citizens are not Arabs. 
 They are a very mixed breed, the descendants of 
 Berbers, Turks, Jews, Christian renegades of many 
 races, captive slave women of varied nationalities, Euro- 
 pean, African and Asian. There can be little true Arab 
 blood in these townsmen. Their language is almost 
 more Turkish than Arabic. It must be remembered 
 that the rulers, the governing classes and the janiss'aries 
 or State Militia of Algiers were for centuries mostly 
 Turks with an admixture of European renegades, and 
 they had little intercourse with the Arab inland dwellers 
 
 48 
 
44 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 on whom they all looked down with contempt and 
 dislike. 
 
 Their garb was Turkish rather than Arab; and 
 traces of it are seen to-day, though the majority of the 
 native inhabitants of the city wear more or less- Euro- 
 pean dress with the red checchia. Around this cap 
 the poorer classes sometimes twist a coloured kerchief 
 to make a small turban of it; and with them a ragged 
 shirt and trousers, or even merely an ankle-long cotton 
 gown is all they wear, while the wealthier man clothes 
 himself like a Parisian, save for the checchia. Euro- 
 pean boots or heel-less leather slippers called babouches 
 are the footgear. 
 
 Yet in the streets one sees many, mostly from the 
 interior, in the traditional Arab attire, which is worn 
 almost universally throughout Algeria by all but the 
 town-dwellers. On the head is a rounded white high 
 skullcap of hard felt^ over which is draped a thin white 
 linen cloth, the hlafa, that hangs down on the back and 
 sides of the head, shades the forehead, eyes and cheeks, 
 and is gathered under the chin by the body-garment 
 buttoned over it. It is held in place on the cap by a 
 thin brown cord of camel hair wound round and round 
 many times. A long gown, the gandaura, of woollen 
 material is confined at the waist by a coloured sash; 
 and over it is the burnous, a white woollen hooded and 
 sleeved cape closed in front near the throat. A well- 
 off individual may wear two or three burnouses, the 
 outer one of good cloth and embroidered with silk. 
 The man who rides wears long soft red leather boots 
 which, when he is afoot, he thrusts into babouches. 
 
 The city Mahommedan women of all classes and 
 
THE PEOPLE OF ALGIERS 45 
 
 ages wear the same outer costume, the white voluminous 
 drapery shrouding them from top to toe, worn like a 
 shawl over the head, and if displaced giving a glimpse 
 of gay-coloured bodices and baggy trousers. Bare 
 feet are shoved into little babouches, which are often 
 dainty slippers of coloured leather heavily embroidered 
 with silver or gold. But modernised native ladies prefer 
 silk stockings and high-heeled French shoes. All 
 town-dwelling women wear the Ad jar, an embroidered 
 muslin veil hiding the face below the eyes and hanging 
 down to the breast. Only the oldest and poorest 
 dispense with it. But Berber and desert women do 
 not conceal their faces ; nor do the women of Tlemgen. 
 
 In the seclusion of their homes and on the flat roofs 
 of their houses, if sure that no male gaze can rest on 
 them, they throw aside veil and ugly outer garment; 
 and the wealthy shine like butterflies or birds of para- 
 dise in glowing colours. Over chemises of finest gauze 
 is worn a vest — perhaps inore than one — of silk pink 
 or mauve, blue, yellow, heavy with gold or silver 
 embroidery and buttons. Above the vest a brocaded 
 silk jacket. Below are trousers of finest silk wide as 
 divided skirts. On the head is a dainty little velvet 
 cap covered with seed-pearls or gold coins. Necklaces 
 of coins, large hoop ear-rings, broad bracelets and 
 anklets, rings and brooches adorn them. 
 
 The Jews of Algiers are known only by their 
 features, for they have adopted European dress and 
 discarded the long black caftans and the black checchias " 
 that are still their costume in Morocco. Only occasion- 
 ally an elderly Jewess may be seen with the black or " 
 coloured fringed silk handkerchief shrouding her head. 
 
46 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 There is both comfort and luxury in the homes of 
 the richer natives of Algiers. A visit to a Mahom- 
 medan gentleman's house in the old city is interesting. 
 From the bright streets of the modern portion one 
 passes to the narrow lanes of the native quarter; and 
 after climbing the stone stairway of a dark and filthy 
 alley hemmed in by high, almost blank walls, you 
 arrive at a low portal thrown open hospitably to you 
 and entering a dim hall emerge on the sunlit square 
 inner court paved with bright tiles where your host 
 receives you. Pillars support the galleries, which are 
 reached by narrow staircases and have carved wood 
 railings. On the first to which you ascend open 
 several rooms with gilt and crystal chandeliers, though 
 electric light is usually now the illuminant, carpets 
 too often of gaudy European manufacture instead of 
 the mellow-hued native make, divans, painted wood 
 shelves and chests, gramophones, and a mixture of 
 French and Oriental furniture, generally covered with 
 holland shrouds. On the walls are coloured oleo- 
 graphs — views of the Kaaba of Mecca, of Constanti- 
 nople, of St Sophia, or pictures of Moslem heroes, 
 all inscribed with Arabic characters. In the sleeping 
 chambers in recesses are comfortable Moorish beds 
 with wide canopies and intricately designed brass-work 
 and piles of folded blankets and coverlets stacked up 
 in corners. 
 
 A portion of the roof is screened in perhaps by 
 leafy vines which do not altogether hide the dark-eyed 
 and fair-complexioned ladies who peep down at you, 
 their veils cast aside since the green screen is supposed 
 to conceal them. And if the building in which you are 
 
THE PEOPLE OF ALGIERS 47 
 
 gives a view over the flat roofs of houses lower down 
 and you chance to see other Moslem ladies divested 
 of their shroudlike outer enveloping white garment 
 and bright as butterflies in pinks and yellows and 
 blues, well, you are not supposed to look at them or 
 at least to mention the fact. 
 
 If your host does not happen to speak French — 
 which is rare — some of his younger male relatives are 
 sure to do, and will interpret for him as over coffee 
 or fragrant mint tea from Morocco and honey cakes he 
 inquires politely about your health or the ways of your 
 country. 
 
 One sees few negroes in the streets of Algiers; 
 unless they be the cheery, thick-lipped, scarred-faced 
 soldiers of a Senegalese regiment quartered in the 
 casemates of the fort near the Boulevard Laferriere 
 where the old fortifications end in the sea. 
 
 The stranger soon notices that in all the native- 
 owned shops he is served by pale-faced, black-bearded 
 men in the traditional Arab dress, who seem to bear a 
 family likeness and are unlike the other Mahommedans 
 about them. These are M'Zabi or Mozabites, pure 
 Berbers, descendants of the Zenetes but members of 
 a Mahommedan sect regarded by all other Mussul- 
 mans as pernicious heretics. Yet theirs is the oldest' 
 sect in Islam, the Ouahbite Abadites, preponderant 
 in all North Africa from a.d. 762 to 910. When 
 Yakoub, seventh and last Abadite Imam, lost Tiharet 
 to the sultan of the Fatemide dynasty, he fled with 
 the few who remained faithful to him and the sect 
 into the Zab, the wide Saharan district around Biskra. 
 They stayed some time at Ouargla, but were chased 
 
48 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 from this oasis out into the pitiless desert. In the 
 middle of the tenth century a.d., they sought a refuge 
 in the sebka of M'Zab, a stony and barren waste where 
 
 ^ the hate of their enemies could not follow them. There 
 for centuries they toiled hard to wring a living from the 
 rocks, and finally fertilised and brought into being 
 oases, cultivation, and even towns, where formerly 
 nothing but vipers and scorpions could live. 
 
 Safe in their cities, defended even better by the 
 waterless desert around than by the strong walls they 
 built, hated and despised by all other Mussulmans, 
 co-religionists though they were, they gained wealth 
 by trading with the caravans. When the French came 
 to Algeria in 1830, this isolated race possessed five 
 principal towns^ — Ghardaia, Metlili, Berrian, Beni 
 Isguen, El-Ateuf and Guerrara — forming the con- 
 federacy of the Beni-M'Zab, " Sons of the M'Zab," 
 with a sedentary population of 45,000. In 1854 they 
 recognised the suzerainty of France, paid a tribute and 
 
 ^ were left their ancient feudal organisation. 
 
 But as a punishment for supplying arms to a 
 rebellious tribe, the Ouled-Sidi-Sheikh, in 1881 the 
 French annexed their district and invested their 
 V sheikhs in the name of France. A fort built above 
 Ghardaia, the principal city of the confederacy, held 
 a French garrison ; and officers of the Bureau Arabe, 
 which is a sort of Department for Native Affairs, 
 administered the Circle of the M'Zab, which includes 
 the Aghalik of Ouargla, the Chamba of Metlili and 
 the Chamba of El-Golea. Each of the towns is 
 administered under the eye of the miHtary authority 
 by a president of the dj^maa, or elected assembly. 
 
SHOPPERS. 
 
 Photo, by the Author. 
 
THE PEOPLE OF ALGIERS 49 
 
 chosen by the people with the approval of the 
 Governor-General of Algeria. An Abadite imam 
 fulfils the functions of Cadi. So that in a way the 
 M'Zabites are still left fairly well to govern themselves. 
 
 But they are avenging their lost liberty by sapping 
 French commercial strength in Algiers and other 
 cities. The journalists already write of " the Mozabite^ 
 peril." Their young men come to the European towns 
 in Algeria as grocers, drapers, butchers, cobblers, 
 money-lenders, cloth-merchants, fruit sellers, hardware 
 merchants, etc. Leaving their wives and famihes 
 behind and beginning in the humblest way, they live 
 in the most parsimonious fashion, wear the same 
 clothes for years, never spend a penny unnecessarily, 
 and soon are able to undersell and displace small 
 French or other European shopkeepers whose expenses 
 are greater since they cannot live so frugally. 
 
 When a Mozabite needs help in his business he 
 sends for his young sons, nephews or other relatives, 
 and never employs anyone of another race. As soon 
 as he has accumulated a sufficiency of wealth he goes 
 back to the M'Zab, taking with him all his capital 
 except enough to finance his successor, another 
 Mozabite, as a loan. 
 
 Thus not only do they prevent Europeans from 
 making a living in Algeria, and so deprive it of needed 
 colonists, but they also withdraw what is beginning to 
 amount to a great deal of money from circulation and 
 from French banks. 
 
 The legal position of natives in Algeria is some- 
 what anomalous. Although they are French subjects 
 ^they are not French citizens, and cannot vote in 
 
 D 
 
50 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 Parliamentary elections, unless they become " natura- 
 lised," when they are bound by the laws applicable to 
 Europeans and must surrender their privileges as 
 Mahommedans of Moslem polygamy and easy divorce. 
 But now they can vote for the elections of the Conseils 
 Municipaux. 
 
 Most of the better class Mahommedans one meets 
 in Algiers have been taught in the French lycies and 
 are educated men. Whether this European educa- 
 tion has the same effect on them as one finds in India 
 and teaches them to despise their own people while 
 making them jealous of and hostile to the ruling race 
 is not yet easy to say. But most Frenchmen in 
 Algeria have little fear of there ever being another 
 serious effort to overthrow their authority; for, as 
 they point out, there are over eight hundred thousand 
 Europeans to five and a half million natives who have 
 little cohesion and could not do much more than 
 "^ indulge in sporadic outbreaks. And France is very 
 near. Algiers has 152,701 whites to 51,270 natives, 
 according to the census of 1921. 
 
 There is a party of young Algerians under the 
 leadership of a descendant of the great Abd-El-Kader 
 who ask for the electoral franchise and demand a voice 
 in the government of the land. But the bulk of their 
 own fellow-countrymen do not pay much heed to them 
 as yet ; and there is no doubt that the majority of Arabs 
 in the land are not fit to govern themselves. And the 
 French President, M. Millerand, when unexpectedly 
 confronted with such demand during his visit to 
 Algiers in 1922, gave his interlocutors wise advice 
 when he bade them be content to hasten slowly. 
 
THE PEOPLE OF ALGIERS 51 
 
 Algiers, besides being the chief town of one of the 
 three local departments into which the Department of 
 Algeria is divided — they are Algiers, Constantine and 
 Oran — is the seat of the government of Algeria, which 
 is a department of France and is not autonomous and 
 
 '^ does not make its own laws. It however prepares its 
 own budget and submits it to Paris for approval and 
 sanction. The Governor-General is now always a 
 member of the Chambre des Deputes, and in it defends 
 the financial proposals made by him and his Superior 
 Council in Algiers. The French in Algeria have 
 little or no desire to be self-governing ; but they would 
 naturally liEe to have more say in settling their own 
 
 X taxation and in the disposal of their revenue instead 
 of these being decreed by Ministers in Paris who have 
 no knowledge of local conditions. At the moment 
 they have the good fortune to possess a Governor- 
 General^ who devotes himself to the betterment of 
 Algeria and is deservedly popular, which is not 
 always the case with such functionaries. 
 
 The presence of the Governor-General and his 
 Heads of Departments and other high dignitaries adds 
 to the official and social importance of Algiers. The 
 city is also the Headquarters of the 19th Army Corp^ 
 and of the Algiers Division ; but there are few troops 
 garrisoned in it. Nevertheless it contains many 
 officers, whose gay uniforms help to brighten social 
 entertainments, the cafes and the streets. And among 
 them are often seen some whose faces burned almost 
 black by the Saharan sun bespeak them men fresh 
 from arduous and lonely years in the heart of the 
 
 * M. Steeg. 
 
52 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 desert wastes, and their joyous light-heartedness shows 
 that they are on their way to the never-forgotten home- 
 land for a few months of longed-for leave. Algiers 
 has a vice-admiral whose official residence in the Inner 
 Port was once the house of the Turkish Commander 
 of the Harbour and Minister of Marine in the days of 
 the pirates. But only a few destroyers or torpedo- 
 boats or such-like small craft represent the French 
 Navy in Algeria. 
 
 The European population is very far from being 
 exclusively French. It is probable that the majority 
 of the working classes are of other nationalities, either 
 by birth or descent — Spanish, Maltese, Mahonese, 
 Italian. Indeed, throughout Algeria the lower class 
 Frenchman, either in town or country, seems unable 
 to compete against these other races of Southern 
 Europe, who can make a living where he starves. As 
 a colony it is somewhat a failure as far as he is con- 
 cerned. He cannot succeed as a farmer — his own 
 government does not encourage him to come here to 
 try — for farming, vine and orange growing is only 
 successful if done on a large scale with plenty of 
 capital to tide over the years that defective rainfall 
 makes lean. For the climate is unreliable and a failure 
 in the rainfall means famine, the death by starvation of 
 natives and beasts and the ruin of white men. 
 
 Market gardening in a small way, around Algiers, 
 is done by Mahonese, who are sober, frugal and 
 industrious folk ; and the fishermen whose boats cover 
 the bay are seldom French. 
 
 The modern part of the city has no slums. The 
 houses inhabited by the poorer classes are tall, airy, 
 
THE PEOPLE OF ALGIERS 53 
 
 solid and handsome buildings, blocks six, eight or ten 
 stories high bordering fairly wide streets, a stone or 
 iron balcony outside each window. Of course a whole 
 family may be crowded into one room. No matter how 
 high the houses are there is always an extra affarte- 
 ment of two or more rooms built on the flat roof, or 
 terrasse, which serves as garden or a drying-ground for 
 the washing. For even in the modern city the Eastern 
 habit of flat roofs persists and these Parisian-like 
 houses have them. The inhabitants, not needing them 
 to watch for the home-coming pirates, use them for more 
 prosaic purposes. On them clothes are hung out to 
 dry, little gardens are cultivated, and the tired citizen 
 lolls in an easy chair and slippers to read his evening 
 paper. Here on this one girls are playing battledore 
 and shuttlecock, on that a young mother is pushing a 
 perambulator, on a third a boy is circHng slowly round 
 on a bicycle. And I have seen on the concreted roof 
 of the Custom House by the harbour two men playing 
 tennis across a net stretched between the glass domes 
 that light the interior of the building. 
 
 Only in the outskirts of the suburbs are there small 
 houses, a story or two high, serving to lodge one or two 
 families ; though here and there in the city may still be 
 seen what was once a villa beyond the then confines of 
 Algiers, which has grown past and engulfed it and 
 dwarfs it by the monstrous buildings that tower above 
 the once handsome residence. 
 
 Everywhere in the French town the streets are 
 lined with regular blocks of more or less ornate 
 architecture similar to those seen in the modern 
 quarters of most Continental cities, offices or shops on 
 
54 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 the ground floor, and self-contained flats above. As 
 there are usually three of these flats on each floor with 
 four or five rooms and a kitchen, and a house has from 
 four to eight or ten stories, it contains quite a numerous 
 population. And in the quarter of the poorer classes, 
 where each room perhaps shelters a family which may 
 possibly take in lodgers, one trembles to think of the 
 number of inhabitants in a house. As in Southern 
 Europe wooden floors and staircases are almost un- 
 known, the latter being of marble or cement, the former 
 of coloured tiles of various designs. This makes for 
 coolness and cleanliness. Although as in France most 
 buildings have their concierges they, unlike their Paris 
 confreres, do not have their rest disturbed at night, as 
 all the residents have keys to the outer doors. London 
 postmen would envy their Algerian fellows, for in the 
 entrance halls of the houses are the letter-boxes for 
 all the appartements in the building. 
 
 The European in the Algerian capital leads much 
 the same existence as in France. The housewife 
 goes in the morning with or without her servant to one 
 of the many well-arranged municipal markets scattered 
 about the city — unless she is rich enough to be above 
 domestic cares — has the dijeuner prepared for her 
 husband when he returns home for the noonday meal, 
 for almost all establishments close from midday to 
 two p.m., is at home to her friends in the afternoon, and 
 goes out with her lord and master to their favourite 
 cafe for the before-dinner aperitif. Very many 
 families, however, take their meals in the restaurants, 
 which are numerous and cheap. Nine or ten francs 
 for dejeuner or diner with wine is quite a high price 
 
THE PEOPLE OF ALGIERS 55 
 
 in Algiers, where a good repast of four courses can be 
 procured for four and a half or five francs, including a 
 half-bottle of light and palatable Algerian wine. 
 
 The European inhabitants of the city are believers 
 in " early to bed and early to rise " ; and after nine 
 o'clock at night the streets are deserted and the cafes 
 are empty at ten p.m. The trams practically cease 
 running at nine; but special cars are provided at 
 midnight at the Opera and theatres to bring the play- 
 goers home. 
 
 Social life and customs in Algiers are very much 
 the same as in French provincial towns. Unmarried 
 girls of the better class are as closely chaperoned; 
 and the freedom of their English sisters would seem 
 incredible to them. No married woman dare even 
 walk in the principal streets alone with a man not a 
 relative without making a scandal. She receives her 
 friends at afternoon at homes as in France, when 
 the guests sit and chat, are waited on by the hostess 
 and other ladies and proffered coffee, tea and cakes, 
 while someone sings or plays to amuse the gathering. 
 
 The " Algerois " are not avid of gaiety. Theatres, 
 and even the cinemas, are not well patronised, and 
 the Opera season, for which good singers are engaged 
 from France, generally proves a disastrous specula- 
 tion. The working class, the majority of whom here 
 are not French, support the Carnival festivities out- 
 door and in more than do their betters. Algiers is 
 not a mere pleasure city ; a leisured class hardly exists 
 and its professional and commercial men toil hard. 
 
 But like the cities on the northern shores of the 
 Mediterranean she keeps Carnival. Then the 
 
56 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 boulevards on the sea-front are gay indeed with 
 fluttering flags on eyery balcony or strung between 
 Venetian masts, while rows of many-tiered stands 
 covered with red cloth hide the arches of the arcaded 
 sidewalk. For here takes place the Battle of Flowers, 
 where bloom-decked carriages and automobiles and 
 great cars go slowly up and down, filled with gaudy 
 maskers, pelting, and being pelted by the occupants 
 of the stands with tiny bouquets. And on Shrove 
 Tuesday brightly-dressed throngs of masqueraders 
 cover each other and the spectators with confetti. 
 For busy, commercial Algiers relaxes at this time and 
 pours forth its thousands to enjoy Carnival, although 
 even at its height a street away the shops are open and 
 " Business as usual " is the motto. For the city is 
 not a town that lives by gaieties and tourists, as Nice 
 and Cannes across the way do. 
 
 The importance of Algiers as a port is great. It 
 is the principal gate through which the wares of 
 Europe enter and the varied products of North Africa 
 go out; although it commences to feel the rivalry of 
 other Algerian ports such as Oran, Bougie, Philippe- 
 ville, Arzen, which serve as doors to the outer world 
 for the districts nearest them. 
 
 But none is yet a serious rival to Algiers, the size 
 of the harbour, its miles of quays, defying competition. 
 The trade done Is enormous; for Algeria produces 
 much that the outer world wants. The wines are sent 
 to-day all over the world and deserve to be even better 
 known than they are. Wool, oil, coral, wax, skins, 
 are exported now as In the days of the Romans. Iron, 
 lead, copper and zinc are the chief metals, though 
 
THE PEOPLE OF ALGIERS SI 
 
 several others are found in the colony. Tobacco, cork 
 from the forests of Constantine, Grand Kabylia and 
 the province of Algiers, alfa from the High Plateaux, 
 dates from the Sahara and oranges and corn from the 
 Tell, all pass through this port, which for many 
 centuries before the coming of the French sent out 
 only pirates to kill and enslave. 
 
 The new arrival is generally surprised to find that 
 the majority of the native inhabitants, not only of the 
 capital, but of Algeria, speak French and speak it well. 
 Servants, labourers, artisans, peasants, beggars, news- 
 boys, street traders, all talk it fluently. The French 
 very wisely make their subject races learn their 
 language, unlike our way in India, where English is 
 unknown to the vast majority of natives and the 
 Civil Service and Indian Army and Staff officers have 
 to learn to speak the vernacular correctly. 
 
 Education is not neglected in Algeria. In round 
 numbers the European population is 800,000, the 
 native 5,500,000. In 1,115 French primary schools 
 2,000 masters and mistresses teach 108,330 boys 
 and girls; while in 518 native primary elementary 
 schools there are 779 masters and mistresses for 
 30 to 35,000 boys and 2,000 girls. Education is 
 not compulsory for native children; and the Arabs, 
 while usually strongly opposed to it for their daughters, 
 are not avid for it for their boys, although the Kabyles 
 — that is the Berber inhabitants of Kabylia — are. 
 
 There are 18 primary superior French Schools; 8 
 in the Department of Algiers, 5 each in those of 
 Constantine and Oran — with 68 masters and mistresses 
 for 1,000 boys and 1,260 girls. 
 
58 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 For secondary instruction there are three lycees — 
 one at Algiers with 2,300 pupils and two annexes, one 
 at Mustapha, the other at Ben Aknoun. One at 
 Constantine with 560 and the third at Oran with 1,500 
 students. There are altogether 6,280 Lycee pupils. 
 To these are added 2,400 pupils of colleges at BHda, 
 Medea, Bone, Philippeville, Setif, Mostanagem, 
 Sidi-Bel-Abbes and Tlemgen. A certain number of 
 these youths go on to the great schools in France — the 
 Normale Superieure, Polytechnique Centrale and St 
 
 The secondary education of girls is not neglected. 
 There are 2,148 of them divided between the three 
 lycees ©f Algiers, Constantine and Oran and 509 go to 
 the Bone college or to the supplementary course of 
 Philippeville. 
 
 The University of Algiers has 529 students en 
 droit, or Law, 359 in Medicine, 198 in the School of 
 Science and 160 in the Faculti des Leitres. The 
 standard of the professors of the lycees and of the 
 University is very high and compares well with that 
 of any similar body of men in Europe or America. 
 
 There is a finely-built Medersa or theological 
 college for Mahommedans. 
 
 As a winter resort Algiers is not as well known or 
 as popular as it deserves to be. Its climate is decidedly 
 warmer in winter than that of the French and Italian 
 Rivieras; and it is a true statement that during that 
 season there is less difference between the daily 
 temperatures of Paris and Nice than between those of 
 Nice and Algiers — to the advantage of the last. Of 
 course one must be prepared for the sudden drop in 
 
THE PEOPLE OF ALGIERS 59 
 
 temperature that comes at sundown — ^you meet with 
 that even in India during the cold weather; and I 
 have felt chillier, seen more frost and needed fires at 
 night more in Central India than I ever did in Algiers, 
 where, although most rooms in dwelling-houses and 
 hotels have fireplaces, these are very rarely used. 
 
 There is not much rain in winter in Algiers itself ; 
 and when it comes does so generally at night. 
 Thunderstorms, however, are not unusual. Occasion- 
 ally in early spring the sirocco, the hot wind from the 
 deserts of the South, blows fiercely on the city and 
 brings cloudy skies and a choking sultriness. 
 
 But it must be clearly understood that the climate 
 of the mountains and high tablelands of the interior 
 differs greatly from that of the sea coast. One must 
 be prepared in winter to experience sometimes heavy 
 rain, bitter cold and perhaps snow on the Hants 
 Plateaux three or four thousand feet high; and the 
 mountain-tops with an elevation of seven thousand 
 feet are white in May. In the tourist-centre of 
 Biskra thirty-five miles into the desert, and a hundred 
 and forty from the sea, in Tougourt a hundred 
 and thirty miles farther in, the nights and mornings are 
 cold ; and to the South, deep in the heart of the Sahara, 
 snow rests in winter on the summits of the Hoggar 
 Mountains nine thousand feet high. Foureau when 
 crossing the Tassili des Adjer with his Mission in 
 December recorded temperatures of seven degrees of 
 frost at a height of three or four thousand feet — and 
 this near the 25th parallel and hundreds of miles into 
 the desert. 
 
 Such cold Algiers never knows ; and when London 
 
60 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 is wrapped in fog and Paris frowns under gloomy skies, 
 this White City of the old Barbary rovers is bathed in 
 sunshine and offers the stranger modern civilisation 
 wedded to the charm of the East. I have known in 
 winter most other countries bordering the Mediter- 
 ranean north and south — Tunisia, Egypt, Asia Minor, 
 Turkey, Greece, Sicily, Southern Italy, the ItaHan and 
 French Rivieras — and for climate Algiers is then 
 preferable to any city in them. 
 
 And few can offer what Algeria does. Glowing 
 sunlight, blue skies, Oriental colour and pageantry, 
 the triumph of France's toil and sacrifice, the story of 
 Imperial Rome writ large in ruined temples and 
 amphitheatres, sea-washed pirate cities and towns of 
 sun-dried brick lost in sandy wastes, snow-clad 
 mountains and fertile plains and grim deserts where 
 veiled men move silently on fleet camels — all these 
 are hers to give. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE STORY OF NORTH AFRICA 
 
 Dense tropical forests once covered North Africa; 
 and in their gloomy depths elephants, rhinoceroses 
 and stranger beasts roamed, dangerous prey for the 
 hunters of big game in those days with their stone 
 axes and spear-heads — weapons that the spade and 
 the plough lay bare to-day in the now treeless 
 uplands of Algeria and Morocco where only jackals 
 and a chance panther are left of all the wonderful 
 fauna. Thus must the land have been when Hercules 
 came to it in the Golden Age when the Gods walked 
 the earth. 
 
 Ancient Greek legends tell how this mythological 
 hero of Mycene, the lion's skin hanging from his 
 shoulders, set out to seek the Golden Apples of the 
 Hesperides in a land far to the West, how he travelled 
 through Macedonia, Northern Italy, Gaul and Spain 
 and crossed by the Straits of Gibraltar into a new 
 country where he saw the Giant Atlas supporting the 
 heavens on his shoulders bowed under their weight. 
 A pretty fable apparently. 
 
 And yet under the guise of legend it relates a 
 historical fact ; the migration of the blonde, blue-eyed 
 
 61 
 
62 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 Iberians (originally from the Caucasus) from Greece, 
 Italy, Gaul and the Iberian Peninsula into North 
 Africa as far as the Atlas Mountains by way of 
 Gibraltar and the Pillars of Hercules. This race of 
 fair-skinned warriors, tattooed, tall of stature, crowned 
 with the heads of wild beasts, the skins of which 
 draped their shoulders and hung down their backs — 
 note the similarity of the garb of Hercules ! — were 
 known to the darker peoples, the Libyans, who had 
 preceded them into this continent by way of Egypt, 
 as the Barbara, Berabers or Berbers. And this last 
 name endures to the present day to designate the 
 descendants of these wanderers, little changed in 
 appearance from their ancestors who came from the 
 North seven thousand years and more ago. In the 
 mountains of Grand Kabylia within sight of Algiers, 
 in the barren hills of the Aures towering above the 
 Sahara, in the ranks of the tribesmen of the Riff 
 fighting the Spaniards, or of the Middle and the High 
 Atlas ranges sullenly resisting French dominion in 
 Morocco, and far away in the deserts that stretch 
 almost to the Niger, they are found to-day, these 
 tall Berbers whose blue eyes, fair skins and hair 
 distinguish them from the Arabs around them. 
 
 Everywhere throughout North Africa have been 
 discovered megahthic monuments that help to prove 
 their common origin with the Iberians, the Celts and 
 the Celtiberians who erected these great symbols in 
 Europe. And stone axes, weapons and implements 
 found in Morocco and Algeria are identical with those 
 of the Morbihan, the Pyrenees and the South of Spain. 
 
 Mixing with the Libyans, dominating them by their 
 
THE STORY OF NORTH AFRICA 63 
 
 stronger personality, the Berbers gave their name to 
 the northern regions of the continent, which was 
 known as Berbery or Barbary from them. A branch 
 of their race which had drifted through Asia into and 
 across Egypt came in contact with them later. And 
 still later a Scythian-Mongol people, the Hycsos, who, 
 having overthrown the Fourteenth Dynasty, conquered 
 Egypt and the Nile valley and occupied it for three 
 centuries, were driven out westward by the Pharaohs 
 of the Seventeenth Dynasty, allied themselves to 
 the Berbers and led them against Egypt under the 
 Nineteenth Dynasty in the fifteenth century before 
 Christ. 
 
 Twice in the days of Rameses II. and his 
 successor Minephtah waves of the invading tattooed 
 nomads, blonde and blue-eyed giants with metal 
 helmets or skulls protected by the heads of wild 
 beasts, swept out of the illimitable West against 
 Egypt. 
 
 Then the Berbers and others inhabiting the fertile 
 strip of North Africa between the mountains and the 
 sea settled down as husbandmen and cultivators living 
 in towns or villages, and were entitled Getulians by 
 the ancients. Those of them who wandered with 
 flocks of sheep and herds of cattle about the hills and 
 the high tablelands, tents their only habitations, were 
 known as Numidians or nomads. 
 
 The first overseas civilised people to come in ■ 
 contact with them, the Phoenicians, gave them the 
 name of Mahourim, " Westerners," from which were 
 derived Moors, Maures and Mauritania. The Greeks - 
 termed them all Libyans. Later the Arabs called the 
 
64 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 country Mag'reb, " The West," the name they still 
 give Morocco, the most westerly land of all. 
 
 The Berbers, inhabiting a country divided up by 
 mountain ranges and devoid of navigable rivers which 
 would have served as channels of communication, were 
 split up into groups of families and small tribes each 
 jealous of its independence and constantly at war 
 with its neighbours, never uniting under one leader 
 unless for a short war or raid that promised plunder. 
 Hardworking, industrious, brave in battle, they have 
 transmitted their yirtues and their vices to their 
 descendants; and the Kabyles of Algeria, the 
 mountaineers of Morocco, the Touareg of the 
 Southern Sahara, resemble to-day in character as in 
 appearance the fair Iberians of ancient Europe from 
 whom they have sprung. 
 
 Their being split up into countless tribes, 
 prevented by the conformation of the country from 
 intercommunication, with no feeling of nationality or 
 bond of common religion tending to hold the Berbers 
 of old together, their tribal jealousies sundered them 
 and made them ever ready to ally themselves with 
 foreign invaders to gain a temporary advantage over 
 their neighbours of the same blood. They were thus 
 always an easy prey to an organised enemy from 
 outside. 
 
 The Phoenicians, those adventurous merchant 
 sailors from Sidon and Tyre, who daringly steered 
 their barks from known seas out through the Pillars 
 of Hercules into the mysterious Atlantic and traded 
 for tin with the savages of far Britain, did not neglect 
 the Barbary coast. They founded mercantile depots 
 
THE STORY OF NORTH AFRICA 65 
 
 along the North African shores, generally placed in 
 charge of Jews — then as now distinguished by their 
 commercial aptitude. Thus were established among 
 others on the Tunisian coast colonies at Lamta, Souca, 
 Tunis, Carthage and Benzert. 
 
 As they sought no territorial expansion and paid 
 tribute to the local chieftains of the coast the 
 Phoenicians were always welcomed by the Berbers. 
 But when Tyre fell its commercial prosperity passed 
 to Carthage, founded in the ninth century before Our 
 Lord by Elissar the widowed daughter of Mathan, 
 King of Tyre, who had fled from her native city in 
 fear of her brother's vengeance and was hence known 
 as Dido or " the fugitive." 
 
 This city was built on the Tunisian coast, a few 
 miles from where Tunis stands to-day. Prospering 
 exceedingly and growing powerful it founded in its 
 turn other colonies on the Barbary coast, among them 
 Hippo (where to-day is Bone), Rus-Cuar (now 
 Philippeville), Djidjel (Djidjelli), Soldea (Bougie), 
 Tingis (Tangiers) and Eikoci (Algiers). 
 
 But the Carthaginians, unlike their progenitors 
 the Phoenicians, were guilty of territorial aggression 
 and seized large tracts of country around their cities, 
 reducing the Berber inhabitants to the state of 
 territorial serfs. Unwarlike traders themselves they 
 recruited armies of mercenaries, Gauls, Greeks, 
 slingers from the Balearic Isles, Numidian cavalry and 
 African light infantry. As such hireling troops will 
 do these mongrel soldiers often revolted against their 
 paymasters and were aided by the downtrodden Berber 
 peasants. But despite many trials Carthage flourished 
 
66 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 until after three wars she was annihilated by Rome and 
 her possessions passed to her victorious rival. 
 
 For many centuries the Romans Republican and 
 Imperial ruled over Northern Africa. Their soldiers 
 pushed as far south as into the Sahara and crossed the 
 Grand Atlas Mountains in Morocco. In Tunisia 
 and Algeria the traveller to-day marvels at the ruined 
 cities and camps, the amphitheatres, temples and 
 triumphal arches, that show how far into Africa the 
 short-sworded warriors, the functionaries and the 
 colonists of Rome extended the dominion of their race. 
 
 In A.D. 42 the Roman Emperor divided Barbary 
 into four provinces. The first, the Proconsular 
 Province, comprised Tunisia as it exists to-day. 
 Modern Algeria nearly corresponds with the next two 
 provinces — Numidia extending from the river Tusca, 
 near Tabarka, to the Ampsaga or Rummel that flows 
 by Constantine and stretching from this stream to the 
 "V Moulouia, Caesarian Mauretania with Caesarea 
 (Cherchel) as its capital. The fourth province, 
 Tingitanian Mauretania, with Tangiers as the capital, 
 x^orresponded to the Morocco of to-day. 
 
 A Proconsul residing in Carthage ruled the first as 
 a civil governor, while its military forces and those of 
 the second province were under the orders of the Legate 
 governing Numidia. Two Procurators administered 
 the Mauretanias. These provincial governors 
 ' delegated their authority in the interior to native 
 nobles. 
 
 The garrison of North Africa then consisted of the 
 3rd Augustan Legion, six thousand strong, with the 
 headquarters at Lambessa where the tourists can still 
 
THE STORY OF NORTH AFRICA 67 
 
 see the remains of praetorium, temple and triumphal 
 arch near the more famous ruins of Timgad. These 
 Roman troops were supplemented by others recruited 
 from widely scattered portions of the far-flung Empire 
 — horsemen from the plains of Thrace, the famous 
 Parthian cavalry, agile light infantry from Sardinia 
 and elsewhere. And the Romans enlisted mounted 
 men from the Numidians or nomads of the High 
 Tablelands and foot-soldiers from among the sturdy 
 Berber peasants of the maritime districts and sent them, 
 the latter to serve in the Nile Valley, the former to 
 Belgium, Germany and Pannonia. 
 •^ Under the dominion of Rome Barbary reached a 
 degree of prosperity, commercial and mercantile, that 
 it has never known since; although under the 
 enlightened rule of France it may hope to attain it 
 again some day. Irrigation to an extent that does not 
 exist even now supplied any defect in the uncertain 
 rainfall and made the soil so productive that, as the 
 old authors said, " under the palms grew olive trees, ' 
 under the olives fig-trees, under them pomegranates, 
 under these vines, beneath the vines wheat — and when 
 the wheat was reaped vegetables, and after them pot- 
 herbs, were cultivated, all in the same year. 
 
 Barbary provisioned Italy for eight months out of 
 the twelve, and in a good season supplied 348,000 tons 
 of corn. One town, Leptis, alone sent to Rome three 
 million pounds of olive oil in a year. North Africa 
 gave the Empire soldiers, sailors, and for her cavalry 
 the graceful, light but sturdy horses, such as the Spahis 
 ride to-day. It exported wine, wax, copper, gold dust 
 and silver ingots. Rome drew supplies of luxuries as 
 
68 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 well as necessities from it — black slaves to wait on her 
 patrician ladies, ivory, marble, onyx and precious 
 woods for imperial palaces, gladiators and wild beasts 
 for her circuses. For immense forests covered vast 
 tracts now treeless ; and in them roamed herds of wild 
 elephants and stranger animals. 
 
 And when in time the throne came to be a prize 
 within the reach of any military adventurer Barbary 
 even supplied her conqueror with emperors ; for several 
 wearers of the imperial purple were born on African 
 soil. 
 
 Yet all the return that Rome made to the unhappy 
 country was to despise, rob and enslave its native-born 
 inhabitants. Deprived of their land, reduced to serf- 
 dom, the wretched Berbers rebelled again and again, 
 always in vain. 
 
 Small wonder that they hated Rome and all that 
 she stood for. They eagerly embraced Christianity at 
 first, because its professors were regarded as enemies 
 of the State; but when it became the religion of the 
 Emperors they wandered in will-o'-the-wisp pursuit of 
 every fresh heresy. 
 
 In A.D. 429, when a rebellious Roman governor of 
 North Africa, Count Boniface, invited King Genseric 
 and his Vandals — barbarians from the Baltic shores of 
 Germany, who had made their way into Spain — to come 
 to Barbary to his aid, and when, to the number of 
 80,000 warriors with women, children and non-com- 
 batants, they crossed the Straits of Gibraltar, the 
 Berbers welcomed and helped them to end the Roman 
 dominion and establish a Vandal Empire in its place. 
 It lasted a century. The luckless Berbers found them- 
 
THE STORY OF NORTH AFRICA 69 
 
 selves no better off, and in 533 turned against their 
 new masters and eagerly joined the famous general 
 Belisarius sent by the Byzantine Emperor to win North 
 Africa from the Vandals. 
 
 But as usual the Berbers found themselves left in 
 the lurch when the Byzantines were victorious. Again 
 they struck for independence ; but tribal jealousies still 
 rendered their efforts fruitless and the land was 
 gradually ruined in the long struggle for freedom. 
 Roman and Greek colonists disappeared, the forests 
 were burned, cultivation gave place to jungle, and 
 Barbary became once more a wilderness. .^ 
 
 Loathing the religion of their oppressors the 
 Berbers had abjured Christianity and were sunk again 
 in idolatry or had gone over to Judaism. For 
 thousands of Jews expelled from Palestine in the fourth 
 century B.C. and others driven in the second century a.d. 
 from Cyrenaica, where they had sought refuge after 
 the fall of Jerusalem, had swelled the number of the 
 comparatively few descendants of these Israelites who 
 had come to Africa as the Phoenicians' commercial 
 agents. 
 
 The way was cleared for a new faith and fresh 
 invaders. And in the seventh century of the Christian 
 era both came. After two incursions into Tunisia in 
 641 and 665 the Arabs swept into Barbary from Egypt, 
 a sword in one hand, the Koran in the other, offering 
 death or conversion to Islam to all who opposed them. 
 In 669 the Caliph of Bagdad nominated an old com- 
 rade of the dead Prophet to seize and be governor of 
 what he termed the Province of Ifrikya, which means 
 " The Land of Corn." This man, Okba-ben-Mafa, 
 
70 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 entered Tunisia, reinforced his army with converted 
 Berbers, built the holy city of Kairouan as a Moslem 
 stronghold, and in 680 marched victoriously through 
 Algeria and Morocco to Ceuta, and then south as far 
 as the Souss, and, riding his horse into the Atlantic 
 Ocean, called on Allah to witness that he had left none 
 behind him who dared deny that God was God and 
 Mahomet was his prophet. But returning victoriously 
 through the north of the Algerian Sahara he incautiously 
 separated himself from his army with only three hundred 
 horsemen, and he and they were all slain by pursuing 
 Berbers a few miles east of Biskra. And to-day 
 tourists motor out from that pleasant winter resort to 
 see the mosque at Sidi Okba that holds his tomb. 
 
 But the Arabs came again and swept away unstable 
 Berber kingdoms that rose ephemerally. They 
 welcomed into their ranks on equal terms any defeated 
 warriors prepared to adopt Mahommedanism. A 
 former officer of a Berber queen who had fought against 
 them, Tarik-Ibn-Ziad, a Jewish Berber himself, was 
 made by them governor of Tangier when he became a 
 Moslem. And this man with a Berber force, stiffened 
 by a few Arabs, crossed into Spain, landed near Mount 
 Calpe, since called after him Djebel-Tarik, " The Hill 
 of Tarik," that is Gibraltar now, and thus began the 
 Moorish conquest of Spain. 
 
 The progress of the Arabs in Barbary was facilitated 
 by the instant appeal that their religion made to many 
 of the Berbers. This new faith was simple to under- 
 stand. In it all men were equal, the beggar and the 
 king, and would be equally rewarded in the next life 
 with sensual joys easy to imagine. All Believers paid 
 
THE STORY OF NORTH AFRICA 71 
 
 only the same one fixed and equitable tax, and the poor 
 man was not, as under the Empire, ground down by- 
 countless unjust imposts from which the rich and highly 
 placed were free. There were no priests or prelates 
 to support in idleness; and the doctrines were not 
 difficult for the ignorant to grasp. 
 
 So the Berbers readily went over to the new creed ; 
 and they held on to it even when in Morocco and 
 Algeria they revolted against the Eastern Caliphs and 
 set up sovereigns of their own race in Tiharet, Tlemgen 
 and Sidjil-Massa. But the Arabs retained their hold 
 on Tunisia. 
 
 In the eleventh century occurred the Second and 
 greater Arab invasion of Africa that was destined to be 
 the permanent conquest. Formerly the men of Arabia 
 had come in small numbers, had married Berber 
 women, and settling down, often merged with the 
 aborigines. But in this, the Hilalian Invasion as it is 
 called, the Beni-Hilal and other nomad tribes from 
 Egypt and the Libyan desert swept into Barbary two 
 hundred thousand, soon to be a million, strong with 
 their families and herds. Driving the disunited 
 Berbers into the mountains and the Sahara, to be the 
 ancestors of the Kabyles, Chaouias and Touareg of 
 to-day, they occupied the plains of Tunisia, Algeria 
 and part of Morocco, never reaching, however, the 
 extreme west of this last country. Seeking only 
 pasture for their flocks, these human locusts cut down 
 trees, destroyed crops, burned forests, broke down 
 dams and put an end to irrigation and agriculture, and 
 turned the land into a desert again. 
 
 But in time the Arabs in Barbary established 
 
72 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 kingdoms; and some built cities or occupied existing 
 ones, although many have remained nomads to this day. 
 Moslem monarchs from Arabia to Spain became pro- 
 verbial for their state, splendour and luxury. The 
 Caliphs of Bagdad, the Almoravide kings in Africa, the 
 emirs in Spain, adorned their capitals with sumptuous 
 palaces built by Byzantine architects and embellished 
 by sculptors. They encouraged arts and letters, 
 science and medicine. The cities of Fez, Marrakesh, 
 Tlemgen, Kairouan and Cordova were centres of light 
 and learning, with famous schools crowded with 
 students even from Christian European lands. From 
 the Alexandrian Greeks the Arabs had learned 
 astronomy, philosophy, physics, mechanics and 
 medicine. From India they acquired arithmetic and 
 algebra, from the Chinese they got the compass, paper 
 and gunpowder. They progressed in geography, 
 literature, mathematics, and gave us the Arabic 
 numerals. 
 
 The towns on the Barbary coast. Sale and Rabat in 
 Morocco, Gran, Cherchel, Algiers, Dellys, Bougie and 
 Djidjelli in Algeria, as well as Tunis and Tripoli, 
 became notorious in a far different way. From the 
 Moslem pirates of Spain these sea-bordering cities 
 learned piracy and soon excelled their masters. And 
 then they embroiled Africa with European nations. 
 
 But already France had intervened in the affairs of 
 the Continent facing her southern shores. In a.d. 1270 
 the first French expeditionary force directed against 
 Tunis landed in Tunisia. The last, by the way, did 
 so in 1 88 1 and estabUshed the French Protectorate. 
 King Louis IX. was the commander of this first invad- 
 
THE STORY OF NORTH AFRICA 73 
 
 ing army ; but he died of plague and his son, Philip the 
 Hardy, withdrew the troops. 
 
 A second equally abortive French expedition landed 
 near Tunis in 1390. 
 
 In 1505 pirates from Oran in Algeria ravaged the 
 Spanish coast and burned ships in Malaga harbour. So 
 the Spanish premier, Cardinal Ximenes, Archbishop 
 of Toledo, raised an army and sent it against Oran, 
 which was captured in 1509. Then in the next year 
 the Spaniards took the then larger and richer city of 
 Bougie, with its 8,000 houses, 30,000 inhabitants 
 and renowned schools of philosophy, medicine, 
 letters and astronomy. 
 
 Now Bougie is near Algiers, and its fate so 
 frightened the Algerian citizens that they voluntarily 
 submitted to the Spaniards, who, better to keep a watch 
 on them, built on the tiny isle of Stofla, before Algiers, 
 a fort called the Penon de Argel (" The Great Rock 
 of Algiers "), a bastion of which remains to this day. 
 
 The origin of Algiers is lost in the mists of 
 antiquity. Legend has it that when after his expedi- 
 tion to the Garden of the Hesperides Hercules was 
 re-embarking at the spot where it now stands, twenty 
 of his comrades remained behind and built this town, 
 which they called Eixosi — which means " twenty " — 
 whence its old name Eikosion. It certainly was a 
 Phoenician trading depot, then a Carthaginian port, 
 and later a Roman town known as Icosium. Probably 
 it got its appellation from twenty small islets or rocks 
 off its shore. 
 
 The Byzantines abandoned it and it lay in ruins. 
 The little Berber tribe of the Mezr'anna, fraction of 
 
74 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 the Senhadja (then occupying the maritime region 
 between Grand Kabylia and Cheliff) established them- 
 selves in the ruins and called the town Argel, a Cymric 
 word meaning " sheltered " — probably referring to its 
 lying on the bay protected by Capes Matifou and 
 Caxine. 
 
 The Moslems later named it Djezair-Beni-Mezr'- 
 anna, " The Isles of the Sons of Mezr'anna.'^ It arose 
 
 ^ from its ruins; and in the eleventh century the 
 Cordovan historian, El Bekri, described it admiringly 
 
 " as a town filled with magnificent buildings and monu- 
 ments, with fine gates and a magnificent mosque that 
 was once a Christian church. 
 
 Algiers had many vicissitudes and knew many 
 masters before it saw the Spaniards at its doors in 1 5 1 o. 
 To get rid of them the citizens called in a famous 
 Levantine adventurer, Aroudj, known by the Christians 
 as Barbarossa or Red Beard, who treacherously turned 
 on them and proclaimed himself Sultan. When he 
 was killed later near Morocco, his brother Kheir-ed- 
 Dine (" Welfare of the Religion " his name means), 
 left in charge of Algiers and menaced by many foes, 
 offered its sovereignty to the Sultan of Turkey, who 
 included it in his dominions and made Kheir-ed-Dine 
 his viceroy or Beylerbeg. This means " bey of beys " ; 
 for each of the three provinces, Algiers, Gran and 
 Constantine, was under a bey. The interior of the 
 province of Algiers was administered by the bey of 
 Titeri, residing at Medea. 
 
 Later on the title of Beylerbeg was changed, first 
 
 ^ to Pasha, then to Dey. 
 
 Kheir-ed-Dine gave the Regency of Algiers, as it 
 
THE STORY OF NORTH AFRICA 75 
 
 was called, the organisation which it retained to the 
 coming of the French. The Viceroy was nominated 
 every three years by the Ottoman Porte in Constanti- 
 nople. He presided over the Diwan, or Council of 
 State, which was composed of the four Secretaries of 
 State, the Grand Administrator, the High Treasurer, 
 the Minister of Marine and the Agha or General Com- 
 manding the Army. To these were joined on occasions 
 representatives of the military forces and of the Moslem 
 religious functionaries. 
 
 The Regular Army garrisoned the chief fortified 
 places of the Regency and consisted of a few hundred 
 cavalry, the Sbahihis or Spahis (supplemented in war 
 by the goums or contingents of irregular horsemen sent 
 by the beys of provinces), and the infantry, which 
 eventually numbered thirty thousand. This army was 
 known as the Odjak, which meant to these Turkish 
 soldiers " the place where their pot boiled," indicating 
 that they were strangers in the land and had no home 
 other than their barracks. For they were janissaries, 
 foreigners recruited at Constantinople and Smyrna, 
 criminals, renegades, scoundrels of every nation. To ^ 
 keep them distinct from the Algerians, whom they were 
 taught to despise, they were forbidden to marry native 
 women. They, however, formed irregular unions, the 
 offspring of which were termed '* Koulouglis." /' 
 
 The janissaries' barracks in Algiers is now the 
 splendid Officers' Club in the Square de la R^publique. 
 The raw recruit on arrival in Algiers found himself 
 quite an important person, was addressed as " Effendi " 
 and could aspire to the highest dignities in the State. 
 The ranks of the Invincible Militia, as the army was 
 
76 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 termed, were yoldash, or priyate, shaousk or sergeant, 
 oda-bashi, lieutenant, boidoush-bashl, captain of a 
 company, agha-bashi, major, oukilhardji, quarter- 
 master, kaya, colonel, agha or the general. This agha 
 remained only two months in command and then 
 became Member of the Diwan; and the kaya 
 succeeded him. Promotion in the Militia went strictly 
 by seniority. 
 
 At times Algiers put as many as sixty thousand 
 men into the field in its expeditions against Morocco 
 and Tunis. But as a rule it only concerned itself 
 with the mastery of the sea, by which it lived. 
 Consequently the interior of the Regency was little 
 interfered with and the inland towns were fairly free. 
 
 The Marine was simply a navy of pirates, for 
 piracy was the trade by which Algiers existed. 
 Every ship was licensed by the Viceroy to go out to 
 capture the vessels of every nation not allied to 
 Turkey; and a fifth of the plunder brought home 
 went into the State Treasury, whilst the Pasha or 
 Dey had first pick of the female and male captives. 
 
 The Algerine navy began with only a few ships and 
 never rivalled in strength that of even a fourth-rate 
 European power; yet for centuries it ruled the seas, 
 devastated the shores of Christian lands as far away 
 as Ireland and Iceland, and extorted tribute in some 
 shape from almost every maritime nation. It is the 
 almost incredible fact that Holland, Portugal, Naples, 
 Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and later, the United 
 States of America paid an annual tribute — usually 
 about 25,000 francs — France, England, Spain, 
 Sardinia, Hanover, Tuscany, Ragusa and Venice gave 
 
THE STORY OF NORTH AFRICA 77 
 
 presents instead of tribute, while Hamburg and 
 Bremen sent naval munitions and material of war. 
 In addition Norway, Sweden, and Denmark were 
 obliged to furnish arms, ropes, masts, spearheads, 
 powder and lead. 
 
 And all this to purchase immunity for their 
 merchant ships. Yet more often than not this cowardly 
 policy failed, and the Algerine pirates respected no 
 flag, except perhaps those of Austria and Russia. For 
 these countries, being near neighbours of Turkey, 
 could put effective pressure on the suzerain of Algiers. 
 
 It seems incredible that this nest of pirates, this city 
 of at most 180,000 inhabitants, should have defied all 
 Europe for centuries. Spain, France, England, 
 Holland, the United States of America, in turn sent 
 fleets to batter down Algiers; but none succeeded in 
 utterly annihilating it. As usual disgraceful inter- 
 national jealousies prevented the Christian powers 
 from uniting to extirpate this pest of the civilised 
 world; and crime-stained Algiers managed to exist 
 until well into the nineteenth century. 
 
 Charles V. failed to destroy it. Napoleon planned 
 its conquest but never carried out his design. At last, 
 in 1 81 6, an English admiral, Lord Exmouth, bom- 
 barded it effectively, destroying the greater part of 
 its fleet, and the last of its ships were sunk in the battle 
 of Navarino ; so that Algiers never again was a danger 
 at sea. In 1830 its Dey Hassan, still swollen with 
 pride, by an insult to the French consul, whom he 
 struck in the face with his fan, gave France an excuse 
 for ending the pirate kingdom for all time. In the July 
 of that year a French squadron manoeuvred before 
 
 y 
 
78 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 Algiers and engaged the forts ; while an army of 30,000 
 men disembarked at Sidi Ferruch, a few miles 
 along the coast, and defeated the Algerian troops. 
 Then climbing the hills above the city it attacked the 
 land fortifications and so damaged Fort I'Empereur 
 that its commander blew it up and left Algiers at the 
 mercy of the invaders. The Dey surrendered and was 
 exiled, and his capital was annexed by France. 
 
 At first the victors did not seek to extend their 
 conquests; but events gradually forced them to 
 advance farther and farther into Algeria. The city of 
 Constantine, which formed almost a separate princi- 
 pality, was taken after two sieges. Oran was captured. 
 The famous Abd-el-Kader, Bey of Mascara, for years 
 held out with varying success against the French, but 
 was finally forced to surrender and accept exile. 
 Numerous revolts, of which the most dangerous was 
 the Kabyle rebellion of 1871, failed to shake France's 
 " hold on the land. 
 
 And gradually she pushed her way south until her 
 soldiers have carried the tricolour to the banks of the 
 Niger and the Sahara owns her sway. Her laws give 
 equal justice to white man, brown and black. Her 
 colonists have reclaimed the wastes and restored 
 fertility to the long-ruined country; her financiers are 
 helping to develop the natural resources, the mineral, 
 vegetable and agricultural wealth of Algeria. 
 
 French protectorates were established in Tunisia 
 in 1 88 1, in Morocco in 191 2; so that now, with the 
 exception of the Spanish zone and the small Interna- 
 tional zone in the latter empire, all North West Africa 
 >v is under French control. And here its story rests. 
 
CHAPTER y 
 
 ALGERIAN PICTURES 
 
 A CURVING bay fringed with white sands and gHstening 
 rocks and over it green hills. And where the slopes 
 are steepest a city climbs them to the tree-shaded sum- 
 mits, a city of white houses crowding together, a city 
 spreading out in flower-decked gardens and snowy 
 villas robed with the imperial purple of creepers and 
 half -hidden in the dark foliage of cypress and palm. 
 
 And towering up to the blue sky the snow-clad 
 peaks of rugged mountains that dwarf the hills and 
 form a noble setting for this city of Algiers. Algiers, 
 whose story runs back to Hercules and the Golden 
 Apples of the Hesperides through many centuries of 
 storm and strife. 
 
 Three hundred years ago! Charles I. sits on an 
 uneasy throne in England; and Louis XHI. reigns in 
 France. For I paint an old-time picture. 
 
 The sun shines brilliantly on the sparkling waters 
 of the bay that cream lazily on the sandy shore where 
 a century before they dashed the ships of the Emperor 
 Charles Quint to matchwood and saved the Pirate City. 
 On the curving coast a triangle of high walls, the base 
 on the foul foreshore, the apex at the fortress of the 
 
 79 
 
80 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 Kasbah hundreds of feet above, enclose the white mass 
 of crowding houses that runs up the steep hillside. The 
 Algiers of a.d. 1626. The scourge of Christendom. 
 The plague-spot of the Mediterranean. 
 
 Behind the curving mole are crowded a hundred 
 hulks, the ships that carry the bloodiest, cruellest 
 pirates of history to harry the coasts of countries as far 
 apart as Italy and Iceland, to seize or sink peaceful 
 merchantmen and bring back their crews and passengers 
 to a horrible slavery. Some of the craft are hoisting 
 sail to set forth on their dread cruises. On one men 
 are plugging shot-holes, patching torn canvas and 
 replacing broken spars by fresh gnes sent as tribute 
 from far-distant Norway — repairs needed after the stern 
 fight with the battered prize alongside, that tall Spanish 
 galleon. On its deck a number of men, women and 
 children are being fitted with irons and chained together 
 two by two — unhappy captives whom Death has spared 
 for a worse fate. 
 
 Out from the shelter of the mole darts a long, lean 
 galley, twenty great oars on either side churning up 
 the flashing water. And at each oar three wretched 
 Christian slaves, their feet chained to the deck, toil 
 with fettered hands, while on their naked backs blood 
 starts with each stroke of the terrible kourbashes, whips 
 of bull's sinews, unceasingly wielded by the brawny 
 arms of negro taskmasters. Poor wretches ! Only in 
 the stinking bagnios at night have they leisure to think 
 of the days when they were free men, Christian men, 
 sailors, traders, gentlemen of France, hidalgos of 
 Spain, merchant princes of Italian cities. And now 
 slaves! Captured when voyaging by sea they are 
 
ALGERIAN PICTURES 81 
 
 doomed to toil under the lash until death releases 
 them and their broken bodies are thrown into the 
 merciful water. Some have lost an eye, others have 
 fingers broken and teeth knocked out, by blows from 
 the whips or olive-wood batons of the slave-masters. 
 
 The city, so fair to view from the bay, is a foul place 
 of high, almost windowless buildings hemming in 
 narrow, steep alleys noisome with stench and filth, 
 where fettered Christians dispute with starving dogs for 
 offal flung on rubbish heaps. Inside the blind walls 
 of many of the tall houses are tiled courts in which 
 fountains play and marble-railed galleries on which 
 open luxuriously-furnished rooms in which on costly 
 rugs and soft divans lie fair women of many nations 
 robed in shimmering silks and decked with jewels — 
 playthings wiUing or reluctant of fierce, bearded pirates 
 or still more villanous renegades. 
 
 In an open space near a low wall that looks down 
 on the sea stand two men who seem strangely out of 
 place in their surroundings. For it is evident that 
 they are Europeans, yet they are free. One wears a 
 broad-brimmed hat with a long feather, a gold-laced, 
 wide-skirted silken coat, gay breeches' and silk stock- 
 ings, and a sword hangs at his side. The other is clad 
 in the long gown, baggy trousers and heel-less slippers 
 of a Turk, while a turban is twisted about his grey head. 
 But equally with the other he comes in for the black 
 looks of the hook-nosed Jews slinking by and the curses 
 of pious Mahommedans who lounge past them, spitting 
 on the ground as an insult to the Christian dogs that 
 defile the city by their presence. 
 
 " Truly, mon pete, Algiers is a more dreadful place 
 
 F 
 
82 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 than la with all my experience of Mussulman ways, 
 had any idea of/' exclaimed the gaily-clad cavalier in 
 French, addressing his companion in Turkish garb. 
 
 " Ah, Monsieur Napollon, only the good God 
 knows all the wickedness and misery of this accursed 
 town. No human brain can imagine it! The suffer- 
 ings of the slaves in the awful bagnios, the degradation 
 of virtuous Christian women torn from their 
 homes across the sea and subjected to the foulest 
 excesses and brutal lust of these vile beasts in human 
 form ! Ah I if only you can succeed in the mission with 
 which King Louis has entrusted you and buy the 
 freedom of even our fellow Frenchmen in slavery 
 here! There are thousands of them alone." 
 
 " How many Christian captives are there, think 
 you, within the walls of Algiers ? " 
 
 " Not less than thirty-six thousand. Yet not even 
 I can tell you the exact number; although for twenty 
 years I have laboured among them, seeking them out 
 in the bagnios, carrying them to hospital if their cruel 
 masters permitted it, giving them the Last Sacraments 
 as they He dying on the stones that form their beds. 
 Yes, twenty years it is," he went on reminiscently, 
 " since our Order of Our Lady of Mercy sent me to 
 toil here. And how little good have I done! " 
 
 The old man was unjust to himself. He was a 
 member of one of the Redemptorist orders of priests 
 founded, as the name implied, to redeem slaves by 
 ransoming them with money obtained from their rela- 
 tives or raised by charity. They devoted their lives 
 to succouring the wretched captives in every way. 
 
 " There is a hospital, then^ for slaves ? " asked the 
 
ALGERIAN PICTURES 84 
 
 cavalier, a Corsican Knight of Saint Michael and 
 gentleman of the court of Louis XIII. of France. 
 
 His name was Giudicelli ; but he was usually known 
 as Sanson NapoUon. He had been the French Consul 
 at Aleppo, and his monarch, who was then allied to the 
 Sultan of Turkey, had sent him to Constantinople to 
 protest against the war waged on France and the 
 thousands of French subjects seized as slaves by the 
 pirates of the cities of the Barbary States along the 
 North African coast — Tunis, Algiers, Oran, Sale, 
 Rabat and others — that nominally acknowledged the 
 Sultan as their suzerain. 
 
 And Napollon had come in this year of grace 1626 
 with letters and Turkish officers bearing the orders of 
 the Commander of the Faithful that attacks on French 
 property should cease and French subjects should be 
 set free. 
 
 " A hospital for slaves," echoed the old priest. 
 " Yes. The hospital of Spain, we call it. Fifty years 
 ago a Capuchin friar was captured by the pirates. He 
 was the confessor of Don Juan of Austria, who sent a 
 Sum of sixty thousand livres to ransom him. But the 
 friar preferred to remain a slave and use the money to 
 found a hospital for other slaves. He died in chains 
 himself and his body was flung to the dogs to eat." 
 
 " God rest him ! A true man, that ! " exclaimed 
 the cavalier. " But tell me, father, what chance have 
 I of succeeding in my mission.'^ I have made little 
 progress so far. I had thought that the Sultan of 
 Turkey's commands were law unto Algiers; but the 
 Pasha pays little heed to them. Who is the real ruler 
 here?" 
 
B4 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 The old priest shook his head. 
 
 " There be many masters in this city. The Sultan's 
 writ does not run here if it be contrary to their will. 
 True, his nominee, the Pasha, whom he appoints 
 every three years, is supposed to be the Chief of 
 the State. But if the Algerians be not pleased with 
 him they put him on a ship and send him home to 
 Constantinople." 
 
 " But he governs?" 
 
 " To a point, yes. But he rules only with the aid 
 of the Diwan or Council. That is composed of the four 
 Secretaries of State — the Oukilhardji or Minister of 
 Marine and Director of the Arsenal, the Khasnadji 
 or High Treasurer, the Khodja-El-Kheil or Grand 
 Administrator, the Agha or Commander of the Army. 
 With these are joined certain others — representatives 
 of the Moslem clergy and veterans of the Janissaries." 
 
 " Who are these Janissaries.^ " 
 
 " Men recruited at depots established at Constanti- 
 nople and Smyrna for service here. The worst scoun- 
 drels of the Levant. A criminal in Turkey has but 
 to say that he is willing to go to Algiers, and he is set 
 free to do so. There are thirty thousand of them here 
 in the ' Inyjncible Militia.' Each is entitled ' Effendi,' 
 or * Lord,' exempted from all taxation and lodged free 
 in barracks, sure of a pension when no longer fit to 
 serve. See, there go some of them. Veterans those, 
 by their leathern caps and gilded scabbards. Notice 
 how scornfully they look down on the citizens! Ah, 
 now there will be turmoil ! " 
 
 The group of swaggering soldiers, from whom peace- 
 ful civilians had shrunk aside, found their way blocked 
 
ALGERIAN PICTURES 85 
 
 by a crowd of sailors from the pirate ships in the harbour 
 below. These were men of all races, Berbers from the 
 Kabyle mountains, Soudanese negroes, Spanish Moors, 
 renegades from Italy and France. Between the sea- 
 rovers and the Militia was deadly hatred and jealousy; 
 for the sailors could not aspire to any honours ashore, 
 while the soldiers, although each one of them could 
 hope to become General or even Pasha of Algiers, 
 earned small pay compared with wealth that came the 
 seamen's way from the plunder of vessels and the sale 
 of prizes and slaves. How lucrative their piracy was 
 may be judged from the fact that between 1613 and 
 1621 they captured 447 Dutch, 193 French, 56 German, 
 60 English, and 120 Spanish ships. To say nothing 
 of those of other nations or those sunk, burned at sea 
 or sold in foreign countries to avoid paying the Pasha 
 his lawful dues of a fifth of their value. 
 
 Now fierce looks and angry words are exchanged 
 between these representatives of the Army and the 
 Navy and swords are drawn. The fray begins and 
 men fall. 
 
 The old priest plucks at his companion's sleeve. 
 
 " Come away, my son ; too much hangs upon your 
 life to risk it idly. And when these Moslems come to 
 blows the Christian may chance easily to meet his 
 death-stroke." 
 
 Hastily he pulls Napollon aside as a party of sailors 
 in European garb come running by them to the assist- 
 ance of their mates, plucking their hangers out of the 
 sheaths and cursing in good Anglo-Saxon. 
 
 " Stand not in their way, I beg you ! " whispers the 
 Redemptorist. " These are worse than any Turk, 
 
86 ALGERIA TODAY 
 
 English pirates — Christians, an it please you, who 
 league with the infidel to war on their own kind." 
 
 Hastily the pair turn down a side street, and the 
 sounds of the fray die away behind them. As their 
 pace lessens the cavalier looks at the passers-by. White 
 men and elderly women in rags, chains clanking on 
 their wrists and ankles, stagger past them under the 
 weight of heavy burdens. Unkempt, unclean, devoured 
 by vermin, with matted hair foul with dirt, their haggard 
 faces and wasted forms telling of starvation and suffer- 
 ing, they hurry on, afraid to pause a moment to shift 
 their loads or wipe their streaming faces. Poor slaves, 
 death would be a boon ! 
 
 One has found it. Two old men totter along 
 carrying between them a naked corpse of a European, 
 a skeleton clothed only with tight-drawn skin. As 
 Napollon watches them they throw the body on a filth- 
 heap; and before their backs are turned a pack of 
 starving mongrels are tearing the body to pieces. 
 
 The cavalier shudders. 
 
 " God ! That such things should be ! " he cries. 
 
 " Alas! my son, there is worse in Algiers." And the 
 old man sighs. 
 
 Suddenly his face brightens as a slave comes towards 
 them, bending under a heavy load. Unlike all the 
 others that Napollon has seen, this man is smiling and 
 seems to toil cheerfully. As he reaches them he stops 
 for an instant. 
 
 ** Is all well with you, Father? " he asks. 
 
 " Aye, with me. But with you.'^ " cries the old man. 
 
 " God be praised, yes. Your blessing ! " 
 
 The aged priest with tear-filled eyes raises his hand 
 
ALGERIAN PICTURES 87 
 
 and blesses him, and he goes on again, nodding a 
 cheerful farewell to them. 
 
 " Who is that ? " asks the cavalier with curiosity. 
 
 " Father Francis, one of our Order," replies his 
 companion. "You know that by our rules we are 
 bound, when the money we have brought here to buy 
 the liberty of the captives is spent, to free slaves by 
 offering to take their place ourselves and give up our 
 freedom in exchange for theirs. Father Francis has 
 done that." 
 
 " How noble! How God-like! " 
 
 " It is only our duty," said the old man mildly. " I 
 myself wore chains for five years in place of a young 
 Italian whose poor family had no money to ransom him. 
 But then the Father Superior thought that I could do 
 better work free and sent five hundred livres to purchase 
 my liberty. He forbade my exchanging myself again." 
 
 " What is this ? Who are these men ? " cried 
 NapoUon. 
 
 Four or five Jews were dragging along the rough 
 street by ropes a hurdle on which lay the bleeding, 
 naked body of a white man, who moaned feebly as he 
 was bumped over the ruts. Beside the hurdle, shouting 
 out abuse, ran a number of Mahommedans and Jews 
 mixed who struck at him with sticks, hurled stones and 
 spat in the face of the dying wretch. 
 
 The priest turned sadly away from the awful sight. 
 
 " These are Spanish Moors and Jews who, because 
 the Christians drove them out of Spain, seek to revenge 
 themselves by buying at random some Spaniard who is 
 a slave here and putting him to death. These men will 
 drag that poor wretch round until he is dead." 
 
88 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 They had reached a long street closed at both ends 
 and known as the Badestan. 
 
 " Ah, here is the spot to which I wish that I could 
 bring all the Christian monarchs and peoples of Europe 
 to behold a sight that should fire them to war upon this 
 accursed city until not one stone remained upon another. 
 It is the Slave Market. Look! " 
 
 At one end of the Badestan a large crowd of Mos- 
 lems were gathered. Some sat on mats in front of a 
 coffee-house, smoking chibouques and drinking from 
 small brass cups. Some lounged against the walls, 
 others stood about. Their eyes were turned on a group 
 of men, women and children, all except the youngest 
 chained and all mother-naked. They were captives 
 brought in by pirates the day before and now exposed 
 for sale. Europeans, all. 
 
 The men*s backs were bleeding from the whips of 
 the slave-traders ; and, prodded with swords, they were 
 forced to run up and down before the buyers. The 
 white skin of some of the female prisoners was striped 
 and torn by the lash. But the wretched women suffered 
 more from the lewd gaze and the rude handling of 
 appraisers of their value and would-be purchasers, who 
 pawed them and felt them all over as though they were 
 cattle. 
 
 The sales concluded, weeping children were torn 
 from their mothers, young girls from their parents, wives 
 from their husbands, to be dragged away to the harems 
 of bestial brutes in human form. 
 
 The cavaHer crushed down a mad desire to draw 
 sword and rush in among the crowd of buyers and 
 lookers-on and strike blindly until he fell dead himself. 
 
ALGERIAN PICTURES 89 
 
 But he registered a solemn vow to spend every crown 
 he possessed in ransom of as many wretched slaves as 
 he could. 
 
 And well he kept his oath. At his own expense 
 alone he bought the freedom of over two thousand 
 French slaves, besides liberating others with funds 
 supplied by the King or various cities in France ; and 
 he left no French subject in chains when he finally 
 sailed from the Pirate City. 
 
 A true historical picture this of life in Algiers. 
 Sanson Napollon earned but little thanks from his 
 ungrateful countrymen and was killed by the Genoese 
 in 1633. 
 
 Spread me another canvas! 
 
 Over the blue waters of the Bay of Algiers a majestic 
 fleet of white-sailed warships is strung out from Point 
 Pescade to the Mole. At the peak of bomb-vessel, 
 frigate and line-of-battle ship floats the white ensign 
 of the Bourbons ; for it is a July day in 1830 and a Bour- 
 bon king sits on the throne of France. From the 
 open ports the grinning muzzles of the guns look out 
 and bark defiance at the Algerine forts too far away for 
 the cannon-balls fired from ship or shore to do aught 
 but splash harmlessly in the sea between. 
 
 But not so high up above the doomed city. The 
 grey mass of Sultan Kalassi, the big fortress that tops 
 the hill over Algiers, is wreathed in smoke as it fruit- 
 lessly answers the shot and shell that rain on it from the 
 French siege-batteries. The dead bodies of its artillery- 
 men lie across their heated guns, and its fire dwindles. 
 In vain Fort Bab Azoun and the Kasbah try to aid it. 
 Below the brow of the hill the storming-columns are 
 
90 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 forming up, and their blue ranks are tipped with 
 gleaming steel. 
 
 Suddenly a sheet of flame shoots up to the cloudless 
 sky ; and in a pillar of smoke a mass of stones, bricks, 
 and human bodies is flung up to fall far and wide, most 
 of it on the terrified city below, crushing to death scores 
 of its people. The despairing commander of the 
 fortress has blown it up. 
 
 In the Kasbah the Tyrant of Algiers, Hussein, the 
 last of the Deys or Pashas, rushes madly out to the 
 crowds of soldiers and citizens who have come to beg 
 him to surrender to the all-conquering Frank. 
 
 "Never! Sooner would I blow up my palace, 
 Kasbah and city ! " he cries and, brandishing a loaded 
 pistol, runs towards the powder-magazine. * 
 
 But his subjects fling themselves on him and disarm 
 him by force ; and he slinks back into his harem to await 
 his doom among his weeping women. 
 
 Scarcely has the smoke of the explosion died away 
 over the wrecked Sultan Kalassi — Fort TEmpereur, 
 they call it now, rebuilt and serving as a military prison 
 — than a battalion of gallant, red-breeched infantrymen 
 dash over the smouldering ruins and plant the flag of 
 France on them. 
 
 And on this day, 4th July, 1830, the Dey of Algiers 
 surrenders his city and himself to the victors, and the 
 hellish rule of the Pirate Lords is ended for ever. 
 
 A Picture of To-day. In bay and harbour lie great 
 grey hulks of battleship and cruiser and the topheavy 
 shapes of destroyers moored alongside low, flat sub- 
 marines. On most floats the tricolour of France; but 
 
ALGERIAN PICTURES 91 
 
 the Stars and Stripes or the White Ensign, the Red, 
 White and Green, and the Yellow and Red of Spain 
 are seen. 
 
 The long front of Algiers with white fnosques 
 dwarfed by the massive stone blocks of six-storied 
 buildings is gay with fluttering flags and crowded with 
 a swarming mass of humanity of many races. French, 
 Spanish, Maltese, Italians, city-dwelling Moslems in 
 red caps and store clothes, country and desert Arabs 
 stately in camel-rope-bound turban, white hlafa and 
 flowing burnous, cheery blue-eyed, sandy-haired Berber 
 labourers in ragged garments, white-veiled women and 
 gaily-clad children, all wedged together on the pave- 
 ments of the long boulevard behind the lines of troops 
 with fixed bayonets keeping the roadway clear. 
 
 And these soldiers, white, brown and black, tell the 
 story of the past hundred years in Algeria. Dark blue, 
 red-braided shell-jackets and baggy red trousers mark 
 the Zouaves, the gallant French infantrymen whose 
 predecessors conquered North Africa in a century-long 
 campaign. Turquoise-blue, yellow-braided jackets 
 and trousers for the Tirailleurs Indigenes, the Arab and 
 Berber soldiers who, now as in bygone days when they 
 were called Turcos, fought shoulder to shoulder with 
 their French comrades against German foes. Grinning 
 negroes in khaki with long tassels to their red caps — 
 Senegalese these to tell how France's African Empire 
 has extended. 
 
 And now from warship and fort the guns' roar and 
 the white smoke drifts away over the sea; and the 
 mountains and hills that have echoed the sound so 
 often in the past centuries look down impassively on 
 
92 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 man and his frail handiwork. And along between the 
 lines of soldiers comes a gay procession. 
 
 A Frenchman in uniform with drawn sword, but 
 whose cap-band of silver oak-leaves marks him a Civil 
 Officer, leads it on a powerful bay horse well trained 
 and walking steadily along in strong contrast to the 
 savaging, screaming stallions behind it. White or grey 
 almost without exception, silken-coated with long 
 manes and tails to their fetlocks, high-peaked saddles, 
 headstalls and bridles gay with red, purple or blue 
 velvet stiff with heavy gold embroidery, they are the 
 priceless, dearest possessions of the men who bestride 
 them. Bearded, well-featured, hawk-eyed these riders, 
 whose fathers, or mayhap themselves, for some are 
 white-haired, have fought the French in fierce razzia 
 or desperate rebellion; and the curved, silver-hilted 
 scimitars bared in their sinewy hands have assuredly 
 drunk deep of Christian blood, for they have passed 
 from father to son through many generations. 
 
 And now these Arab caids, chiefs of tribesmen from 
 the sea to the Sahara, robed like princes in scarlet 
 burnouses heavy with gold embroidery and adorned 
 with enamelled crosses and stars of French orders of 
 chivalry, with their long red boots thrust into silver 
 stirrups, are riding peacefully behind a Frank, obedient 
 to his signal. 
 
 And behind them on lean, lithe horses with tossing 
 manes come other Arabs in the same Bedouin dress, 
 white headgear wound around with camel-hair cord, 
 an inner white burnous flung back over the outer red 
 one showing open red shell-jackets, baggy breeches 
 and wrinkled red leather boots. These are the famous 
 
ALGERIAN PICTURES 08 
 
 Spahis, recruited from the warlike tribes of the South, 
 whose curved sabres have flashed on many a battlefield 
 in Africa, Europe and Asia under the silken folds of the 
 tricolour. 
 
 Then handkerchiefs flutter, hats are raised and 
 cheers go up as, drawn by big artillery horses ridden 
 by French gunners, a high carriage comes by in which 
 sits a small, white-haired man whose hat is waved in 
 incessant reply to the greetings from crowded pave- 
 ments, balconies and roofs. 
 
 He is dressed in sober civiHan garb and looks a 
 modest, unassuming gentleman. Yet in his honour 
 the guns roar, the flags wave and chieftains whose 
 ancestry dates back to Mahomet's time escort him 
 through the city in which for centuries the Christian 
 was a dog and less than a dog. 
 
 For he is the President of the French Republic 
 and France rules in Algeria to-day. 
 
 A night picture this. Bowered in palms and flower- 
 ing bushes on the steep hillside of Mustapha above 
 the bay stands a fairy palace. The white dome, the 
 graceful arches, blaze with a myriad lamps and dim the 
 stars. Lights twinkle among the dark vegetation, 
 outline the paths, shine from the foliage. Into the 
 still night music floats out over the sea far below. 
 
 An immense chamber with carved cedar ceiling, 
 chiselled white columns and walls gleaming with bright 
 mosaics and gay with painted scenes of Algeria and its 
 peoples. Large as this great salon is it is yet too small 
 for the gay crowds that fill it and overflow out into the 
 tiled corridor outside, the marble staircase, the galleries 
 that look on the pillared Court of Honour of the Summer 
 
04 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 Palace of Algiers. For to-night the Governor-General 
 of Algeria gives a State Ball in honour of the 
 President; and, spacious as is his official home, it can- 
 not contain the thousands of his guests. 
 
 A kaleidoscope of varied, shifting colours. The 
 bright hues of the ladies' dresses are dulled by the scar- 
 let and gold burnouses of Arab caids, the gay uniforms 
 of officers of Spahis, Chasseurs dAfrique, Tirailleurs 
 Indigenes, Colonial Infantry and Desert Camelry. 
 With them compete the gold epaulettes and dark blue 
 of many Navies — French, American, British, Spanish, 
 Portuguese — whose ships lie visible in the bay below 
 outlined in tiny electric lights from truck to water's edge. 
 
 Bands play upstairs and down, but dancing is not 
 possible. In a large white room of Moorish architec- 
 ture glowing with the bright hues of Eastern rugs are 
 set out card-tables. At the first sits a French military 
 officer playing bridge with three Arab caids whose 
 scarlet burnouses are covered with decorations. 
 Solemnly these chiefs from Tell and Tableland and 
 Sahara study their cards or discourse on the last rubber 
 in fluent French. And around them sit or stand a 
 throng of other caids or sheikhs in gold-embroidered 
 velvet garments under their flowing drapery, following 
 the fortunes of the game and awaiting their turn to 
 cut in. 
 
 Presently the dense crowds in hall and court press 
 eagerly forward and stare open-eyed. Down the broad 
 marble staircase lined with interested guests come six 
 tall men in garb bizarre and strange even in this medley 
 of costume. From turbaned head to ankle they are 
 draped in black or dark blue, though over it one wears 
 
ALGERIAN PICTURES 95 
 
 the scarlet burnous that is an alien dress to him. On 
 their bare feet are sandals. On left arm from elbow to 
 wrist a cross-hilted dagger is fastened, pommel to hand, 
 and a long straight sword with silver scabbard at each 
 man's side. They are covered with amulets — little 
 metal boxes or leather bags containing Koran texts in 
 parchment, lion's teeth or claws, scraps of giraffe skin. 
 But, strangest thing of all, each one is veiled to the 
 eyes with a long black veil that hangs to his chest. 
 
 No wonder the civilised guests press forward to 
 gaze on these desert wanderers. For they are chief- 
 tains of the legendary Touareg, those strange masked 
 raiders from the far south of the Sahara. From the 
 rugged mountains of the Hoggar they have come hun- 
 dreds of miles on their swift white camels to pay 
 homage to the great Sheikh of the Roumis whose daring 
 explorers and devoted soldiers have extended their 
 empire from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. 
 And the grim veiled figures complete the picture. 
 
 From the sublime to the ridiculous! A smaller 
 canvas is needed for the next picture, for it portrays 
 just a group of boys. 
 
 Real street Arabs these. They are gathered together 
 before the terrasse of a European cafe that looks on a 
 shady garden filled with the exotic foliage of palm, 
 banyan and bamboo. Of all ages from eight to fourteen 
 — some in tattered blue cotton gowns to their bare 
 ankles, others in ragged breeches and shirts, but all 
 with the red cap — fez, you call it in Turkey, tarboosh 
 in Egypt, checchia or shesshia here — that, borrowed 
 from the infidel Greeks, is now the mark of the True 
 Believer the world over. Some carry bundles of news- 
 
96 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 papers and call out " L'Algerie," " Nouvelles," or the 
 names of the journals you see on the kiosks of Paris. 
 Others, with boxes tucked under their arms and shoe- 
 brushes in their hands, inspect with anxious eyes the 
 boots of the straw-hatted beer and coffee-drinkers at 
 the little white marble tables. 
 
 " Cireur (Polisher), nisieu? " cries one, and, dart- 
 ing between the chairs, flings himself at the feet of a 
 seated European. 
 
 " Makache cireur (No shoeblack needed)," says the 
 drinker in pidgin-French. " Va-t-en! " 
 
 The disappointed shoe-shiner withdraws reluctantly, 
 his eager gaze sweeping over the footgear around him. 
 A smudge on a dandy's boot arrests his eyes. Again 
 he offers himself, this time with better fortune. Then 
 with a few coins clinking in his hand he hurries off 
 round the corner into a side street to seek the rest of 
 the group who have already disappeared there. And 
 then newsvendors, shoeblacks and beggar-boys indulge 
 in a quarrelsome game of pitch and toss. The fiercest, 
 angriest gambler of them all is an undersizdd boy of 
 ten whose pinched face and hacking cough are a sure 
 income to him and bring in the coppers to be thus 
 squandered. Now he loses all he has, and with foul- 
 mouthed abuse of the winners takes himself off. 
 
 And five minutes later on the other side of the 
 square a kind-hearted old lady is deeply touched at the 
 sight of this poor, starved boy crouching despondently 
 on the hard pavement with his back against the railing — 
 and out comes her ready purse. 
 
 An Algerian picture should be full of light to match 
 the sunshine. But there is shadow in some. 
 
ALGERIAN PICTURES 97 
 
 A pleasant summer night. Across the bay the 
 lights on the hillside of Mustapha Superieur climb up 
 to mingle with the stars. Around the squares of Algiers 
 the caf6s are filled and the tired loungers have deserted 
 the streets for the marble-topped tables and cooling 
 drinks. 
 
 The glass doors of a fashionable hotel swing open 
 and the French hall-porter bows politely as an Arab 
 passes out. But a superior Arab. On the breast of 
 his snowy white woollen burnous is the red rosette and 
 enamelled cross of the Legion d'Honneur and the 
 bright-coloured ribbons of a few other orders. His 
 long and soft scented red leather boots are thrust into 
 heel-less babouches and shuffle over the pavement as 
 their wearer saunters idly under the arcades. And, as 
 he goes, a couple of shadows detach themselves from 
 a dark pillar and two Arabs steal along the deserted 
 street after him with the noiseless tread of the rare 
 panther of their stony hills. 
 
 The cald strolls on carelessly, thinking little of 
 enmities that he may have kindled in the exercise of his 
 authority among his tribesmen so far away in the barren 
 wastes of the south. For he has the whole power of 
 the French Republic, whose executive officer he is, 
 behind him. Of course a rifle in the shadow of a rock 
 in the desert spaces is no respecter of persons. But 
 rocks and sand and oases of the Sahara are all far 
 enough away now. This is Algiers, a civilised and 
 well-policed city, a Paris in petto by the sea. A 
 stealthy footfall, a panther's spring — and a knife flashes 
 in the light of the incandescent gas lamps to plunge deep 
 in the caid's back. And with burnouses streaming 
 
 G 
 
gs ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 behind them two Arabs fly different ways along the 
 empty street. The vengeance of a desert vendetta 
 is accomplished. 
 
 But there is a companion picture. The silent 
 thoroughfare is not completely empty. A white man, 
 a French civilian, chances to be coming along and 
 witnesses the tragedy. He is unarmed. 
 
 But France does not breed cowards. He has 
 marked the assassin, and unhesitatingly he gives him 
 chase. The poet may sing of the swift-footed Arab, 
 but the heel-less babouche will never outrun the prosaic 
 European boot, and the pursuer closes with his man. 
 The murderer turns savagely and stabs at him with the 
 reddened knife. The Frenchman is wounded, falls, 
 and the native rushes on free. 
 
 But only for a moment. Despite the blood stream- 
 ing from him the courageous white man staggers to his 
 feet, takes up the chase again, overtakes and captures 
 the assassin. 
 
 And the French police, unrivalled in detective work, 
 are not long in finding his accomplice; and the two 
 Arabs face red-robed judges in the big Palais de Justice 
 not far from the scene of their crime and hear their death 
 sentence pronounced. 
 
 But they cheat the guillotine in the end; for their 
 lives are spared, and they are sent overseas to a convict 
 settlement in French Guiana. 
 
 Chained together they climb the side-ladder of the 
 prison ship that is to take them across the ocean. And, 
 ere they step on its deck, they check for a moment to 
 look on the glorious panorama of white city, gay gardens, 
 green hills and snow-clad mountains that make the last 
 Algerian picture on which their eyes will ever rest. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 FROM ROSE TOWN AND THE STREAM OF THE MONKEYS TO 
 THE KSAR OF BOGHARI 
 
 The Square de la Republique in Algiers is already full 
 of animation, although the small clock near the Munici- 
 pal Theatre shows that it is not yet nine o'clock in the 
 morning. Under the bamboos and banyan trees of the 
 shady Public Gardens passes a cosmopolitan throng — 
 Frenchmen in straw hats and black suits, Arabs in 
 long, flowing burnouses, white-shrouded Moorish 
 women veiled to the eyes and neat little shop-girls, 
 French, Maltese, Sicilian, Spanish, in short skirts and 
 silk stockings. A barefooted Arab boy in a ragged 
 blue gown, his only garment, on his head a checchia, 
 runs across the square with a bundle of newspapers 
 under his arm and calls out " La Depeche! La 
 Depeche Algeriennef " as he goes. 
 
 From the front seat of a big motor diligence with 
 the words " Boufarik — Blida" painted on the sides, 
 I watch the other passengers for these two inland towns 
 climb up to their places. There is an officer of a Tirail- 
 leurs Indigenes regiment in khaki, Sam Browne belt 
 and gold-ringed kepi with its distinctive broad band of 
 pale blue. Then a stout Frenchwoman with a restless, 
 
 99 
 
100 ALGERIA TODAY 
 
 y"' noisy child which starts at once to make itself a nuisance 
 ^ , and is deservedly well slapped for it. Two Arabs 
 follow, their rounded head-dress covered with the hlafa, 
 2l thin white veil which, bound round above by coils of 
 brown, camel-hair rope, hides the back of the head and 
 neck and the cheeks, and is tucked away under the 
 gandaura, the long garment worn under the burnous, 
 the white woollen cape with a hood hanging down the 
 back. With them is a woman enveloped in the ample 
 white, shrouding cloak worn by Arab females which 
 conceals her pink jacket and baggy trousers. Her face 
 is hidden by the lace-trimmed adjar, a veil that hangs 
 below the eyes. But the solemn infant that she carries 
 is clothed in European knitted baby-clothes. Two 
 straw-hatted young Jews in blue suits and a swarthy- 
 faced Maltese in a bowler make up the rest of the 
 passengers, most of whom are going to Blida, the pretty 
 little garrison town 32 miles away at the foot of the 
 Atlas Range. I am bound for it myself, for it is the end 
 of the diligence's journey ; and there I must find some 
 other conveyance to take me on to the Gorges of the 
 Chifia, the river that cuts its way through the great 
 Atlas Mountains and forms a famous and lovely pass. 
 
 Beside the big vehicle stands our driver, a sandy- 
 haired, blue-eyed Kabyle, with the light complexion 
 that so many of the Berber race owe to the Vandal blood 
 in them — for the Vandals, who carved out a kingdom in 
 North Africa after the Byzantine monarchs, came from 
 Germany. This descendant of theirs wears the red 
 checchia of the Moslem; but his blue overalls and the 
 wrist-watch which he compares with the Square clock 
 are significant of the progressive spirit of his race, so 
 
THE KSAR OF BOGHARI 101 
 
 infinitely more go-ahead than the stagnating Arabs. He 
 climbs up to his place at the steering wheel, while his 
 young assistant in checchia and a ragged store suit 
 cranks up the engine. Then with a warning squawk of 
 the motor-horn the long vehicle moves off slowly, 
 dodging electric trams, hired victorias and seven-horsed 
 carts, while Arab newsboys and Jew street vendors of 
 gold-embroidered bags, cheap Kabyle jewellery and 
 imitation Moorish scimitars, skip out of the way. 
 
 Around by the railings of the tree-filled gardens in 
 the Square until the view of the sea bursts on us, past 
 the arcaded sidewalk of the splendid Boulevard along 
 the wall over the harbour; and then the diligence 
 quickens its pace until up a steep slope it turns away 
 from the sea and stops beside the General Post Office, 
 the dazzlingly-white and splendid pile of domed build- 
 ings in the Neo-Mauresque style. Here is the loveliest 
 part of New Algiers, the wide square with a shady 
 thicket of pollarded trees, on one side a view of the 
 harbour and the sea beyond and the steep slopes of 
 Mustapha Superieur, on another the terraced public 
 garden gay with palms and flowers below the green hill 
 topped with the high obelisk to the memory of the dead 
 soldiers of Africa that crowns the city. 
 
 Postbags for villages not on the railway and one or 
 two more passengers are taken aboard ; and on we start 
 again, up the long Rue Michelet which, lined with 
 cafes, shops and flats, leads out of the city to the beauti- 
 ful suburb of Mustapha Superieur clinging to the steep 
 hills that rise above the blue water of the sunlit bay. 
 Up between green gardens splashed with the brilliant 
 reds and purples and pinks of bougainvillea, poinsettia 
 
102 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 and roses clothing the white walls of the red-tiled houses. 
 By the lovely Bardo, the ancient Summer Palace of the 
 Deys of Algiers, by the modern one of their successor, 
 the French Governor-General, guarded by picturesque 
 Spahis in scarlet uniforms draped with long white bur- 
 nouses. On by the imitation Moorish architecture of 
 the English Church, by villas and hotels, swinging 
 round the sharp curves of the zigzagging road, passing 
 electric trams, automobiles and other big diligences 
 coming in from a dozen different routes ending in this 
 road. At length we reach the pinewood of the Bois de 
 Boulogne that tops the hill and the small obelisk of the 
 Colonne Voirol where the view of inland valley and 
 mountain replaces the glorious panorama of sea, shore, 
 and the climbing houses of Algiers now left behind us. 
 
 Down the sharply-curving road skirting a deep 
 wooded ravine, by terraced fields on the steep hillsides, 
 on between hedges of wild roses or the sharp spikes of 
 aloes. The East and the West meet. Here are white 
 houses of typical Moorish architecture, once the country 
 mansions of Algerine pashas and now the residences 
 of rich French colonists. There are red-tiled farms \ 
 with hangars and sheds sheltering mechanical reapers^ 
 and motor-traction ploughs or lines of the huge metal 
 tanks that replace the wine casks in a modern vineyard. 
 Here are palms, orange and fig-trees and the broad, 
 drooping leaves of the banana contrasting with pines, 
 cherry and apple trees and fields of the homely cabbage. 
 There the familiar red of poppies, here the dull green 
 of exotic cactus and aloe. 
 
 We have entered the Mitidja Plain, the marvellously 
 productive belt of cultivation between the ridges above 
 
THE KSAR OF BOGHARI 108 
 
 Algiers and the cloud-capped chain of the Atlas Moun- 
 tains that now stretches along to our left not many miles 
 away. Its fertility is beyond belief. It rivals the 
 famous Conca d'Oro around Palermo. In the days of 
 Sallust it was the Granary of Rome and under the 
 Emperors, the Byzantine and the Vandal rule its har- 
 vests helped to feed Europe. But when the Curse of 
 God fell on North Africa in the shape of the Arab Con- 
 quest its ruin began. Gradually greedy Moslem rulers 
 taxed the husbandman out of existence, agriculture 
 languished and died. The land no longer cultivated 
 became a jungle, its rivers spread into fever-breeding 
 marshes, famine and pestilence reigned supreme. 
 When the French took Algiers in 1830 the Mitidja was 
 only a poisonous waste; and in subsequent years 
 Algeria's soldier-rulers tried to dissuade its daring 
 pioneer-colonists from trying to reclaim it, for they 
 grudged the soldiers needed to protect the outlying 
 farms from Arab attacks and had no faith in the agricul- 
 tural future of the colony. " This poisonous Mitidja! " 
 said General Duvivier in 1841, " Let us leave it to the 
 jackals, the brigands and to Death. It will never be 
 made healthy and habitable." 
 
 But — all honour to the farmers! — they persevered;* 
 and France and Algeria are their debtors to-day. Wide-| 
 stretching fields of waving grain, vast vineyards produc- 
 ing excellent wines, and large orange groves, replacing 
 the feverish marshes and jungles of less than a century 
 ago, are the glorious monument of these gallant colonists 
 of France who sleep now under the battlefield on which 
 they vanquished the combined forces of Arabs and 
 Nature. 
 
104 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 The well-kept road sweeps down to the sleepy, tree- 
 shaded place of a little town, as French in its character 
 as though it were in the Mother Country ; although its 
 name, Birmandreis — in Arabic, " The Well of the Cap- 
 tain " — tells of its Moslem origin. Then up a long 
 slope again and on to another and busier wayside vil- 
 lage, Birkadem, or " The Well of the Negress," from 
 its fountain built by Hussein Pasha in 1797 — and the 
 white folk coming to the doors of cafe, shops and black- 
 smith's forge, the short-skirted girls with Marcelle- 
 waved hair standing on the sidewalk to see us go by, 
 again create the illusion of a provincial town in France. 
 Indeed, only the Kabyle labourers in the fields plough- 
 ing with mixed teams of oxen, mules and horses between 
 long rows of vines or sprinkling the green leaves with 
 sulphate of copper, anywhere remind us that we are in 
 Africa. Or the work-hating Arab sleeping contentedly 
 in the shade of the roadside tree. 
 
 A lonely school, with small white boys and girls 
 playing beside it, makes me wonder where its pupils 
 come from, until I note the big farmhouses Scattered 
 among the fertile fields near it. The road still runs on 
 parallel to the mountains for miles, then turns sharply 
 to the left and, heading towards them, enters Boufarik, 
 a well-laid-out, prosperous European town of eight or 
 ten thousand inhabitants. Its tree-shaded streets, 
 cafes, public gardens, church, and the big market-place, 
 would do credit to the Mother Country ; and it differs in 
 appearance from a French provincial town only by its 
 modern aspect. The diligence pulls up in it for a ten 
 minutes' halt; and some of the passengers leave us 
 here. 
 
THE KSAR OF BOGHARI 105 
 
 On again by cornfield and vineyard — and now by 
 orange groves as well — past a memento of the days 
 when every foot of this ground was watered with French 
 blood, a monument to the gallant young Sergeant 
 Blandin who in 1841 with twenty-two youthful soldiers 
 at Beni-Mered held three hundred Arabs at bay for 
 hours until only five of his party were alive when help 
 arrived. 
 
 Soon by the roadside two-storied villas bowered in 
 flower-filled gardens announce that we are approaching 
 Blida; and the diligence passes through a gateway in 
 the wall surrounding the pretty little town at the foot 
 of the Atlas Mountains, the town dear to the heart of 
 Arab poets of bygone days, the town that Sidi Ahmed 
 ben Yousef called " The Little Rose." 
 
 Although the history of Blida dates back far beyond 
 the French occupation it is now a typical inland 
 French-built Algerian town. For it was destroyed 
 by an earthquake in 1825 and, though soon re- 
 erected a little distance from its former site, the 
 Arab edifices were again shaken down in another 
 earthquake in 1867 and only the new and more 
 solidly constructed buildings of the invaders 
 survived. And they have been added to and improved, 
 until Blida is now a charming little town of wide streets 
 and squares lined by typically French colonial houses, 
 villas, shops, hotels, caf^s and barracks; and one has 
 to hunt in odd corners to find anything essentially 
 native. Like most other Algerian towns it is sur- 
 rounded by a loopholed wall sufficient for defence 
 against ill-armed insurgents; but as the Pax Gallica 
 rests on the land the wall is now falling down in places. 
 
106 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 Blida was one of the first inland towns captured by the 
 French after the fall of Algiers. 
 
 Built at the foot of the Atlas Mountains at a height 
 of nearly 800 feet above the sea and on the 
 Oued-el-Kebir stream which flows into the larger river 
 the Chiffa close by, Blida is well supplied with water ; 
 and the country around it is noted for its fertility and 
 its numerous orange groves, vine nurseries and gardens. 
 In the flourishing days of piracy in Algiers the town 
 was the favourite holiday resort of the corsairs who came 
 there to recuperate after the hardships of the sea and 
 the turmoil of battle and spill their ill-gotten gold into 
 the laps of its courtesans. For it was a hotbed of vice. 
 Its brothels were filled with the women of all nations 
 of Europe, Africa and Asia, captured at sea or in coastal 
 raids or brought by caravans from the interior. Arab 
 poets lauded it to the skies for the beauty of its situ- 
 ation, for its climate, for its sensual delights that were 
 a foretaste of the Moslem Paradise, for its lovely flowers 
 that earned for it the titles of " The Rose Town " and 
 " The Little Rose." 
 
 But even among the followers of the Prophet there 
 were ascetic and holy men ; and one of them anathema- 
 tised Blida and asked Allah to rain destruction 
 on it. 
 
 " They call thee Little Rose. I term thee Harlot," 
 he cried^ as he prayed that ruin might befall it. But 
 the pirates still flocked to it in carriage, on horseback 
 or in litters borne by wretched Christian slaves; and 
 the wine-bibbers and courtesans mocked at the holy 
 man. But when the mountains shook and seemed 
 about to fall on them, when the earth gaped and the 
 
THE KSAR OF BOGHARI 107 
 
 houses tumbled in ruins about them they remembered 
 his words and prayed for his intercession — too late ! 
 
 The memory of the punishment of its sins has faded 
 from the minds of its native inhabitants to-day; and, 
 although the European town is decorous and well- 
 behaved, there is in the Arab portion a quarter that 
 shelters the successors of the gay ladies of pirate days, 
 a quarter of whitewashed houses with flat roofs, blank 
 outer walls and iron-studded doors with small grated 
 openings in them a foot or so from the sill. And when 
 the narrow lanes are dark light streams through these 
 peepholes and shows the pretty, painted faces of girls 
 seated on the ground and peering through at the burn- 
 oused Arab or turquoise blue-uniformed native soldier 
 who bends down and begs Fathma or Ayesha or Zohra 
 to admit him. Or through the gratings the laughing 
 women exchange banter with squatting groups of 
 jesting men outside. 
 
 And suddenly the disciplined tramp of soldiers rings 
 through the whitewashed alleys ; and a night patrol of 
 Tirailleurs Indigenes on regimental police duty marches 
 through the quarter of the Daughters of Joy. And the 
 corporal in charge halts them while he stops Arab 
 civilians in flowing robes and takes from them the wire- 
 bound heavy sticks — matraques they are called — that 
 against town regulations they carry and which are as 
 effective weapons in a street riot as the Indian lathi. 
 And when female shrieks and male voices raised in 
 objurgation ring out from a closed house near by the 
 sous-officier pauses to listen with ear trained to distin- 
 guish between a mere brothel brawl and a murderous 
 outrage by an angry Arab with a ready knife. 
 
108 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 By day this quarter is peaceful and picturesque. 
 On the flat roofs, by the doors, sit groups of girls in 
 pink and yellow and blue silk jackets, baggy trousers 
 and gaudy skirts. Here at a doorway one is playing 
 draughts with a bearded, elderly and most respectable- 
 looking Mussulman; and benevolent-looking men 
 squat beside them and follow the game intently. 
 
 The open door gives an attractive glimpse of a 
 white courtyard inside shaded by trellised vines. A 
 group of dark-eyed girls with whitened faces and rouged 
 cheeks and crosses tattooed on chin and forehead are 
 lounging at the entrance, gay as tropical butterflies in 
 their flimsy silken garments of bright colours. Should 
 you signify a desire to inspect the establishment they 
 smile on you and show white teeth between reddened 
 lips as they pray you in French and Arabic to enter. 
 Pass through the doorway into the little hall that opens 
 on the square court, across which a vine has been 
 trained to give needed shade from the summer sun. 
 Around the court are little cells with colourwashed 
 walls, one for each girl. Enter one of them. In a 
 recess a high, hard Moorish bed with glittering brass 
 frame. A foot from the ground in another recess a 
 low, cushioned masonry bench. On the wall a few 
 photographs of Arab girls in gala dress and one of some 
 favourite native soldier in uniform, smirkingly self- 
 conscious and mindful of the photographer's instruction 
 to strike an attitude. Over these is hung a thick candle 
 three feet long, bedizened with gold leaf and coloured 
 paint and paper flowers and ornaments. A " marabout 
 candle " this, to be burned before a shrine or the tomb 
 of a Moslem saint to bring a blessing. 
 
THE KSAR OF BOGHARl 109 
 
 And on another wall is a framed printed paper in 
 French — a warning of the danger of disease and advice 
 as to how to guard against it; official instructions 
 ordered by the municipal authorities to be exhibited in 
 every room of these Houses of Joy. 
 
 But this quarter is placed discreetly to one side of 
 Blida; and the respectable citizen and visitor knows 
 nothing of it. For them the band of the Tirailleur 
 regiment in garrison plays in the Place d'Armes, the 
 pleasant, tree-shaded square in the centre of the town 
 where the cafe tables are laid under the arcades of the 
 side-walks and the motor-diligences come from and go 
 to Algiers and Medea and the luggage-laden omnibus 
 rattle up from the railway station to the hotel with its 
 windows looking out on the square. There is, too, the 
 lovely Jardin Bizot, a bower of wonderful foliage and 
 flowers which takes its name from its creator, an 
 Engineer general who was killed in the trenches before 
 Sebastopol in 1855 at the age of 70. And further out 
 is the Sacred Wood, where gnarled olive trees shade 
 the tomb of the holy Sidi Yakoub to which devout 
 Moslem pilgrims come to pray. 
 
 Blida possesses a renowned Government horse- 
 breeding establishment where one can see the finest 
 specimens of pure-bred Arab and desert stallions 
 procurable. 
 
 Although its proximity to Algiers and the frequent 
 service of trains and motor-diligences make it a spot to 
 which most travellers find their way, one to which the 
 hordes of transatlantic tourists from the big American 
 steamers are whirled in their one-day visit to Algeria, 
 Blida is not a town merely for sightseers, but an 
 
110 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 important agricultural and mercantile centre with a civic 
 life of its own, a town that will grow with the years. 
 
 It was founded in 1553 by a famous traveller, 
 Ahmed-El-Kebir — Ahmed the Great — a holy marabout 
 who had visited Mecca, Damascus, Aleppo, Stamboul, 
 Cordova and Andalusia, but was nowhere tempted to 
 linger until he was captivated by the beauty of the site 
 on which he built Blida, which means " The Little 
 Town." But many termed it Ourida, " The Little 
 Rose." Barbarossa, the famous pirate Kheir-ed-Dinn 
 who was ruling Algiers, was his friend and helper, and 
 peopled Blida with Andalusian Moorish refugees, 
 driven out of Spain in 1499 by the victorious Christians. 
 Their descendants can be to-day distinguished from 
 their Arab and Berber fellow-citizens. A very holy 
 man was this Ahmed and gifted with the miraculous 
 power of making water gush from rocks when he struck 
 them with his staff. So says the pious legend ; but the 
 truth probably was that he had learned hydraulics and 
 irrigation from the Spanish Moors, past-masters in the 
 art, and applied his knowledge for the benefit of his 
 townsfolk. 
 
 To these Andalusian refugees in the sixteenth 
 century is attributed the introduction of the orange, in 
 Arabic " narandj,'' which is a source of wealth to the 
 district around Blida. Yet some folk belieye the 
 " Golden Apples " that Hercules sought in the 
 Hesperides to be simply the yellow fruit of the orange 
 trees growing in the shadow of giant Atlas now as in 
 that vanished age. 
 
 The mountains tower high above Blida; and from 
 the cedar-clothed summit of the Abd-el-Kader, 4,887 
 feet high, there is a glorious view over hill, plain and 
 
THE KSAR OF BOGHARI 111 
 
 sea. Away to the east are the Djurdjura Mountains 
 with the 7,500 feet Lella-Khadidja queening 
 it among their snow-clad peaks. To the west 
 are the imposing mass of the Chenoua and the Mouzaia 
 and the two Zaccar, to the north is the ocean, and to 
 the south the Ouarsenis and the fort-crowned Boghar 
 keeping its watch towards the far-away desert. 
 
 No need for the inhabitants of Blida to cross the 
 Mediterranean for winter sports ; for above their heads 
 on the snowy slopes of the Col of Chrea, 4,491 feet 
 above the sea, ski-ing has been introduced. And to 
 add to the amenities of Hfe they have their own mineral 
 water from the springs of Les Glacieres seven kilo- 
 metres away, water that in chemical constituents 
 resembles the Eau d'Evian (source Cachet). 
 
 I drove away from this favoured little town in a 
 carriage drawn by two lean but tireless Arab horses on 
 an excellent road like most in Algeria, passing between 
 rose-bowered villas, fields of corn, barley, oats and 
 tobacco, groves of orange, mandarine and lemon trees, 
 vineyards and vine nurseries. To my left rose up the 
 long chain of the Atlas Mountains a mile or two away, 
 their lower slopes terraced by the industrious Berber 
 hillmen into green fields, their summits veiled in clouds. 
 Occasionally their continuity was broken, and from deep 
 ravines rivers flowed out into the plain. From bank 
 to bank of each French engineers had thrown fine 
 bridges, the first of which was over the Oued-el-Kebir. 
 Beside this stream higher up are the tombs of the holy 
 Ahmed and his sons. 
 
 Farther on road and railway were thus carried across 
 the deep and broad bed of the Chiffa which comes from 
 
112 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 a wide opening in the mountains as seen from the plain, 
 giving no hint of the dark and narrow defiles through 
 which it has passed. As we followed its windings 
 among the hills it seemed to sink lower and lower as the 
 route rose higher and the slopes grew steeper, until we 
 were fairly in the famous gorge, hemmed in by tree- 
 clad walls several thousand feet above our heads. And 
 with a warning blast of a horn a big motor-diligence 
 swept by us crowded inside and out with passengers on 
 its way to Med^a, a town fifty-two kilometres from 
 Blida and 3,000 feet above the sea. 
 
 A historical route this road that clings to the pre- 
 cipitous slopes and revetted sides of the deep ravine and 
 links up, not only Medea, but also Berrouaghia, Bog- 
 hari and the southern deserts with the Mitidja and the 
 coast. Pick in one hand, musket in the other, French 
 soldiers good and bad began it in July heat in 1842 — 
 the good were the ever-famed Zouaves and the 53rd 
 Infantry, the bad the army's hard bargains of the 
 DeviFs Own, the " Companies of Discipline," to which 
 were sent the scoundrels and scapegraces of the mih- 
 tary world. Good and bad, all worked and fought 
 well ; for the mountain-tops swarmed with fierce Berber 
 tribesmen sworn to keep out the Christian dogs. But 
 the road went on, the railway followed it; and the 
 Beni-Salah, whose forefathers fought the French infidels 
 as their forebears had done the Andalusian Moors of 
 Ahmed-el-Kebir, True Believers though they were, 
 come down to-day to earn French money from their high 
 hills where they cultivate and irrigate their small fields 
 and orchards in ways learned from those same Anda- 
 lusians. And they have well applied the knowledge 
 
THE KSAR OF BOGHARI 113 
 
 brought from Spain, as their loaded fruit-trees, peach, 
 fig, grenadine, orange, lemon and vine, attest. 
 
 A rumble, a roar — and out of an unseen tunnel 
 below us at a bend of the road rushes a train on its way 
 to Boghari. Before the last carriage comes into view 
 the engine has plunged into another tunnel. For the 
 railway has not time to follow the windings of the hills 
 and bores straight through them. At one spot it crosses 
 the gorge by an iron bridge that simply links a tunnel 
 in a rocky cliff with one piercing the opposite cliff on 
 the farther side. At the entrance to the most attractive 
 part of the Pass is a lonely little railway station, Sidi 
 Madani, seven and a half miles from Blida, and another 
 at the end of the gorge, Camp des Chenes. 
 
 The carriage-road is not so pressed for time and 
 plays hide and seek round the shoulders of the hills 
 clothed with wild fig, wild olive, cork-oak, sweet acorn 
 oak and other trees springing up from dense and 
 tangled undergrowth. Wherever a patch of ground 
 can be seen wild flowers of brilliant hues abound. Five 
 or six thousand feet above the rocky bed of the river 
 the peaks of the Atlas Mountains tower; and cool 
 breezes sweep down from them between the rocky cliffs 
 of the winding gorge. 
 
 Where the road is carried by a bridge over a ravine 
 coming down to the Chiffa the driver checks his horses 
 and points up. 
 
 " Le Ruisseau des Singes (The Rivulet of the 
 Monkeys)," he says. 
 
 Down the recessed cleft in the steep mountain side 
 a stream tumbles swiftly, leaping from rock to rock, 
 eddying and swirling in little pools and plunging down 
 
114 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 again in miniature cataracts ere rushing lost to sight 
 through tunnels of arching greenery. On either side 
 the trees lean out to meet over the precipices or hang 
 helplessly by their bared roots in the brown scars of 
 landslips. And above the white water roaring inces- 
 santly among the rocks and dropping in a gossamer fall 
 as it nears the road is a small hotel in this picturesque 
 setting that the Japanese would love as a site for an inn 
 or a tea-house. It takes me back in memory to many 
 ^yadoya in the mountains around Nikkho and Chuzenji. 
 
 The carriage turns into a levelled space before this 
 hostelry, the Hotel du Ruisseau des Singes. And with 
 the silver laughter of the stream ringing in my ears I 
 sit down at a table outside the building and order lunch. 
 
 The young French waiter after taking my order 
 asks: 
 
 " Would you like to see the monkeys ? " 
 
 Then, a basket of nuts in his hand, he looks up at 
 the green-clad slopes and calls. High above us, right 
 and left, the branches of the trees are agitated, then 
 little brown faces peep out at us from leafy screens and 
 soon, leaping from bough to bough, swinging hand and 
 foot and springing across the voids, come the monkeys. 
 They perch on the roofs, on the balconies, on the rail 
 of the hand-bridge across the stream. They drop to 
 earth around the waiter, they spring on his shoulder, 
 they snatch at his basket. Small, doglike, tailless apes, 
 like their kindred at Gibraltar, with pretty, sad faces 
 and soft, plaintive cooings as they beg for titbits. 
 
 But suddenly they scatter and leap away for safety. 
 
 " Ak! voila Zigomar! " exclaims the waiter. 
 " Bonjour, Zigomar! " 
 
THE KSAR OF BOGHARI 115 
 
 A big brown ape comes down with stately deliber- 
 ation, walks on all fours like a dog across the level to 
 the waiter, then stands on hindlegs and pulls impatiently 
 at the man's arm to bring the basket within his reach. 
 Both hairy paws are plunged into it ; and he crams the 
 monkey-nuts into his mouth and stuffs them into the 
 pouches under his jaws. And, when the waiter pulls 
 free of his clutch and throws a handful of nuts towards 
 the little apes, the tribal bully snarls at him with bared 
 teeth, then charges menacingly at his smaller brethren 
 who have rushed to scramble for the scraps from his feast. 
 
 A couple of automobiles drive in ; and the ladies in 
 them exclaim with delight at the sight of the monkeys. 
 The occupants of the cars get out and demand baskets 
 of nuts to feed the hairy visitors, which swarm around 
 them, and, to the dismay of the ladies, spring on their 
 shoulders and grab at their hats when attempts are 
 made to shake them off. One of the chauffeurs comes 
 over to see the fun, and is enjoying it when, chancing 
 to look towards his automobile, he sees that it is invaded 
 by monkeys big and small, some of which discover his 
 lunch and, tearing the package in pieces, pull out and 
 devour the bread, throwing the meat away. 
 
 On a big stone a mother ape sits pensively nursing 
 in her arms a tiny, pink-eared, blackfaced baby. She 
 extends a hand to take nuts offered her. One of the 
 men visitors stoops down to touch the infant — and 
 Zigomar bounds swiftly across to him, leaps at him and 
 bites his arm savagely. The astonished man shakes 
 him off ; but the fierce ape, baring his formidable teeth, 
 is ready to renew the attack, until the waiter snatches up 
 a stick and drives him away. 
 
116 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 This incident scatters the monkeys, which retreat 
 up the hillsides or spring into the trees and disappear. 
 
 But a little later on they came again when sum- 
 moned — but they always made sure first that the caller 
 had food to offer them. I stayed for a few days at the 
 Hotel du Ruisseau, and entertainment was never lack- 
 ing when my simian neighbours were visible. The 
 arrival of a carriage or automobile generally brought 
 them to the trees close to the hotel, ready for a summons. 
 But often without that they played about the buildings, 
 sat on the roofs and balconies or walked like dogs on 
 all fours to the road. When food was offered them 
 there was no limit to their daring. They searched my 
 pockets, jumped on my shoulders, clutched at my hat, 
 sometimes biting me if I delayed to give them the nuts 
 or bread that I had for them. But they never permitted 
 any familiarities; and an attempt to touch them was 
 angrily resented and drove them away. 
 
 The Gorge of the Chiffa practically ends about four 
 miles farther on from the Stream of the Monkeys at 
 Camp des Chenes, where there is nothing but the rail- 
 way station and a litde hotel. 
 
 I had seen the Gorge previously on another occasion 
 from the window of a railway train when on my way to 
 Boghari. The line passed through many tunnels, 
 which prevented me from getting more than the briefest 
 glimpses of the attractive scenery. But it was raining 
 with almost tropical vehemence, and the clouds and 
 mists hid the mountain-tops. 
 
 The Chiffa in spate was rolling its brown and turbu- 
 lent waters swiftly, filling its bed that when I next saw 
 it held but a shallow stream. The month was March, 
 
THE KSAR OF BOGHARI 117 
 
 and my companion and I welcomed the foot-warmers 
 that were put in our compartment; for it was bitterly 
 cold up in the mountains, and the rolling-stock was old 
 and out of date. We passed Medea thirty-one miles by 
 rail from Blida and situated on a plateau over three 
 thousand feet above the sea, a commanding position 
 on which the Romans built a garrison town called Ad 
 Medias. The Due dAumale captured Medea in 1840 
 from Abd-el-Kader's followers ; and it is to-day just a 
 typical example of a thriving French Algerian inland 
 town with a population of some thousands. It is 
 surrounded by fertile and well-cultivated country which 
 produces wine, corn, olives, cattle and wool. 
 
 After another and a smaller town, Berrouaghia, also 
 built on the site of a Roman military post and in a popu- 
 lous and well-tilled district, the train passed through 
 more fine mountam scenery and, entering a plain in the 
 valley of the Cheliff River, reached Boghari. 
 
 It was raining heavily and the prospect was dismal ; 
 as with my companion, the well-known Canadian poet, 
 Charles G. D. Roberts, and a couple of very pleasant 
 Americans whose acquaintance we had made on the 
 train — one a magazine writer, the other an artist — 
 I trudged up an exceedingly muddy road towards what 
 was just a long European village of one street. Above 
 it on a bluff was the ksar (which means " a fortified 
 village "), the native town, while behind us across a 
 stretch of plain rose up a steep hill crowned with a fort. 
 This was Boghar, " the Balcony of the South," as it 
 is named, a mountain eyrie from which the French 
 eagles have for many years kept vigilant watch towards 
 the once troubled and mysterious Sahara. 
 
118 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 It was still raining and bitterly cold as, after a wash 
 and a meal in the little hotel, we committed ourselves 
 into the hands of a guide, who led us through more 
 mud up to the Ksar of Boghari. Little known as this 
 name is to European travellers in Algeria it is a load- 
 stone through days and nights of weary marching and 
 camping to the camel-drivers and traders of the cara- 
 vans that come north from the desert. In toil and 
 privation and danger it draws them on ; for it promises 
 a rich reward of rest, refreshment and pleasure, of a 
 wealth of love, venal love, in the embraces of the dark- 
 eyed, passionate daughters of the Ouled-Nail, the tribe 
 that sends its girls forth to gain their dowries in debauch- 
 ery and wantonness. The steep and narrow streets of 
 this mountain village are lined by inns and cafds where 
 to shrill, strange music the dancing-women will posture 
 and move in lascivious measures to delight the gaunt, 
 hard-bitten men of the desert and send the hot blood 
 rioting through their veins. From many windows, by 
 scores of doors, bold-eyed courtesans will beckon 
 enticingly, alluringly, to these sinewy sons of the 
 Sahara whose passions run high after weeks, months, of 
 a hard and ascetic life. 
 
 The ksar with its tiled roofs, strongly-built two- 
 storied houses and narrow, evil-smelling lanes is 
 reminiscent of an Italian mountain village. And the 
 black-haired, handsome women looking out from every 
 casement or standing outside every house are not darker 
 than Southern Italians. Indeed, many are quite fair 
 and decidedly good-looking even to European eyes. 
 
 They are mostly Ouled Nails — oiiled means 
 " tribe " — whose country stretches from the Zab, the 
 
THE KSAR OF BOGHARI 119 
 
 district around Biskra, to the Djebel Amour with, as 
 the administrative centre, Djelfa, where the railway- 
 ends seven and a half hours from Boghari. It is their 
 custom to allow their young girls to go far afield as 
 dancers and courtesans in order to gain money for their 
 dowries ; which object achieved they return to the tribe, 
 marry and settle down. This license originated hun- 
 dreds of years ago, they say, in the time of a tribal chief 
 famous both for his valour and his sense of justice. Hav- 
 ing married a young wife he confided her as a sacred 
 trust to his dearest friend when he had to go forth to lead 
 his warriors to war. The vicissitudes of campaigning 
 kept him in the field for years, at the end of which time 
 he returned home. He was furious to learn that during 
 his absence his wife had been false to him with his faith- 
 less friend. His first impulse, as an Arab's would be, 
 was to seek a bloody revenge. But his sense of fair 
 play made him realise that it was too much to expect a 
 young and beautiful woman to exist so long without love 
 — so he pardoned the offenders and refrained from 
 interfering with their amour. This tolerance of light 
 conduct by their revered sheikh encouraged the other 
 women of the tribe to demand similar freedom from 
 moral restraint ; and it was granted them. 
 
 Their dancing girls turn the money they earn into 
 gold coins mounted as necklaces, circlets for the head 
 and other ornaments, and carry their fortunes in this 
 portable form. But this display of wealth is often their 
 ruin; for some of them are murdered for it by their 
 temporary lovers, lawless Arabs from the wild desert. 
 So Tragedy as well as Romance stalks at night through 
 the narrow lanes of the Ksar of Boghari. 
 
y^ 
 
 CHAPTER yil 
 
 KABYLIA AND THE KABYLES 
 
 From Algiers look east across the bay to the jumbled 
 peaks of the snow-clad Djurdjura Mountains white 
 against the blue sky as the setting sun streams on 
 them ! You are gazing at the home of the descend- 
 ants of the aborigines of Algeria, the liberty-loving 
 Berbers who took refuge among these inaccessible 
 heights when the tide of Arab invasion swept over the 
 land. There through the long centuries of Moslem 
 conquest they preserved their independence and their 
 individuality. 
 
 But in time they adopted Mahommedanism and 
 thus gained from the Arabs the name of Kebail — 
 which is the plural of Kabyl, a word signifying " He 
 who accepts " — because they had accepted the religion 
 of the Prophet. Hence they are known as Kabyles; 
 and the French call their country La Grande Kabylie, 
 this rugged maritime district where the mountains 
 come down to the sea. The old name of Berber is 
 now not often used in common parlance to designate 
 these hillmen or their kinsmen of the Dahra and the 
 Mozabites of the chebka of the M'zab or yet the 
 triBes of the Aures Mountains near the Sahara who 
 
 120 
 
KABYLIA AND THE KABYLES 12l 
 
 are usually known as the Chaouias (pronounced 
 Shaouias), a name which means " nomad shepherds," 
 because the lack of cultivable land in their sterile hills 
 obliges them to wander with herds of sheep, goats 
 and cattle in search of pasture. These Chaouias, 
 like the better known Kabyles of the Djurdjuras, 
 have preserved the purity of the Berber stock by 
 their isolation in their remote mountains. 
 
 By even the most careless observer the Kabyles 
 are easily distinguishable from Arabs by their lighter 
 colouring of skin and hair, which is frequently reddish 
 or sandy. They are usually of medium height with 
 square heads (possibly a heritage from Vandal 
 ancestors of the forests of Germany), prominent 
 features and sturdy frames. Their dress is similar 
 to that of the Arabs, though the headgear is simpler. 
 They are industrious and tireless workers, hardy, 
 unrivalled walkers and moderate in feeding. Their 
 food consists mostly of barley cakes cooked in oil, 
 couss-couss, lentils, dried peas and figs, milk, butter, 
 honey, fowl and eggs. They only eat meat when 
 sheep are killed for some big feast. 
 
 Long ages of incessant warfare, either inter- ^ 
 tribal or against external foes, have taught them to 
 build their villages in commanding positions on the 
 summit of hills, with small fields hedged with cactus , 
 or thorns. These villages consist of stone huts, 
 generally roofed with tiles, divided by narrow, filthy 
 lanes. Their dwellings are poor and almost bare of 
 furniture — a few sleeping-mats, some earthen vessels, 
 a handloom. 
 
 The scarcity of arable land in the mountains has 
 
122 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 made the Kabyles a race of careful husbandmen and 
 gardeners, who go in extensively for fruit and 
 vegetable growing. With iron-shod, wooden ploughs 
 and diminutive but strong oxen they turn up the stony 
 soil in their small, terraced fields in the mountains. 
 They cultivate figs, tobacco and olives, the last for 
 their oil, of which large quantities are produced 
 annually, every village having its oil-presses. 
 ^ Though mainly agriculturists and market gardeners 
 there are among the Kabyles smiths, cobblers, 
 embroiderers and makers of silver or white metal 
 ornaments — brooches, ear-rings, necklaces, bracelets. 
 
 The Kabyles, who owing to the difficulty of making 
 a living are economical to miserliness, are ready to go 
 far afield in order to make money. They descend to 
 the plains to work on European-owned farms at 
 harvest-time, which is naturally earlier there than in 
 the hills. Before compulsory service for natives 
 was introduced during the Great War they used to 
 enlist in the Tirailleurs Indigenes to earn a pension 
 which would enable them to return to end their days 
 in their beloved mountains. Many go to Algiers to 
 work in the docks or do other heavy labour that no 
 Arab would attempt. They do not hesitate to cross 
 the seas if beyond them there is a chance of making 
 money. You will see them in Marseilles, in Paris, in 
 London even, selling rugs and carpets in the street. 
 Since the war they go to France to work in factories. 
 But always their fixed purpose is to return again to 
 their hilltop villages. 
 
 Like most Orientals the family is the sacred unit 
 to which all its members owe duty and allegiance. 
 
KABYLIA AND THE KABYLES 123 
 
 For it they sink their indii^iduality ; for it they toil. 
 To it all their earnings go. The old, feeble and 
 sickly are not turned out to starve but are supported 
 by the others. The property of a family may be said 
 to be owned in common ; and every member of it has 
 - a right to subsistence. 
 
 ^ The Kabyles ha^re many admirable qualities, but 
 they have their defects, too. They are patient, 
 energetic, sober, intelligent, hard-working and attached 
 to the soil — the last so much that a note of warning has 
 been sounded by the Algerian press to call attention 
 to a danger similar to the Mozabite peril. The 
 Kabyles, having made much money during the World 
 War by their agricultural produce, are devoting it all 
 to buying back the land confiscated by the French 
 after the rebellion of 187 1. So that there is a fear 
 that they will oust French husbandmen as the 
 Mozabites are supplanting the ^mall shopkeepers in 
 xthe towns. 
 
 Although as Moslems they are permitted by their 
 religion — and French laws which are careful not to 
 interfere with it — to have four wives and as many 
 concubines as they please, they content themselves 
 as a rule with one spouse from motives of economy. 
 
 vThe rich dress and live as simply as the poor. 
 
 Among their bad qualities are selfishness and 
 litigiousness and the constant dissensions between 
 tribes, villages and families that haye throughout their 
 history always cost them dear when fighting external 
 foes. For though the tribes used to band together 
 momentarily against a foreign enemy they soon 
 quarrelled and broke away from each other. They 
 
124 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 have their blood feuds to-day. In times of scarcity 
 hunger drives them to brigandage. 
 
 They are more or less fanatical, but not practising, 
 Mahommedans and have always been ready to follow 
 fresh schisms. They eat the flesh of the wild pig. 
 - But, although they do not give a slavish obedience to 
 the precepts of the Koran, they pay much respect and 
 give in to their ma,rabouts, who are almost a priestly 
 caste like the Brahmins of India by virtue of their 
 
 \ descent. 
 
 ^ The position of Berber women in Kabylia, the 
 Aures or elsewhere, is not enviable. They are the 
 slaves of their husbands, or male relatives if 
 unmarried, must labour in the fields or as beasts of 
 burden. They cannot inherit property — or indeed 
 own any. They are only entitled to subsistence and 
 clothes — which latter they must make for themselves. 
 Although allowed to be unveiled they have little 
 more freedom than Arab women. Their only 
 recreation is the daily gossip at the fountain when 
 young and old gather there to draw water in earthen- 
 ware vessels shaped like the amfhorcB of the Romans 
 from whom their forebears learned the design. 
 Berber females are reputed very immoral, which 
 accounts for the fact that their husbands are notoriously 
 jealous. They know their women-folk. 
 ^ The Kabyles group in families or kharoubas, 
 several of which make a hamlet or touffik. The 
 touffiks of a' district form the thaddert or village, and 
 several thadderts make up the tribe. They used to be 
 autonomous. Each yillage or tribe had its djemaa or 
 council, which was the centre of power. It was the 
 
KABYLIA AND THE KABYLES 125 
 
 folk-mote of which every male adult was a member, ' 
 and which elected its president, the amin. The presi- 
 dents of a district or of a number of tribes banding 
 together for war formed an inner djemaa and chose the 
 amin amina, the president of presidents But the 
 decisions of either council were only binding so far as 
 they could be enforced. This ancient system was 
 allowed to exist under French rule, until, as a punish- 
 ment for the Kabyles' insurrection in 187 1, it was \ 
 taken from them and they came directly under French 
 administrators. But they are still permitted to have "^ 
 their special tribal laws known as kanoums. * 
 
 They have always been fierce warriors, and were 
 never conquered by Roman, Vandal, Arab, or Turk, 
 and they fought savagely for their independence 
 against the French. They were guilty of cruel ^^ 
 atrocities against the European settlers in the last 
 rebellion, for which they suffered the confiscation of 
 the land that they are now buying back. 
 
 They are superstitious, and believe firmly in 
 second sight. But the future generation will perhaps 
 be more enlightened ; for, unlike the Arabs, their boys 
 greedily seek the education that the Algerian 
 Government offer them. 
 
 A distinguished member of the Societe de 
 Geographie of Algiers, Captain Raymond Peyronnet 
 of the Algerian Army, a noted authority on North 
 Africa, disputes the figures of the census of 191 1 which 
 declared the native population to consist of 3,626,574 
 Arabs and Arabic-speaking races, and 1,084,702 
 Berbers, comprising Kabyles, Mozabites, and ' 
 Touaregs. He believes — and his opinion carries 
 
126 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 weight — that of the present population of nearly five 
 million and a half native inhabitants, a little more than 
 half are of Berber stock. In Grand Kabylia alone, 
 between Menerville and the Soumam, there are nearly 
 five hundred thousand Kabyles. 
 
 The Kabyles are better liked and respected by 
 Europeans who come much in contact with them than 
 \ are the Arabs. It is but natural that they should have 
 more affinity with white men; for, besides their far- 
 away European origin, there is the mixture of Roman, 
 Vandal, and Byzantine blood in their veins, greatly 
 diluted, of course. 
 
 Owing to its proximity to Algiers Grand Kabylia 
 is much visited by foreign trai^ellers ; and, besides the 
 railway to the capital, Tizi Ouzou, and the regular 
 service of motor diligences, tourist agencies run 
 automobile excursions to and through it frequently. 
 Its seaport. Bougie, is a thriving one, though fallen 
 from its high estate of the eleventh century when it 
 held a population of a hundred thousand. 
 
 It is usually the foreign visitor's first introduction 
 to the interior, and fills him with a sense of adventure 
 as he leaves the city and the sea behind and is carried 
 towards the lofty range of mountains that have 
 tantalised him with the constant sight of their snowy 
 peaks during his stay in the Algerian capital. It 
 seems as though one were about to explore an 
 attractively new land peopled by a strange race. The 
 railway station of Algiers, from which all trains go out 
 bound east, west or south, is built down by the 
 harbour ; and one descends to it from the Boulevards 
 above the wharves by the steep zigzag roads or the 
 
KABYLIA AND THE KABYLES 127 
 
 giant lifts in the tall stone towers that are such 
 prominent objects on the " front." At first the line 
 runs between the harbour on the left and the high wall 
 that rises like a cliff to the climbing city; but soon 
 the docks and wharves gii^e place to the sandy beach 
 and sparkling waters of the bay, while the level space 
 on the right, crowded with the warehouses and 
 factories of the manufacturing district of Belleville, 
 grows wider as the Sahel Hills draw back, their scarred 
 and scarped sides crowned with green fields and 
 gardens set with red-roofed, white-walled villas. 
 Then buildings below yield to the verdant, luxuriant 
 foliage of the Jardin d'Essai, its palms contrasting 
 with the dark pines of the Bois de Boulogne topping 
 the hill above. At Hussein Dey, on the level between 
 the railway and the sea aloe hedges, cacti and high 
 pampas grass strike a tropical note in the scenery; 
 while on the right the line of hills runs on with fewer 
 houses and more cultivation. But it ends where it 
 sinks into the narrow valley of the Harrach river at 
 Maison Carree, a bright little business town of 
 factories and houses with gardens ablaze with flowers, 
 and a low knoll crowned with a prison. 
 
 Here our train turns away from the sea and the 
 valley opens, giving a view of a fertile inland plain 
 backed by the wall of the mountains. We are entering 
 the rich Mitidja valley rioting in vines, oats and corn. 
 And in the fields Kabyle labourers and white men are 
 cutting the crops. It seems early for it — for to-day is 
 the 6th May. But we are south of the Mediterranean. 
 Everywhere there are sheets of wild flowers of all 
 hues. The peonies in the garden of the little station 
 
128 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 of Oued-Smar are a blaze of colour. Among the 
 vines tall palms lift their plumed heads, ornamental 
 but as unproductive as the flowers ; for these trees need 
 the Saharan climate to bear well. 
 
 In the field near the station of Maison Blanche a 
 white bird stalks solemnly — the first stork to be seen, 
 for its race ayoids Algiers; although elsewhere in 
 Algeria in breeding time their nests crown every 
 church tower and minaret, and in Constantine no roof 
 in the native town is without the bundle of dry sticks 
 from which little heads and gaping beaks greet the 
 long-legged parents. 
 
 After Maison Blanche more vineyards; and low, 
 well-cultivated hills run along on the right. Every- 
 where fine farms, their red roofs and whitewashed 
 walls showing up against the universal green ; and the 
 owners' residences are often splendid villas set in 
 lovely gardens. Wells with machine-pumps provide 
 water. Between the lines of half-grown yines 
 Europeans or Kabyles are ploughing with mixed 
 teams of horses, bullocks and mules yoked together. 
 The landscape is seamed with long straight lines of 
 trees bordering the good roads with the usual traffic 
 of automobiles, heavy wagons, motor diligences and 
 little donkeys bearing tall natives. 
 
 Here is Rouiba, a fine little inland town which 
 looks newly-built, though the large cemetery says 
 otherwise. On all sides gardens gay with flowers. 
 Here are glossy-leaved banana trees; and eucalyptus 
 is seen everywhere. Apparently no railway station 
 in Algeria is considered complete without a bunch of 
 these ragged-barked, melancholy trees. 
 
KABYLIA AND THE KABYLES 129 
 
 At Reghaia we are getting into undulating and 
 wilder country as we draw nearer the big hills. To 
 the left there is a sudden glimpse of the sea. Then 
 we run through a forest with many cork-oaks. After 
 Alma come hillocks that are the first outposts of the 
 mountains; and soon we are among the foothills, 
 which are carefully cultivated. But a steep green 
 slope oYcr the railway blazes with pink, purple^ 
 yellow and white flowers and the bright red of the 
 poppy. Then come sheets of purple thistles. Just 
 before Belle Fontaine the fields of growing corn, here 
 still green, ripple in the wind like shot silk. The 
 garden of the station is bounded by high hedges of 
 glorious geraniums. As the line winds on among the 
 foothills the main road that keeps the railway line 
 company is bordered in one place by an extraordinarily 
 long hedge of red roses; and by it goes a clumsy 
 horse diligence packed in and out with natives. The 
 red garments of Berber girls working on the land 
 adds to the varied colour of the scene. 
 
 Hitherto we have been passing through big 
 European-owned farms where everything is on a 
 large scale ; but now we begin to be among the small 
 JCabyle fields which the barelegged owners are 
 ploughing with rough wooden ploughs drawn by 
 undersized bullocks. We cross a deep ravine in 
 which is a mill-house with a huge water-wheel; and 
 in the garden, watching the train go above them, are 
 the French miller and his wife, while a young Kabyle 
 nursemaid in red holds their baby. 
 
 After Haussonvilliers the hills open and disclose 
 a glorious panorama aj§ the line sweeps around them 
 
 I 
 
130 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 above a wide valley through which the River Sebaou 
 meanders. And beyond rise up the snow-clad 
 Djurdjura Mountains that have been hidden from 
 our sight for a long time, now so near that we can dis- 
 tinguish terraced fields, villages and woods climbing 
 up towards the white peaks shining in the brilliant 
 sunlight. 
 
 The little station at Mirabeau would delight a 
 painter with its vine-wreathed building and the high 
 hedges of scarlet geraniums enclosing the tiny garden 
 in which grow orange and banana trees, while a 
 graceful palm outside it contrasts with a group of 
 eucalyptus oyer which a white stork soars. Then 
 comes a long, tree-lined, dusty white road which with 
 the grass huts beside it, herds of goats, a tethered 
 donkey, clumps of thorny cactus and the red garments 
 of passing Berber women in the bright sunshine 
 brings back to my mind so many pictures of India. 
 
 Flocks of storks follow men ploughing in the 
 fields of a large European farm. After a patch of 
 jungle thick with willows we see above us up in the 
 hills a hamlet with a little church, looking like a bit 
 of Italy — so alike is scenery the world over. Then 
 we are near the Sebaou River again. The cool air, 
 grateful after the heat of the valleys, tells us that we 
 are among the mountains, as we run into the terminus 
 of the line, having taken four hours for the journey 
 of sixty-seven miles. 
 
 Tizi Ouzou — the name sounds like a fragment of 
 
 lovers' or fond mother's talk — is quite an important 
 
 _ little place as the capital of Upper Kabylia and the 
 
 seat of a sub-prefecture, with a good hotel, a Catholic 
 
KABYLIA AND THE KABYLES 131 
 
 church and a mosque. Situated at a height of eight 
 or nine hundred feet above the sea on the slopes of 
 Djebel (or Mount) Belloua it is a centre for the 
 Kabyles' export trade of oil, olives and figs and 
 fruit which flows down to it from the mountains 
 around. 
 
 But the traveller will not delay in it but pass 
 through to the native quarter on the hillside beyond 
 it, usually his first sight of a Kabyle village. It is 
 a typical collection of low whitewashed stone or 
 mudwalled huts with red-tiled roofs and small 
 gardens with cactus or dry reed hedges divided by 
 narrow lanes furrowed deep by the heavy rains. It 
 resembles an Indian village, even to the filth and foul 
 smells that possess it and the bright-eyed children 
 playing in the dirty alleys. Here are a group of 
 little girls clad in girdled, flowered cotton gowns and 
 wearing many silver ornaments. They are playing a 
 game of " tig." There three or four small boys clad 
 simply in red checchias and shirts toddle with a 
 gravity befitting their grandfathers down the principal 
 lane. A woman goes by in red and black garments, 
 carrying on her back, holding it over her shoulder, 
 a red-painted clay water-jar modelled on a Roman 
 amphora ornamented with designs and haying two 
 handles. At the fountain she lays it down and 
 gossips with the other women and girls already there 
 awaiting their turn to fill their graceful vessels. 
 
 In an open space among the huts men are sitting 
 on the ground with their backs against the walls, some 
 drinking cups of coffee filled from a copper pot 
 balanced over a few embers by an open-air vendor. 
 
132 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 Into the clearing lounges a drummer who squats 
 near the rest and with his hand beats the parchment- 
 covered end of his instrument made from a hollow 
 gourd. From a hut near by comes an echo, the 
 monotonous tapping of another drum amidst the 
 ** yu-yu-yu-ing " of women, the strange, soft sound of 
 cheering and applause that Arab and Berber women 
 make by waggling their tongues in their open mouths. 
 Probably a wedding or some other family feast is 
 being celebrated in the hut. Four or five men come 
 into the village from their fields, mattocks or hoes 
 on their shoulders. All have laced canvas sandals or 
 foot-bandages, such as one sees on the peasants in the 
 Balkan States. One or two wear wide straw hats, the 
 others checchias or turbans of coloured cloths twisted 
 round their checchias. 
 
 The village mosque looks Rery unorthodox; for 
 unlike the sealed pattern white dome it has a gabled 
 and red-tiled roof, over which rises the minaret. 
 While I was photographing it one afternoon the 
 village school broke up for the day and a score of 
 boys of all ages and in various apparel from well- 
 made European jackets and trousers and leather shoes 
 to cotton nightgowns and bare feet, but all wearing 
 the red checchias, gathered about me. They began 
 to talk to me in good French. 
 
 One aged about thirteen or fourteen said : 
 
 ** Will you photograph me, nCs'ieu? How much 
 a dozen do you charge ? " 
 
 While I was politely declining to make a bargain, 
 another said boastingly in French to a small friend 
 beside him : 
 
KABYLIA AND THE KABYLES 133 
 
 " I paid fifteen francs a dozen for my photos in 
 Algiers." 
 
 When I wished to take a group of them they 
 fought to be in it and each one endeavoured to get 
 into the front rank. In Algeria neither Berbers nor "• 
 Arabs object to being photographed; unlike in 
 Morocco where the Moslem inhabitants consider it 
 contrary to the law of the Koran that forbids the 
 making of images or pictures of living beings. 
 
 A few little girls had gathered to watch the 
 proceedings; but when I attempted to take a picture 
 of them they fled in alarm amidst the jeers of the boys. 
 
 From the village there was a fine view across the 
 narrow valley of the Sebaou to the steep green, 
 cultivated and wooded line of hills beyond ; and over 
 them peeped distant snowy summits In the fore- 
 ground the European village with its houses and 
 gardens, its church and a new mosque built on the 
 orthodox plan, sloped down. 
 
 Every Saturday morning a fair is held at Tizi 
 Ouzou to which flock the dwellers in mountains and 
 plains all round. As many as ten thousand attend 
 it; and the big, tree-shaded fairground near the station 
 is crowded with the turbaned Kabyle men — their 
 women do not come. In tents large and small, new 
 and old, under brushwood shelters or laid on the 
 ground in the open, the dealers set out their wares, 
 I noted among them sellers of cotton goods, of 
 haberdashery, socks and soap, of carpets and rugs, 
 of matches and cigarette papers, of leather amulets 
 blessed by marabouts, of Arabic printing — prayers or 
 passages from the Koran — and picture^ of Mecca, 
 
134 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 of famous mosques or of Moslem heroes. Here 
 were two men bargaining over a heap of fresh- 
 clipped wool. There a blacksmith shod donkeys. 
 Open-air coffee stalls did a roaring trade, their 
 customers squatting on the ground around the 
 brazier on which the pots were heated. There a man 
 sold leather shoes and red peppers, a curious 
 combination. 
 
 The owner of a peepshow knelt at prayers, 
 prostrating himself at full length on the ground, 
 rising, bowing and kneeling again, so absorbed in his 
 devotions that he failed to see the small boys 
 relieving each other at the peepholes of his show and 
 enjoying the free entertainment. 
 
 One corner of the spacious fairground was filled 
 with herds of cattle and flocks of sheep; and 
 the Kabyle farmers poked the animals with their 
 sticks and felt them in the way of farmers the world 
 oyer. And close by numbers of cows were being 
 slaughtered and their carcases cut up and sold by 
 butchers, until the air reeked with the acrid smell of 
 blood. Little donkeys were being driven off bearing 
 whole quarters of fresh killed beef on their saddles. 
 
 Very few Europeans were present at the fair ; and 
 it was a proof of the efficacy of French pacification to 
 see an occasional white woman moving freely alone 
 ;and in safety among these thousands of native men. 
 
 From Tizi Ouzou an excellent road, originally 
 made in twenty days by the French troops in 1847 
 and now considerably improved and shortened from 
 twenty-three to seventeen miles, slopes down to the 
 valley, crosses the winding Sebaou river on two bridge? 
 
KABYLIA AND THE KABYLES 185 
 
 and climbs 2,300 feet up through Kabyle villages to 
 Fort National. This fortified town was first called 
 Fort Napoleon — the natives term it in Arabic Souk-el- 
 Arba, or " Wednesday's Market." Perched 3,000 
 feet above the sea it was built in 1857 to control the 
 restless Kabyle tribes in the hill villages around. It 
 is most picturesquely situated on the steep slopes and 
 precipices ; and the views over valley and mountain are 
 superb. In winter it can be very cold, and snow covers 
 it with a; white mantle. 
 
 A charming road leads to Michelet twelve and a 
 half miles away, whence the traveller can continue on 
 to reach a railway again and by it leave Kabylia behind. 
 But not the Kabyles ; for wherever good money is to be 
 earned by hard work the men of that industrious race 
 will be found throughout Algeria. 
 
CHAPTER yill 
 
 SOME ALGERIAN CITIES 
 
 A GIANT rock a thousand feet high and on it a city. On 
 two sides it towers up above the valley ; but north and 
 east a deep ravine separates it from another rock higher 
 Still. And down that ravine between sheer cliffs of 
 gleaming stone, under monster natural bridges and 
 man-made slenderer ones, tumbling through lofty dark 
 caverns and rushing out into the light again to leap in 
 cascades is a river. Rummel, the River of Sands! 
 And in the terrific chasm that it has carved for itself 
 through the ages it flows half round this city of Constan- 
 tine that it has guarded against Roman, Arab, Turk 
 and Frenchman. 
 
 Not always successfully, though. The town got 
 its name from the great Emperor who captured it in the 
 fourth century in one of the many sieges that it has 
 undergone — four score of them. The last two were laid 
 by the French. They were beaten the first time — in 
 1836 it was. But they came back again the next year 
 with more success. There is a painting of the taking 
 of Constantine in Versailles among the splendid battle 
 pictures that illustrate the conquest of Algeria. But 
 the capture was a difficult task; how difficult you will 
 realise if you look across the thousand foot-deep gorge 
 of the Rummel, and even more if you climb down into it 
 
 136 
 
SOME ALGERIAN CITIES 187 
 
 and look up at the wall of rock rising sheer above you 
 to the houses built on the very brink. Then you 
 wonder how it was ever captured before aeroplanes 
 were invented. 
 
 The man-made bridges across the abyss are wonder- 
 ful. There is one of many arches perched on piers 
 colossally high. There is another that swings across 
 the void like a spider's thread — a graceful suspension 
 bridge this, 670 feet above the river and 180 yards long. 
 There are the remains of one dating back many 
 centuries with a wide-arched iron one above it. 
 
 It is an important city this, worthy of its long 
 history, of the great Emperor whose name it bears. 
 It had its own Bey in the days when the French 
 attacked it. 
 
 If you want to go from Algiers to Tunis by railway 
 you must pass through Constantine ; and as the trains 
 run, it will keep you for a night at least. But it is 
 worth a longer stay. Even in the days of the Arabs 
 it was a fine city, as you can see for yourself ; for most 
 of the old town remains and the Palace of the last Bey, 
 El-Hadj Ahmed, built just in time to provide handsome 
 quarters for the French general, is there to be seen. 
 So are the old mosques with their white marble columns, 
 their coloured tiles and their pulpits of carved marble 
 or cedar. Go into the Cathedral and you will see what 
 the old-time architects and workmen of Constantine 
 could do ; for it was the mosque of the Market of the 
 Gazelle once. Look at its arabesques, its caryings, its 
 tiles of many colours. They were artists indeed! 
 
 You can go to Constantine from the seaport 
 Philippeville, a thriving town built by the French who 
 
138 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 found it a heap of old ruins — it used to be the Roman 
 city of Rusicade — which is fifty-four miles away. The 
 train takes over three hours to do the journey, for it has 
 to climb up and down the mountains that lie between 
 the sea and Constantine 2,500 feet higher. You can 
 go from Algiers nearly 290 miles away, or from Tunis, 
 about the same distance. 
 
 Seen from the railway station, which is on the wrong 
 side of the gorge of the Rummel, this city on a rock 
 presents a picture of red-tiled houses sloping to the very 
 edge of a sheer precipice, every roof, every chimney 
 crowned in breeding time with a stork's nest, a bundle 
 of dry sticks on which a black and white feathered 
 body squats, while its mate flaps heavily just over your 
 head on his way to look for the family's daily bread in 
 the field below. As you drive or walk across one of the 
 bridges you gaze down into the gloomy depths and 
 scarce can see the river tumbling over its rocky bed 
 well-nigh a thousand feet below. Across the bridge 
 the red-roofed, stork-crowned houses of the native 
 quarter close in on you on the right, contrasting with 
 the imposing buildings of the new French town ahead 
 of you. 
 
 You pass through the loophooled iron gate, flung 
 open wide nowadays, and enter this City of Contrasts. 
 Here is a caravanserai of squalid huts beside a patch 
 of open, muddied ground on the brink of the precipi- 
 tous slope that falls down towards the river; and 
 hobbled camels, tethered mules and gangs of patient, 
 loaded donkeys crowd the narrow level space. And 
 above it rises the handsome, tall edifice of a very modem 
 hotel, motor-cars before its door, in front of which the 
 
-5? 
 
SOME ALGERIAN CITIES 139 
 
 hill-city still rises in pretty public gardens, cafes, shops, 
 high buildings, bordering narrow streets of the Euro- 
 pean quarter so different to the dark alleys and 
 tunnelled lanes of the native town unchanged since the 
 days of the Beys, where the street-life with its shrouded 
 women haggling across outdoor stalls of vegetables, 
 scraps of meat, flat loaves or cast-off clothing, might be 
 in Arabia or Persia. 
 
 But the two overlap ; and you can buy from a French 
 shop, pass a mosque, drink coffee in a cafe maure and 
 see Jewesses squatting in rows on their doorsteps, all 
 in the same street. Europeans and native inhabitants 
 are about equal in numbers — 39,391 of the latter to 
 38,829 of the former, according to the census of 
 1921. 
 
 Should you see in Constantine groups of pretty, 
 dark-eyed little girls with curious conical black hats on 
 their heads, such as you have hitherto associated with 
 broomstick-riding ladies, do not fancy that you have 
 found a seminary of young witches. They are merely 
 little Jewesses. This was the only town in North 
 Africa in which I saw this peculiar headgear. It may 
 have been worn by Israelite women in Tunis, but I did 
 not notice any with it. 
 
 So circumscribed is Constantine, perched on its 
 rock, that it does not take long to walk round it ; though 
 ever and anon one must pause to admire the wonderful 
 views from every point of it — here, with a craning of 
 the neck and an involuntary shiver, a glance into the 
 fearsome abyss of the Rummel, there a sweeping pano- 
 rama of plain and distant mountain. Few cities in the 
 world are 30 strangely, picturesquely, situated,. 
 
140 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 But nothing in or about it exceeds in interest the 
 river gorge that civic enterprise has made easy of access 
 to visitors in constructing in it the Chemin des Touristes, 
 the Hke of which I know only under Niagara. 
 
 Steep paths and stairways lead down into its gloomy 
 depths, at first — if you enter from near the great, many 
 arched bridge — preparing you gently for the wonder 
 that you are about to encounter. You walk on a track 
 carefully and not needlessly fenced in many parts 
 beside the swift stream brawling over rocks or swirling 
 in oily pools where you find a native fisherman casting 
 his circular net into their depths. On either side the 
 walls of this rocky canyon rise sheer up, and you can 
 just glimpse the houses perched perilously on the very 
 edge of the precipice. You see an endless wire rope 
 running swifdy up and down to and from one — giving 
 motive power from the rushing waters to a mill in the 
 city above. 
 
 Deep in the gorge there is a platform on which 
 doors open into squat, solid buildings. Within on 
 tiled floors steaming water gushes — for these are 
 natural hot springs and baths used by Roman and Arab 
 in the past centuries. 
 
 But you are going lower all the time, deeper and 
 deeper into the abyss. Even the narrow strip of sky 
 that you have seen above you when you craned to see 
 it is shut out. And clambering up and down wet and 
 slippery iron ladders and along railed galleries you now 
 move awe-struck and impressed through vast, lofty 
 caverns, where the swift river tumbles over rocks, as 
 though, like you, eager to be out in daylight again. 
 And you emerge with it into the unroofed canyon once 
 
SOME ALGERIAN CITIES 141 
 
 more. It rushes on to fall in white cascades down into 
 the plain and then move windingly, slowly now, on 
 the level. But you must climb wearily, pantingly, up 
 the steep and weary way to the spider's thread across the 
 sky, the suspension bridge that will take you over the 
 dark gorge into which you look down now with a 
 familiarity that breeds no contempt for the marvel of 
 Nature that you have explored. 
 
 And below you plane the eagles that you have just 
 seen soaring high above your head or swooping down 
 on the countless birds that are flying ceaselessly between 
 the rocky walls of the abyss. 
 
 Constantino is no place to linger in in winter. 
 Should that season find you there you will have no kind 
 feelings to the tourist agencies of Europe that describe 
 North Africa as a land of endless sunshine. Visit it 
 rather in autumn or in late spring — at the latter season 
 for choice, were it only to see the blaze of wild flowers 
 that cover the countryside through which you pass to 
 reach it. 
 
 Should you go on from Constantine to Tunis it is a 
 long day's journey by train — fourteen hours or so — but 
 while daylight lasts you will not weary. For the 
 scenery is ever changing and always charming. Not 
 as magnificent or awe-inspiring as the line between 
 Algiers and Constantine with the snow-clad summits 
 of the Djurdjuras towering above it and the frowning 
 canyon of the Fortes de Fer. But not without its hills, 
 its river gorges, its varied vistas of mountain and plain. 
 And a new note is struck in the forests of cork-oaks 
 where the wild boars roam still — as is attested by stiff, 
 grim corpses with the white tusks seeming to grin 
 
142 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 defiance even in death, half a dozen of them heaped up 
 on the platform of some station passed. 
 
 You are sure to have seen ere this either on the 
 railways or the quays of Algiers high piles of sheets of 
 the bark of this useful tree on their way to be converted 
 into better-known forms. But now perhaps for the 
 first time one beholds a forest of cork-oaks, the trunks 
 to a height of eight feet or so stripped of their thick bark 
 and showing white, yet flourishing and ready in another 
 few years to be denuded afresh of the new covering 
 that will replace it. 
 
 Sixty odd miles from Constantine, in a varied setting 
 of hills and plain and wooded slope, from the train is 
 seen a rushing stream hurling itself in cascades over a 
 rocky fall. And up from the leaping waters rise dense 
 clouds of steam that hang suspended in mid-air. For 
 here are famous hot springs, Hamman Meskoutine or 
 " The Accursed Baths," that were known and used by 
 mankind as far back as Punic days. The bath-loving 
 Romans built quite a settlement around them. The 
 Arabs made use of them for centuries. And to-day 
 there is a fine hotel and bathing establishment to which 
 visitors from Europe flock ; for the fame of these heal- 
 ing springs is widespread. From the windows of the 
 train the falls with their steamy canopy present a strange 
 and striking spectacle. Some of the springs have a 
 temperature of 205° Fahrenheit. The waters of Ham- 
 mam Meskoutine are very advantageous in diseases 
 due to uric acid. The native name is derived from the 
 presence of tall cones of deposits of carbonate of Hme, 
 some forty feet high, which bear some resemblance to 
 petrified human figures and have given rise to a legend 
 
SOME ALGERIAN CITIES 143 
 
 that they are men and women turned to stone for assist- 
 ing at the unlawful marriage of a rich Arab who was 
 about to wed his own sister. 
 
 The country through which the line passes is rich 
 in Roman remains and ruined cities of the far-spreading, 
 long-vanished Empire with triumphal arches, baths, 
 heathen temples and Christian basilicas in various states 
 of preservation. And the train goes through a well 
 laid-out modern little town, Souk Ahras, on the site of 
 the ancient Thagaste where St Augustine was born in 
 the middle of the fourth century. And a few stations 
 farther on comes Ghardimaou and the Tunisian 
 frontier. 
 
 Until the French came there were no roads in 
 Algeria. Road and Flag went together ; and as they 
 pushed their conquering way forward their soldiers 
 wielded pick and shovel as well as gun and linked up 
 the ground they gained with Algiers. The fighting 
 navy and the mercantile marine helped them where 
 coast towns were concerned and saved them weary 
 marches. It was so in the case of Gran, Algiers' future 
 rival in the west, second city in numbers and import- 
 ance in Algeria, and seaport second only to the capital. 
 
 Long miles — about 260 — lie between them; 
 but now there is a good road if you wish to motor 
 and a railway if you do not. I have said nothing 
 of the Algerian railways hitherto; but they link 
 up Algiers with Morocco on the west and Tunisia on 
 the east; they join the Mediterranean to the Sahara. 
 And they have little to learn from Europe. Sleeping 
 and restaurant cars of the Compagnie des Wagon Lits, 
 comfortable carriages, first, second and third class, well- 
 
144 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 laid road-beds, fine bridges over wide watercourses 
 where for the greater part of the year shallow streams 
 trickle through gravelly deserts, but where in the winter 
 rains surging torrents sweep to sea, rushing full-fed from 
 bank to bank. 
 
 The line from Algiers to Oran, cleverly traced to 
 follow valleys and avoid the heights in the mountains 
 as much as possible, will give the traveller a favourable 
 impression of the fertility and agricultural progress of 
 the land. It serves a succession of small towns and 
 villages all the way; and at every station European 
 passengers of both sexes and all ages enter or leave the 
 train and make one realise that this is a white man's 
 country, one where he can and does live and breed. 
 
 Oran to the traveller in search of Oriental colour is 
 disappointing, for it is almost entirely a European city ; 
 but to the French Algerians it is a source of pride, 
 encouragement and hope from its prosperity, progress 
 and possibilities. Perched on high cliffs framing a 
 picturesque bay it nestles under a high hill on the west 
 that culminates in a peak falling precipitously nearly 
 2,000 feet to the shore. From a good, though small 
 harbour, protected by stone breakwaters from the 
 stormy north winds, a road with a tram-line on it leads 
 up to the high-sited city of modem construction, a place 
 of shady squares, busy steep streets, European shops, 
 cafes, offices and dwellings that have little or no trace 
 of Africa about them. It might be a thriving seaport 
 of Southern France. 
 
 But it would be almost equally at home in Spain, 
 so large a proportion of the inhabitants, especially of 
 the lower classes, are Spaniards. For centuries it was 
 
SOME ALGERIAN CITIES 145 
 
 a Spanish outpost, colony and convict settlement to 
 which criminals and political prisoners were sent, and 
 the old fort and walls were built by them and by Arab 
 captives taken in the constant fighting with the 
 Moslems outside the city gates. 
 
 Spain is not far away — ^^Cartagena is but ten hours 
 by steamer — Spanish emigrants still flock to Oran, and 
 their language is almost as much heard as French among 
 the lower classes. France, realising that she cannot 
 find among her own children colonists enough to people 
 her North African Empire, wisely does not discourage 
 the immigration of hard-working Southern Europeans 
 of Latin races who will become, if not French, at least 
 Algerians, Tunisians or Moroccans, according to the 
 land for which they have elected. Her first aim is to 
 get white inhabitants to develop the countries and 
 counterbalance, without displacing, the native element. 
 
 There is little in Oran to attract the tourist, but for 
 the business man much ; and its inhabitants confidently 
 look forward to their city supplanting Algiers as the 
 leading town in Algeria. Its population is now 
 119,628 Europeans, 15,043 natives. (Census of 192 1.) 
 
 There is nothing for the seeker for Oriental archi- 
 tecture to see. But a large theatre in the fine principal 
 square, streets lined with good modern buildings, an 
 excellent tramway service and flourishing export and 
 import trade console the citizens for the disappearance 
 of historic mosques and narrow, foul alleys of the by- 
 gone Arab town of the days when Oran was a Moslem 
 kingdom. 
 
 There is a marked dissimilarity between its environs 
 and those of Algiers ; for, unlike the capital, Oran has 
 
 K 
 
146 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 no suburbs of villas bowered in gardens, but ends almost 
 abruptly at the unimposing, loopholed brick wall that 
 bounds it. And the country around, although well culti- 
 vated, looks bare from the absence of trees and houses. 
 
 But the railway going south-west towards the 
 Moroccan border passes through fertile and well-tilled 
 land, by vineyards and cornfields and prosperous farms. 
 
 The first town of importance that it reaches, about 
 fifty miles from Oran, is quite a modern one that to 
 outsiders is best known as the headquarters of the 
 famous Foreign Legion. It is called Sidi Bel Abbes, 
 and has a population, chiefly European, of close on 
 30,000. It is well laid out with wide roads, shady 
 squares, a few small hotels, fine barracks for the Legion- 
 aries and for a regiment of Spahis and a big military 
 hospital. Sidi Bel Abb^s is a good example of the 
 well planned, well built, sanitary if unpicturesque 
 modem towns that France has dowered Algeria with, 
 towns that may be disappointing to the tourist in search 
 of Orientalism, but that are much pleasanter for their 
 European inhabitants to live in than artistic but 
 unhealthy Eastern-built cities. 
 
 Fifteen hundred feet above the sea it is embowered 
 in gardens, trees, vineyards and fertile fields in a wide 
 valley watered by the Mekarra river. And from it the 
 railway runs through an equally rich, well-cultivated 
 and prosperous countryside, dotted with European 
 farms and villages. But the ground rises as the train 
 goes on, until it becomes a range of hills around the 
 curves of which the line winds, looking across a broad 
 plain to mountains stretching into Morocco to the west. 
 Through tunnels, by rugged and rocky ground^ over 
 
SOME ALGERIAN CITIES 147 
 
 long viaducts, past cascades, circling around a glorious 
 amphitheatre adorned with gigantic red boulders 
 enshrining a waterfall, it goes under forest-crowned 
 summits to a town crowded with minarets and domes 
 and perched, 2,500 feet above the sea, on a steep hill- 
 side overlooking a vast, cultivated plain. 
 
 It is Tlemgen, the city of Algeria richest in 
 treasures of the days of Arab supremacy, of dynasties 
 that flourished for centuries and fell swift to ruin, 
 remembered now only by monuments built to com- 
 memorate their glories. There is a mosque that was 
 new when the Normans ruled England. There are 
 others that were old when Columbus sailed across the 
 Atlantic. When Henry the Eighth lived Tlemgen was 
 a flourishing city with a population of 125,000, its 
 civilisation at the zenith, the arts cultivated, saints and 
 scholars filling its mosques and medersas, its commerce 
 extending to the Levant. Once a Sultan, Abou 
 lYakoub, laid siege to it in the leisurely fashion in which 
 wars were waged in a.d. 1302. No muddy dug-outs, 
 no ruined houses to shelter him and his warriors in the 
 seven years of siege — he built a city over against 
 Tlem^en, Mansoura, the City of Victory, with a noble 
 palace in it with marble courts, shady gardens and 
 luxurious chambers for the beauties who filled his 
 harem. There was a mosque with a minaret a hundred 
 and twenty feet high — you can see it to-day, shorn of 
 its glories and its lavish adornments. There were 
 'Moorish baths to refresh the tired warriors and caravan- 
 serais for traders. The besieged might sally forth and 
 take their enemies unawares, so Abou Yakoub erected 
 a wall nearly forty feet high with towers a hundred and 
 
148 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 twenty-five feet ; and it stands there still, although the 
 city has vanished and tilled fields and fertile gardens 
 fill the three hundred acres of its site. 
 
 The European portion of Tlemgen is not impressive. 
 The streets are narrow and mean, the buildings un- 
 imposing. But the white population is only about five 
 thousand, compared with twenty-five thousand Moslems 
 and Jews. So the native quarter is much larger and 
 important, but not worthy of the imperial city of the 
 Past with its history reaching back to the days of the 
 Romans. 
 
 But the great mosque, the Djama el Kebir, founded 
 in 1 136, with its minaret over a hundred feet high, its 
 many-columned interior, its arcaded court, is fit for any 
 city. And the busy life of the streets, the dyers' shops 
 with the big vessels of steaming coloured liquids, the 
 tailors' booths with the small boys standing outside and 
 straining tight the long threads that their fathers are 
 sewing quaint garments with, the thronged markets, 
 the dim, cavernous heated chambers of the Moorish 
 baths, enthral the visitor. The townsmen are mostly 
 Koulouglis, men of Turkish blood, not Arabs, with 
 whom they formerly were at feud. Their grandsires 
 fought against the Sultan of Morocco to hold their town 
 for the French, when the latter first came to Algeria; 
 and they were opposed to the cession of Tlemgen to 
 Abd-El-Kader, when the newcomers handed it over to 
 him twice. To this day they will emphasise to a 
 stranger the fact that they are Koulouglis. 
 
 French officers and soldiers now reside in the citadel, 
 the Mechouar, where kings and imperial governors lived 
 in luxury, such as one reads of in the Arabian Nights. 
 
SOME ALGERIAN CITIES 149 
 
 But the luxury has vanished with the sultans; and 
 there is as Httle trace of it now as there is of Abou 
 Tachfin's silver tree, its branches crowded with song- 
 birds fashioned in gold and silver, that once stood in 
 the gallery paved with onyx and marble. 
 
 But a visit to the house of some rich Moslem citizen 
 of Tlemgen with its tiled courts and marble balustraded 
 galleries, its many chambers deep-carpeted with the 
 work of the looms of the town, its pierced brass lamps 
 lit now by electricity, will give an idea of how the nobles 
 of the city lived when sultans ruled. 
 
 As Tlemgen stands over 2,400 feet above the sea it 
 has its full share of cold and of rain in winter time. But 
 it is always charming, perched on the steep hillside 
 under the forest-crowned summit and with the glorious 
 panorama of mountain and valley spread before it. Its 
 interest does not end with its ancient walls ; for beyond 
 them lie the walls of the ruined city of Mansoura and 
 the glorious shrine of the sainted Sidi Bou Medine, 
 born in Seville in 1126, with its carved wooden tomb 
 covered with gold and silver brocade, its sculptured 
 ornaments, its metal-work of bronze, its hanging 
 ostrich eggs and gaudy banners, its marble-columned 
 arcades. Its mosque with bronze and carved cedar 
 doors, tiled court and onyx fountain, the tall minaret 
 faced with glazed tiles. 
 
 To reach it one must go a mile and a half through 
 olive groves, old cemeteries and shady woods. But 
 there is a fine mosque to another saint from Seville just 
 outside the gates of Tlemgen, as lovely a building as any 
 in Algeria. It was built to soothe the soul of the holy 
 man, ,whQ was a maker of sweetmeat^ and ^ preacher 
 
150 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 and was put to death by a jealous Grand Vizier who in 
 punishment was buried aHve in a block of mortar. 
 
 There is indeed much at Tlemgen to compensate 
 the traveller in Western Algeria for his disappointment 
 in finding Gran and Sidi Bel Abbfes too civilised and 
 modern. 
 
 From this storied town the railway runs on south- 
 west over hill and plain to the Moroccan frontier and 
 across the border ends at Oudjda about sixty miles 
 away. All the way in Algerian territory it passes through 
 fertile, rich, well-cultivated country with villages and 
 farms dotted thick, a testimony to the security and 
 justice of French rule for nearly a century. 
 
 But cross the border and beyond Gudjda see the 
 trackless waste that the Moroccan countryside is — not 
 so bad now since this territory has of recent years also 
 come under French rule. But it still is bare, little 
 tenanted, an eloquent witness to the anarchy and 
 misgovernment of native rule. On one side of the 
 boundary prosperity, on the other poverty, desert. And 
 as Morocco is, or was ten years or so ago, so was Algeria 
 when the French took Algiers in 1830, lawless, little 
 cultivated, given up to brigandage, lawlessness, never- 
 ceasing internecine war waged by nomad tribes. And 
 as she is now so Morocco will be. In the ten years 
 since the French Protectorate was established by the 
 Convention of Fez France has worked wonders in the 
 Shereefian Empire, as I saw and marvelled at when I 
 wandered through that land from Algeria to the 
 Atlantic, from the Atlantic to Marrakesh and the 
 Grand Atlas Mountains. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 FROM THE SEA TO THE SAHARA 
 
 Algeria is divided into three zones — the Tell,*" the 
 fertile strip of plain and low hills from thirty to a 
 hundred miles deep, backed up by the Atlas Moun- 
 tains, secondly the Haut Plateaux, which is the stretch 
 of high tableland reaching to the Aur^s range, and 
 thirdly, the Sahara, the vast and varied desert of sand, 
 gravel, rock, jungle and rugged hills extending to the 
 Soudan. 
 
 Naturally the climate differs greatly in each region. 
 On the sea-coast it is generally mild, even pleasantly 
 warm, in the winter months, and very hot from June 
 to the end of October. In the mountains and high 
 ground of the Hinterland, snow, rain and cold in 
 winter and spring is matched by great heat in summer. 
 In the Sahara rain is unusual at any time in the year, 
 except in the far South ; and when it comes does so in 
 sudden heavy storms of short duration. ^Yet snow is 
 found on the mountain-tops, and has even fallen, 
 though very rarely, in the region of Biskra in the north 
 of the desert, where in winter the nights and early 
 mornings are chilly. But the summer heat is appalling. 
 
 * From the Latin '* tellus.*' 
 151 
 
152 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 Unfortunately the annual rainfall in the inhabited 
 regions is sometimes deficient and, as Algeria has no 
 mountains covered with snow all the year round and 
 thus able to keep the river beds full in summer, there 
 is not much irrigation ; so a lack of rain spells famine 
 and misery. Not only do the crops of the Tell suffer, 
 but the pasturage on which the nomads feed their 
 flocks dries up and husbandman and shepherd are 
 ruined. The big farmer, generally European, loses 
 heavily, but the poor native starves and animals and 
 human beings die. The French are doing all they can 
 to remedy this state of things. 
 
 The vegetation of Northern Algeria is similar to 
 that of Southern Europe at like elevations. Palm- 
 trees are rare and cultivated more for ornament than 
 use. Vines, orange and other fruit trees, vegetables, 
 corn and barley flourish in favourable seasons. Pines, 
 eucalyptus (introduced from Australia) and the profit- 
 able cork-oak abound, cedars grow in the Aurfes 
 Mountains, cypress, mountain ash, gum and acorn oaks 
 and other useful trees are found. 
 
 The great tableland stretches of the Hants Plateaux 
 are treeless and uncultivated ; but on them the nomads 
 pasture their flocks and alfa (or esparto grass) grows 
 freely and wild and is gathered and exported largely 
 for use in paper-making. 
 
 In the Saharan oases palms, fruit trees and veget- 
 ables are grown, coarse tufts of vegetation are found 
 even in the sandy deserts, tamarisks and gum-trees in 
 the hills, and in the south there is both thick jungle and 
 cultivation. 
 
 To see Algeria in all its phases there is no better 
 
FROM THE SEA TO THE SAHARA 153 
 
 way than to journey by train from Algiers to Biskra ; 
 for the railway line traverses the three zones and 
 exhibits the varied nature of the land. It reveals 
 marvels of scenic beauty as by a triumph of engineer- 
 ing skill it passes through deep gorges and under awe- 
 inspiring cliffs when it winds among the mountains that, 
 rent by dreadful chasms, tower high above it. 
 
 In about seventeen hours it brings the traveller 
 from the sea to the Sahara, from the coastal fertile strip, 
 through the rugged region of hill and plateau, to the 
 great desert. 
 
 But to see it all one must journey by day ; and this 
 will take longer. For there are but two trains from 
 Algiers by which to go to Biskra. The night mail 
 leaves in the evening and eleven or twelve hours later 
 reaches El Guerrah, where its passengers for the south 
 change to another train, reaching Biskra in time for 
 lunch, while it goes on to Constantine. The day train 
 starts from Algiers about half-past seven in the morn- 
 ing and at six in the eyening drops its south-bound 
 passengers at El Guerrah, where they pass the night 
 and wait until next morning to be carried on to the 
 desert. But it is worth the delay to see Algeria by 
 daylight, to view the fields of corn, the orange groves, 
 the trim rows of interminable vines, the green hills and 
 the grim mountains with their rocky walls and snow- 
 capped peaks and the level stretches of the tablelands 
 with their grazing camels and the striped tents of the 
 nomads. 
 
 All trains leaving Algiers, either bound west or 
 east, start in the same direction, going southward for 
 a few miles along the coast and turning away from the 
 
154 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 sea where the Sahel Hills open at Maison Carree. 
 There ours for El Guerrah and Constantine or the 
 Sahara heads for the east through cultivation, vine- 
 yards, groves of orange trees sheltered by high cypress 
 hedges, rapidly drawing near the lofty mountains of 
 Grand Kabylia ahead. Red-roofed, white-walled 
 farmhouses — fine villas, indeed, some of them — dot 
 the fields in which Kabyles labour, the red headgear 
 or dress of their women splashing a note of vivid 
 colour in the green landscape. Trim little towns 
 inhabited by white colonists, tree-shaded roads on 
 which motor-diligences crowded with Arabs pass 
 five-horsed carts loaded with huge wine-barrels, 
 and swift automobiles with European passengers 
 fly by natives afoot or jogging along on diminutive 
 donkeys. 
 
 We pass Maison Blanche, Rouiba and the forest 
 of La Reghaia, Alma that saw grim fights in 1 839 and 
 1 87 1 when the French soldiers defeated overwhelming 
 numbers of Arabs and Kabyles, Menerville with its 
 branch line to Tizi Ouzou. We are in the Djurdjura 
 Mountains now; and the line bores through them in 
 many tunnels that all too swiftly end the glimpses of 
 the brawling river far below in the deep ravine of the 
 beautiful Gorge of the Isser. 
 
 The train stops at a little town on the banks of this 
 stream. Palestro, the scene of a cruel massacre of 
 colonists, men, women and children, in the Kabyle 
 revolt of 1 87 1. For days a handful of ill-armed 
 civilians held out heroically against overwhelming 
 numbers of Berbers and Arabs. In one of the three 
 houses held for defence more than forty Europeans 
 
FROM THE SEA TO THE SAHARA 155 
 
 of both sexes surrendered on the promise that their 
 lives would be spared ; but their treacherous foes slew 
 them all. Another party of two score in a second 
 building were captured and were only released when 
 the uprising was crushed. 
 
 The train rushes on between the rugged walls of 
 the Djurdjura Mountains. A late snowfall has 
 whitened them well-nigh to their base; and the air is 
 chill in the bright sunshine. But bushes and sturdy 
 trees cling to the steep slopes; and in every tiny 
 terraced field Kabyles are industriously working. At 
 Maillot we pass near the gigantic pyramid of the highest 
 point of the Djurdjuras, Lella-Khadidja, 7,500 feet 
 high. From the village of Maillot a good carriage 
 road leads through the hills to Bougie, the seaport of 
 Grand Kabylia, and another goes to Michelet, Fort 
 National and Tizi Ouzou. At the next station, Beni- 
 Mansour, there is a branch line to Bougie; and, 
 roundabout as it is, this is the only way by rail to it 
 from Algiers. 
 
 On still among the mountains growing wilder every 
 minute until desolation culminates in the gaunt and 
 fearsome walls of rock of the passes called the Portes- 
 de-Fer, rising sheer for thousands of feet above the 
 line and the tumbling waters of the Hammam River. 
 Some terrible upheaval in past ages has forced the 
 rocky strata into an almost vertical position, and the 
 precipitous cliffs seem formed of stone palisades with 
 saw-toothed tops outlined against the sky. There are 
 two of these Iron Gates — La Grande Porte and La 
 Petite. And through the latter grim defile in 1839 a 
 Royal Duke of France led an army where no army had 
 
156 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 ever before penetrated, not even the world- conquering 
 Romans. 
 
 Then a tunnel pierces the mountains and the train 
 emerges on the vast monotonous stretch of the Haut 
 Plateaux, dreary, depressing, wearisome to the eye. 
 They recall the level western prairies of the United 
 States more than the wide expanses of the plains of 
 India; for the latter are cultivated and dotted with 
 countless villages and groves of trees, whereas the 
 Algerian tablelands are mostly deserts with sparse 
 vegetation like so much of the land in the Western 
 States of North America. 
 
 Their solitude is broken only by a group of pastur- 
 ing camels, a herd of sheep in charge of a bare-legged 
 boy, an occasional Arab on a lean horse with flowing 
 tail cantering over the plain. Here and there white 
 storks in ones and twos stand solemnly on stilt-like 
 legs, stalk majestically about or, if near the line, rise 
 and flap heavily away to a safe distance. 
 
 The direction of the railway, which at first was 
 south-east, is now practically due east. A walled town 
 with four towers lies beside the line, Bordj-bou-Arreridj, 
 destroyed by the Mokranis in the rising of 1871, but 
 rebuilt and prosperous, for it stands in fertile country. 
 A long stretch of flat, monotonous land — more than 
 three thousand feet above sea-level, though — separates 
 it from another town enclosed by a fortified wall pierced 
 by four gates. 
 
 A town most modem in appearance with its church, 
 theatre, cafes and tree-bordered streets this, 3,500 feet 
 above the sea. Setif it is named. But many centuries 
 ago the Romans called it Sitifis; and the representa- 
 
FROM THE SEA TO THE SAHARA 157 
 
 tives of the Empire lived in stately palaces in it when it 
 was the capital of the province of Mauretania. It was 
 three miles in circumference then ; but the hand of God 
 and of man fell heavily on it. An earthquake wrecked 
 it, but did less damage than the Vandals and the Arabs 
 who came after them ; for between them they wiped the 
 Roman city off the face of the earth. 
 
 On again over the mournful tableland, and away 
 on the right a few mountain tops show above the horizon. 
 They are peaks of the Aures Mountains, that great 
 barrier between the desert and the midlands of Algeria. 
 But evening is closing in; and soon the train pulls up 
 at a wayside station with scarcely two buildings to be 
 seen outside it. But, unimportant as it seems, several 
 passengers descend from the first and second-class 
 carriages ; for it is El Guerrah, and here we must stop 
 for the night, while the train goes on, heading due north 
 now, to the rock city of Constantine. 
 
 The light is fading fast ; and, as one steps out of the 
 station, the hotel, a long low building, confronts the 
 astonished traveller who sees no other houses near, no 
 town, no lights from windows even. For the small 
 village is some distance away, and all that concerns him 
 is this unpretentious but not uncomfortable hostelry 
 where he must pass the night. 
 
 The air is chill; and the hotel dining-room, into 
 which the outer door opens directly, feels cold ; for like 
 all Algerian dwellings it is built more with an eye to 
 the heat of the summer than to the less warm seasons. 
 But far from civilisation as it seems it is lit by electric 
 light ; and an Anglo-Indian traveller may well wonder 
 how it is that the French can manage to bring this illu- 
 
158 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 minant with them wherever they go in North Africa, 
 even in the heart of Morocco to which they penetrated 
 only ten years ago, while up-country in the India that 
 has been in English hands well-nigh two centuries the 
 European resident must content himself with oil-lamps. 
 And, too, were this small junction in India instead of 
 Algeria he would find only a bench in a railway waiting- 
 room or at best a bedstead in a dak-bungalow, where no 
 food is supplied, to pass the night on, instead of this 
 hotel where a well-cooked dinner and a bottle of red or 
 white Algerian wine thrown in awaits him, with a com- 
 fortable bed to follow. 
 
 From Constantine, twenty-three miles away, a train 
 comes next morning to carry on the travellers south- 
 ward bound. Not all are for the desert and Biskra a 
 hundred and twenty-five miles farther on; for on the 
 way lies Batna, a French-built town dating from 1844, 
 the seat of a sub-prefecture and the headquarters of a 
 General of Division. Several officers and civilians are 
 bound for it, for their homes are in it. But with them, 
 when they quit the train, go tourists from many lands. 
 
 For it is the starting place for excursions to two 
 ruined Roman cities that can rival Herculaneum and 
 Pompeii and write in stone the history of the doings of 
 that wonderful Empire through so many centuries in 
 North Africa. Six or seven miles from Batna is Lam- 
 bessa, the ancient Lambsesis, where the Third Augustan 
 Legion had its headquarters and where the ruins of 
 temples, triumphal arches, theatres, baths, forums and 
 the columned Praetorium tell of the glories of this 
 far-flung outpost of Imperial rule. 
 
 But they fade into insignificance compared with the 
 
FROM THE SEA TO THE SAHARA 159 
 
 remains of Timgad sixteen or seventeen miles farther 
 on. Thamugadi the Romans called it. A splendid 
 city it must have been ; and as one stands on the rising 
 ground behind the theatre in which more than four 
 thousand spectators could find room, and looks over the 
 wide vista of ruins that mark where temples, thermae, 
 law courts and council chambers stood, amazement is 
 mingled with admiration for the marvellous race in that 
 bygone age which so far from its native land could mark 
 its dominion with cities such as this. 
 
 Against the sky stands up the square-topped, three- 
 arched gateway known as Trajan's Arch, of sandstone 
 with marble Corinthian pillars. A broad stone-paved 
 road leads to it between two rows of columns still 
 standing. 
 
 Surrounded by the ruins of the Temple of Victory, 
 the Curia and the Court of Justice is the paved and 
 colonnaded Forum where the orators thundered and 
 busy lawyers pushed their way to the court through 
 lounging crowds of Roman citizens who had never seen 
 Rome. It all brings home to one, as no book ever 
 could, the marvellous work of those empire builders and 
 colonisers who could spread the dominion of their race 
 so far afield, could make these deserts bloom like a 
 garden and build these wonderful cities where desolation 
 now reigns. 
 
 Great as is France's achievement in creating this 
 new colonial empire, yet she has done it in the age of 
 steam and electricity and breech-loading rifles. How 
 more remarkable then were the deeds of the Romans 
 whose frail ships bore them through the Mediterranean 
 storms to tread with their sandalled feet the long road 
 
160 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 over valley and mountain, through hostile tribesmen 
 and fierce wild beasts, under a burning sun and in blind- 
 ing snowstorms, to plant their eagles thus far in the 
 inhospitable land of Africa! 
 
 How tame and commonplace Batna seems after 
 these impressive ruins! 
 
 On w^ith the train again over the once seemingly 
 interminable tablelands; but the rugged crests of the 
 Aurfes Mountains coming nearer show that they are 
 ending. The railway line is now more than 3,500 feet 
 above sea-level. In winter these Hants Plateaux are 
 sometimes covered with snow ; and tourists to Timgad, 
 who have cherished the delusion that Africa is always 
 a land of burning sunshine, consider themselves 
 aggrieved at meeting with frosts and snow, not realising 
 that at such altitudes it is not to be wondered at. 
 
 Here is a small, unnoticeable station with a strangely 
 mixed name, Ain Touta Mac Mahon. But it is remark- 
 able as the scene of the last uprising against the French, 
 which took place during the Great War when conscrip- 
 tion for natives was introduced into Algeria. Up to 
 that time the ranks of their indigenous regiments were 
 filled by voluntary enlistment. The revolt was of little 
 importance. A mob of discontented Arabs gathered 
 together, burned a couple of buildings and killed a 
 Frenchman or two, but were easily dispersed by a 
 handful of troops. 
 
 For some time the barren Aur^s Mountains have 
 been gradually closing in on us on either side and now 
 join straight ahead, so that the train appears to be 
 rushing to destruction against a rocky wall hundreds of 
 feet high. But at the last moment the lofty barrier is 
 
FROM THE SEA TO THE SAHARA 161 
 
 seen to be cloven from summit to base in a V-shaped 
 rent ; and the famous gorge of El Kantara (The Bridge) 
 opens before us. 
 
 El Kantara, Gateway of the Desert, portal through 
 which Roman, Arab and French conquerors have in 
 turn entered the Sahara, gap in the mountain boun- 
 dary between the second and the third zone of Algeria, 
 between the Tablelands and the Sahara. Beyond it 
 lies the fabled waste of sand and gravel and rock, the 
 region of palm-shaded oasis and golden dune, where 
 the devils of the mirage dance on the salt lakes and the 
 bones of camels whiten the caravan routes. Over this 
 pass mail-clad Roman soldiers kept guard ; and across 
 the rushing torrent that through the ages has breached 
 the mighty barrier their engineers threw the arched 
 bridge that may still be seen, the bridge that gives the 
 gorge its Arabic name. The gaunt cliffs on either side 
 rise sheer four hundred feet above it and only between 
 one and two hundred yards apart. In the deep ravine 
 a small hotel lies bowered in a pretty garden and shelters 
 inquiring tourists who come to climb the rugged Aur^s 
 Mountains around them and see the strange Chaouia 
 race who, secluded from the world in their remote 
 villages and caves, haye altered little through the 
 centuries from their Berber ancestors of pre-Arab days. 
 
 The train halts for a few minutes at the small way- 
 side station of El Kantara half a mile from the gorge ; 
 .and the passengers can get out and look about them. 
 Behind lie the Hants Plateaux, on all sides rise the 
 strangely-formed peaks and worn summits of the moun- 
 tains, in front is the gate that once passed will reveal 
 to them the wide desert that they have come far to see. 
 
 L 
 
162 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 Train and travellers go on. Tantalising glimpses 
 between the tunnels of river, road and hamlet deep in 
 the ravine, then the three hundred and fifty yard long 
 gorge is passed; and the Sahara lies before us. 
 
 For the moment there is almost a feeling of dis- 
 appointment in those who have expected to see a vast 
 dead plain like the dry bed of a vanished sea, a barren 
 expanse of golden sands heaped high in wind-ribbed 
 dunes. For great stretches of the waving plumes of 
 date-palms, beneath which mud huts shelter among 
 fruit trees, and bright green fields of barley patch the 
 reddish brown soil, and between us and the horizon 
 similar oases dot the desert. Behind the steep wall of 
 the Aurfes Mountains stands up gapped with the V of 
 the pass and curves towards us east and west, still 
 hemming us in. 
 
 More palms, little mud-walled gardens, more huts, 
 then quite an imposing building and long lines of houses 
 of sun-dried brick in front of which fuzzy-haired 
 negresses with bright-coloured garments stand with 
 little naked black babies astride their hips. The 
 women-kind of the Senegalese Battalion that now 
 inhabits these barracks which during the Great War 
 sheltered German prisoners who, if they suffered from 
 heat in summer, were spared the rain jind snow of the 
 European battlefields in winter. 
 
 The train runs beside a dry river-bed at times filled 
 v/ith water when a storm breaks on the Aures Moun- 
 tains which still seem to encircle us, thrusting out their 
 long arms east and west into the Sahara. The surface 
 of the desert is not the sand that one would expect to 
 find in itj but reddish clay and stones. Wherever we 
 
2 
 
 Photo, by the Author. 
 
 THE GORGE OF EL KANTARA AND THE AURfeS 
 MOUNTAINS FROM THE SAHARA. 
 
 Photo, by the Author. 
 
FROM THE SEA TO THE SAHARA 163 
 
 look it is dotted with oases ; and the dark green palm- 
 groves stand out against the naked wall of the distant 
 mountains. They and the little gardens of huts or of 
 the small railway stations show that all that the desert 
 needs is water to make it productive. 
 
 To create an oasis either water has reached the 
 surface naturally or wells, native, hand-dug wells and 
 others bored by scientific means to depths of perhaps 
 over a thousand feet, provide it, and it is used to irrigate 
 and fertilise. The Algerian Government and private 
 French enterprise have done much for the Sahara and 
 its inhabitants by engineering aid to reach the life- 
 giving water where no Arab well-diggers could hope to 
 penetrate to it. Where it is available shoots of date- 
 palms are planted; and in fifteen or twenty years the 
 trees bear fruit. Under them as they tower high, 
 
 'VWith feet in water and crowns in the sun," 
 
 as the Arabs say, for their roots require constant irriga- 
 tion, lesser trees grow and wheat, barley and vegetables 
 are cultivated; and villages of sun-dried brick spring 
 up in the oasis. 
 
 Thirty-five miles of sun-steeped desert dotted with 
 these shady centres of human and plant life lie between 
 El Kantara and Biskra. Across the horizon the dark 
 blur of a sea of foliage, a straggling caravan of shamb- 
 ling camels driven by a couple of Arabs, two French 
 gendarmes in blue uniforms riding on white horses over 
 the unfenced track, doimrs — groups of striped brown 
 tents — in increasing numbers, announce our approach 
 to the Saharan town that is becoming a favourite winter 
 
164 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 resort with health and pleasure-seekers from America 
 and Europe. 
 
 Then houses, gardens, and a railway station ; and 
 the train comes to a stop after a journey of nearly four 
 hundred miles through Algerian plain, mountain, table- 
 land and desert. And the traveller new to the land is 
 surprised to see white hotel porters and touts in 
 uniform on the platform and large motor-cars and 
 luxurious hotel automobile omnibuses outside the 
 station, while his ears are deafened by a babel of many 
 languages. 
 
 The Biskra of to-day is a small modern town of 
 hotels, offices, European dwellings and shops that cater 
 for tourists, with a native quarter joined on; while 
 " Old Biskra," a mile or two away, is a huge, well- 
 watered oasis of nearly half a million date-palms shelter- 
 ing seven villages of dingy mud houses. Yet they say 
 that a city of 60,000 inhabitants stood here before the 
 days of the Vandals. 
 
 On emerging from the railway station the traveller 
 is confronted by a long, rectangular public garden 
 with leafy trees, flowering plants and a band-stand, 
 hemmed in on the left by the high, loopholed wall of 
 an extensive fort containing barracks, hospital and 
 military buildings, and capable of sheltering the 
 European residents in the case of a native uprising. 
 On the other side two-storied buildings line the road, 
 the side-walk passing under arcades before most of 
 them. Behind lie small streets of private residences, a 
 quaint little square, the Mairie and gendarmerie. 
 Beyond the gardens are a few European shops where 
 the tourist can purchase photographs, picture post cards, 
 
FROM THE SEA TO THE SAHARA 165 
 
 Algerian rugs and carpets and native jewellery, with 
 an occasional cafe where the French resident can drink 
 his aperitif. There are several hotels, all good, and 
 two at least luxurious and expensive enough to suit the 
 rich transatlantic globe-trotter. Then in its own 
 garden stands the Casino, where dances, concerts and 
 cinema performances are held, gambling may be 
 indulged in and a good orchestra plays to the patrons 
 sipping their drinks around little tables. So the French 
 inhabitants can feel that they are still in touch with 
 civilisation. And to help them to do it the town crier 
 beats a drum in the street before he reads out municipal 
 notices. But the tourist who resents the existence of 
 so much Europeanisation and seeks the Orientalism 
 that he has come far to find, has only to turn off the one 
 street of the " white " town to be plunged into native life 
 and surroundings ; for the Arab and negro population 
 of Biskra far outnumber the Europeans, and their 
 quarter lies just behind that of the latter. French 
 municipal organisation sees to it that their narrow 
 streets are clean and the market-place well kept. 
 
 Two long lanes of dingy houses with crazy wooden 
 balconies at the windows are known as the " Streets of 
 the Ouled Nails," as in them live the dancing girls, who 
 sometimes perform on the stage of the Casino. The 
 globe-trotter in search of local colour prefers to see 
 them in the native cafes ; and American and European 
 ladies and even children will sit contentedly for hours 
 in these small and smelly establishments and think that 
 they are watching the soul of the East as they stare at 
 the painted and bedizened courtesans whose real trade 
 is not the languid posturing and dancing on a platform 
 
166 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 for a few francs a night. The majority of these 
 girls do not belong to the Ouled Nail tribe, but are 
 half-castes, Jewesses from Algiers and Constantine, 
 negresses and Arab women from all parts of Algeria. 
 The European who does not understand the difference 
 and who probably considers the words to be a generic 
 term for a native dancer terms them all Ouled Nails. 
 
 A few fields and a quarter of blank-walled mud 
 houses separate the town from the chief attraction of 
 Biskra, the beautiful garden of the Villa de Benevent, 
 a delightful bower of foliage fronting the bare desert. 
 A wealthy Frenchman, Comte Landon de Longeville, 
 has made a unique dwelling for himself in the form of 
 several detached bungalows — one a drawing-room, 
 another a dining-room, a third the bedrooms, scattered 
 about in grounds of several acres planted with an end- 
 less variety of trees and flowering shrubs from Europe 
 and the tropics. Tall palms rustle their fronds above 
 the wistaria-clad buildings, orange and other fruit 
 trees cluster thick beside the trim paths, the silver sound 
 of running water in tiny irrigation channels rivals the 
 songs of the birds in the dense foliage. And the deep, 
 cool shade is welcome after the glaring sunshine steeping 
 the stony desert that stretches from the garden wall to 
 the naked hills of the Aur^s range bleak against the 
 blue sky. A lovely spot, a fairyland that itself alone is 
 almost worth the long journey from the sea; and the 
 hospitable owner opens it for a nominal fee to the 
 European traveller who seeks for peace and repose in 
 the shadow of its wonderful foliage. 
 
 A mile or two from the town brings one to the vast 
 oasis, " Old Biskr^," with its mud-walled houses and it$ 
 
FROM THE SEA TO THE SAHARA 167 
 
 palms in hundreds of thousands shading the gardens, 
 the crops in which prove the fertiHty of the Sahara when 
 it has water. Irrigation channels run beside the narrow 
 roads hemmed in by high earthen walls that confine the 
 fields and the orchards of palms that produce as fine 
 dates as any in the world. The villages in the oasis 
 consist of dwellings built of mud bricks, all of the 
 universal Eastern design which presents a blank wall 
 to the outer world but groups the rooms around a 
 small inner court on to which they open. 
 
 About four miles from Biskra are sulphur springs 
 and baths which the Romans used in bygone days — 
 Ad Piscinam, they called them — and the Arabs have 
 followed their example for centuries. And to-day 
 visitors from Europe go out to them in motor-cars or 
 the one-horse tram that rolls slowly over the rails laid 
 on the desert; and La Fontaine Chaude is quite an 
 imposing establishment with restaurant and accommo- 
 dation for persons desirous of taking a course of the 
 baths. The water, which is declared beneficial for 
 rheumatism, tuberculosis, skin disease, stomach and 
 lung troubles, gushes from the ground at the rate of 
 about twenty thousand gallons an hour and a temper- 
 ature of 115° Fahrenheit. 
 
 During one stay in Biskra I personally observed its 
 curative effect in the case of an acquaintance, a Swedish 
 cavalry officer, who on arrival was so crippled by rheu- 
 matism as to be almost unable to walk, but was nearly 
 normal before I left. 
 
 About thirteen miles from Biskra there nestles 
 under the wall of mountains that bound the desert to the 
 north a small village very sacred to Moslems; for it 
 
168 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 bears the name and enshrines the tomb of the first Arab 
 invader of North Africa, Sidi Okba. On sacred festi- 
 vals the followers of the creed that this fiery missionary 
 spread throughout North Africa from Egypt to the 
 Atlantic gather from many miles around to pray; and 
 the impressive sight of the thousands of white-robed 
 men standing immobile with faces turned towards 
 Mecca, then simultaneously prostrating themselves on 
 the sand, is one that enchants the tourist from 
 Biskra who is new to the ways of the Orient and 
 Mahommedanism. 
 
 Biskra is the capital of the district called the Zab, 
 in the plural Ziban, and was first occupied by the French 
 under the Due dAumale in 1844. A small garrison 
 was left in it ; but, as soon as the main body marched 
 away, the neighbouring tribes swooped down on it and 
 annihilated the defenders. But the town was promptly 
 recaptured. 
 
 It is inseparably connected with the prominent and 
 noble family of the Ben Gana, the head of which, the 
 Sheikh-el-Arab of the Zab, backed up the ex-Bey of 
 Constantine, Hadj Ahmed, against the French after the 
 second siege and fall of his city. But the victorious 
 invaders scattered the tribes and chased Bou-Aziz-ben- 
 Gana into the bleak Aures Mountains until he made 
 his submission, when in 1838 they invested him with 
 the dignity of Sheikh-el-Arab under their suzerainty. 
 To-day his descendant is Bach-Agha or Chief of the dis- 
 tricts and tribes of the Ziban over which he exercises 
 authority in the name of the Algerian Government. 
 
 His brother, Caid Ali-ben-Gana, a handsome and 
 courteous gendeman, a splendid specimen of the high- 
 

 M^^H 
 
 
 
 1- 
 
 ■^^■4^ /'I 
 
 t natiL : ' 1 
 
 1! 
 
 '' i^H 
 
 I^HIW^ . ' : ""^^s^^^l 
 
 IN THE BISKRA OASIS. 
 
 Photo, by the Author. 
 
 CAiD ALI BEN-GANA. 
 
 Photo, by the Author, 
 
FROM THE SEA TO THE SAHARA 169 
 
 born and well-bred Arab, is a gallant soldier who fought 
 with the Algerian cavalry against the Germans in the 
 Great War and bears on the breast of his burnous decora- 
 tions won on the field of battle. One must know men 
 like the Ben Gana brothers to understand the respect 
 and admiration that warrior chiefs of their race like the 
 great Abd-El-Kader won from the French in their fierce 
 struggle for independence. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 FROM BISKRA TO TOUGOURT 
 
 Pass on from Biskra, for the true Sahara lies beyond ! 
 The railway that runs another hundred and thirty miles 
 to the south has not yet vulgarised the sand wastes, the 
 great palm groves and the vast dried salt lakes over 
 which the Fairies of the Mirage dance. And the little 
 desert town of Tougourt at its end is still unspoilt. 
 
 Those who would savour the real life of the Sahara 
 may yet travel to this outpost of civilisation by camel 
 and caravan and spend half a dozen days in doing so. 
 But the wise who do not disdain the advantages of 
 modern transport take the one train, white-painted 
 against the heat, comfortable and up-to-date, that pulls 
 out from Biskra every second day and reaches 
 Tougourt in eight hours, returning on the morrow. In 
 winter it goes by daylight; but in the dread summer 
 months it steals over the desert in the night hours to 
 escape man's enemy there, the sun. 
 
 A motley and interesting crowd of travellers it 
 carries. A stately, olive-faced Arab in flowing white 
 burnous, a hlafa or thin cloth covering the high felt cap 
 on his head bound round by many turns of a brown 
 string of camel-hair cord and falling to his waist, stalks 
 to a third-class carriage followed by what might be two 
 automatic upright white bolsters were it not for the fair 
 foreheads and the beautiful black eyes appearing above 
 
 170 
 
FROM BISKRA TO TOUGOURT 171 
 
 the adjar, or veil which covers the rest of the face, and 
 the bare ankles and the little feet thrust into heel-less 
 slippers. They are his wives carefully shrouded against 
 profane male gaze. Behind them come a couple of 
 men who, but for their red checchias and semi-Arab 
 dress might be Scotsmen by their blue eyes, fair skins 
 and sandy moustaches. They are Kabyles, in whose 
 veins runs the mixed blood of aborigine, Roman and 
 Vandal. Two Tirailleurs Indigenes, smart, dark- 
 complexioned soldiers in their turquoise blue Zouave 
 jackets and baggy trousers, salute a handsome subaltern 
 officer of the French aviation service in dark blue tunic 
 and breeches and black gaiters. On his breast are the 
 Legion of Honour and the Croix de Guerre, the latter 
 with two metal palm branches across its ribbon to show 
 that it was won thrice. And over his left shoulder the 
 aiguillette cord of the fourragere tells that he has 
 belonged to a corps whose standard has been decorated 
 for bravery. A fair-skinned, black-bearded Mozabite 
 in Arab dress, one of the small but industrious race 
 from the towns and oases in the Sahara below Laghouat 
 scowled at as heretics by devout Moslems, climbs up 
 into a second-class compartment behind a stout French- 
 woman on her way to rejoin her stationmaster husband 
 half-way down the line. 
 
 Energetic hotel-guides conducting parties of Ameri- 
 can and European travellers push aside bewildered 
 groups of desert-dwelling women with unveiled faces, 
 mere bundles of odd garments. A horn squeaks, and 
 the train sHdes quietly out into the desert. First it 
 passes high, mud-walled houses, tall palm trees, a loop- 
 holed stone tower on a hillock facing out towards the 
 
172 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 wild and the aviation hangars from which the miHtary 
 aeroplanes fly out to keep watch over the waste. Then 
 Biskra and its environs and its oases are left behind, 
 and the true Sahara appears. 
 
 But where are the glaring plains of drifting sand, 
 the golden dunes heaped up, the dread bareness of life- 
 less desert that the untravelled — aye, and the man who 
 has seen Egypt and the dead shores of the Gulf of Suez 
 and the Red Sea — expect? For here and almost every- 
 where along the way to Tougourt the ground is heaped 
 in tiny hummocks crowned with foot-high bright green 
 bushes, clumps of grass eighteen inches long or drier 
 stuff that resembles alfa. Although close to the train 
 one can see the sand between the bunches of vegetation, 
 yet gazing farther away towards the horizon the eyes 
 seem to be ranging over a dark stretch of gorse-bushes 
 and in the distance the tops of the trees in a pinewood. 
 
 Lifeless ? Dotted among the hummocks are camels 
 grazing, camels brown or black, in ones, in twos, in 
 dozens, sometimes in charge of a small Arab child, 
 oftener alone. The universal donkey, too, in groups, 
 and herds of lop-eared goats are busy ; and it is evident 
 that in this part of the desert at least there is good feed- 
 ing for hardy animals. Here and there dunes do crop 
 up, and farther along the railway are lines of bare sand- 
 hills. But as a rule the undulating ground is dotted 
 with little clumps of green plants, and the surface of the 
 sand is hard. Between the bushes it is strewn with loose 
 stones glistening like mica, which mineral is found plenti- 
 fully between Tougourt and Ghardaia. But the sand, 
 ridged as on a seashore, shows that when a strong wind 
 blows over the desert it can rise in suffocating clouds. 
 
FROM BISKRA TO TOUGOURT 173 
 
 So far from being absolutely dry little streams and 
 narrow pools and here and there bigger ponds are 
 visible from the train. But the ground is covered in 
 very many places with snow-white patches of magnesia 
 or mineral salts, which show that the earth is every- 
 where impregnated with them, so that the surface water 
 is brackish and undrinkable. The oases of date-palms 
 that dot the desert owe their existence to the artesian 
 wells sunk deep, sometimes many hundreds of feet 
 below the surface. 
 
 The month is March and the sun shines brilliantly 
 in the clear blue sky, yet the heat is not great. In fact, 
 with the windows of the carriages open even the Euro- 
 pean travellers in the train wear furs and overcoats up 
 to noon. The nomad Arabs who wander far south in 
 the winter months to return northward when the scorch- 
 ing sun of summer drives them back, are still absent, 
 though occasionally low tents of striped cloth guarded 
 by fierce dogs dot the desert here and there; beside 
 tethered camels lazy, white-burnoused men lie on the 
 ground and gaze indifferently at the passing train. But 
 the women of the douar are too busy to raise their eyes 
 towards it, for they are doing all the hard work of the 
 encampment. 
 
 The Aures Mountains are not yet lost to sight. 
 They thrust forward on either flank and seem to hem 
 the railway in. At their feet are frequent great palm- 
 groves, oases nourished by the water flowing down from 
 the hills, and though lost to sight underground only 
 waiting to be tapped by wells. But at last the moun- 
 tains sink beneath the horizon and sandy hillocks blot 
 them from sight. 
 
174 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 The train runs past a well-built European house 
 beside the line, the dwelling of some French platelayer, 
 and his wife stands on the verandah to watch us go by. 
 Near the door is a pump, and by it is tethered a great 
 horned sheep. Farther on a well-peopled oasis lies 
 close to the railway. Above the flat roofs of the blank, 
 mud-walled huts the tall palms rustle their fronds in the 
 light breeze. From the village an Arab on a thin brown 
 mare, closely followed by a foal, ambles down the sunk 
 road white with magnesia that leads between earthen 
 banks to the line. 
 
 And then the train slides in alongside a building 
 that, owing to its whitewashed walls and its dome sur- 
 mounted by a gilt crescent, looks like a mosque or a 
 holy marabout's tomb, but it is only the first station out 
 from Biskra, Oumache. The blue-uniformed railway 
 officials in it look sadly out of keeping with its Oriental 
 appearance. One feels that they should garb them- 
 selves in burnous and hlafa like the expectant travellers 
 on the platform. But then, to look the part also, the 
 train would have to disguise itself as a camel. It 
 certainly behaves like one in the station ; for it stops 
 with as much noise and grumbling and shows as little 
 indecent haste to move on again as the long-necked, 
 bad-tempered animal that it is replacing in the 
 desert. 
 
 And when at last it departs from Oumache and sees 
 before it a river, like the camel it swerves out of the 
 straight line to seek the narrowest place to cross. An 
 iron three-span bridge stretches over the wide, almost 
 empty river-bed which, however, often fills so suddenly 
 by a spate from the hills that it drowns unwary travellers 
 
FROM BISKRA TO TOUGOURT 175 
 
 and women washing clothes in it. And this is the 
 Sahara that one pictures as a waterless waste ! 
 
 Now comes Chegga station, another cement build- 
 ing with dome and golden crescent, where on one side 
 of the line a garden of flowers and vegetables, of tama- 
 rinds and young palms, blooms to show what water can 
 make of the desert soil. The European passengers 
 crowd to stare over its wall into a mud-brick house shel- 
 tering a Sahara gazelle, a pretty, slim-legged creature 
 with short, curved horns. 
 
 Beyond Chegga there are more streams, pools and 
 ponds; but the water in them must be brackish, for 
 everywhere between the tiny bushes the ground is white 
 with magnesia or mineral salts. The desert is still the 
 same, undulating, covered with low vegetation, or at 
 intervals dotted with the clustering palms of oases. 
 
 Traditional pictures are not wanting. A herd of 
 camels stalk by, shepherded by a couple of Arabs on 
 horseback and a third man afoot with gun slung on his 
 back. They pass a string of the same supercilious, 
 long-legged beasts heavily laden, a caravan on its way 
 south with flour from Biskra ; for though the railway runs 
 to-day the Arabs use the transport that their forefathers 
 did centuries ago. And the desert takes its toll of man 
 and animals as of yore. Not a hundred yards from 
 the iron road lies the complete skeleton of a camel with 
 the big white skull still adhering in some way to the 
 cervical vertebrae. And half a mile farther on is another, 
 fallen to pieces this one. And though the troopers of 
 France patrol the Sahara raiders still swoop down on 
 caravans in the south and men's life-blood stains the 
 hot sand. 
 
176 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 More oases, more stations. Some of the latter vary 
 in architecture from the first ones, though still presenting 
 the Eastern touch. 
 
 And now far away to the left of the railway lies a 
 large lake, a truly magnificent sheet of water bordered 
 by sandy cliffs, dotted with islets ; cliffs and islets 
 reflected clearly in the shining water. Farther on the 
 far shore runs out of sight and horizon and water blend. 
 Here and there are large fishing-boats. The tourists 
 crowd the windows of the train corridor to gaze in 
 wonder and admiration at the beautiful expanse of 
 water. It stretches for miles parallel to the railway; 
 and our surprise is great that so vast a lake lies so far 
 inside the Sahara. Guide-book maps are consulted. 
 Yes, here it is in all of them, marked by a wash of blue, 
 one of a chain of similar coloured patches extending 
 to the Gulf of Gabes in Tunisia. The guide-books 
 term them Chotts and call them salt-lakes. Small 
 inland seas they must be. This one is the Chott El 
 Melghir, 170 miles long. 
 
 Astonishment, unbelief, are evinced by the tourists 
 when fellow travellers who reside in Tougourt or else- 
 where along the line declare that there is practically no 
 water, fresh or salt, in this beautiful lake, that its shining 
 expanse with its faithful reflections of islets, cliffs and 
 boats is all delusion. It is a mirage. What we see 
 is the bed of a dried-up lake covered white with mag- 
 nesia. We cannot believe it until the railway line 
 passes over a portion of it — here, they say, sixteen 
 metres below sea level. It is over these Chotts that the 
 Mediterranean Sea is to be brought into the heart of the 
 Sahara when the scheme is ripe — some day, perhaps. 
 
FROM BISKRA TO TOUGOURT 177 
 
 This mirage is beyond belief. I have seen many 
 in India, but I stared long at this Chott before I could 
 realise the truth. 
 
 Water, real, fresh water, comes, and strange to say 
 comes unwelcome to the desert. Only the day before 
 a storm had swept over the district, torrents of rain fell, 
 river beds filled to the brim, and for several kilometres 
 the railway had been undermined or even swept away. 
 But it had been promptly repaired — it is no difficult 
 task to bank up sand and lay sleepers on it — but over 
 those doubtful kilometres the train crawled slowly, while 
 gangs of Arabs and Kabyle navvies stood aside to let it 
 go by. 
 
 Storms in the desert ! Last July the motor diligence 
 from Ghardaia to Tougourt, both places over a hundred 
 and fifty miles inside the Sahara, ran into one. The 
 lightning and thunder were tropical, and hailstones fell, 
 not such as dwellers in temperate climes know, but 
 sharp-edged bars of clear ice two or three inches long, 
 each enclosing a round, clouded hailstone such as is 
 ordinarily seen. They pierced the tarpaulin cover of 
 the diligence as though they had been bullets, they 
 battered and bruised the driver's arms, hands and body 
 until he was forced to pull up and wait for a couple of 
 hours. And even when the storm had passed he was 
 unable to proceed at once, for the ground for miles was 
 slippery with the ice particles. Ice in the Sahara in 
 July! 
 
 Near each railway station on the line to Tougourt 
 there is at least one large oasis, if not more — for the 
 oasis is the raison d'etre of the station's existence. In 
 many of them the villages are large and boast quite 
 
 M 
 
178 ALGEHIA TO-DAY 
 
 imposing mosques, the white minarets rising among the 
 tall dark palms. The extent of the high walls of sun- 
 dried bricks surrounding the crowded dwellings is sur- 
 prising ; as are the other evidences of prosperity in the 
 vast number of palm-trees — close on two hundred thou- 
 sand in some cases — the ground cultivation of veget- 
 ables under them, the herds of goats, sheep and donkeys, 
 as well as the crowds that gather for the weekly markets. 
 
 Astonishing too, is the number of oases visible from 
 the train all the way between Biskra and Tougourt. 
 The popular idea that the whole Sahara is a vast, deso- 
 late, sandy desert inhabited only by wandering tribes- 
 men is erroneous ; for in other parts beside this which 
 is served by the railway there are large oases with many 
 villages containing a numerous settled population. 
 
 An oasis, as I have said, is simply a spot where 
 water is found on the surface or more usually by sinking 
 wells ; for then irrigation will allow palms to grow, and 
 where they are life can be supported. So villages of 
 mud bricks spring up as if by magic. For the palm- 
 tree means everything to the desert-dweller. It gives 
 him almost his only food, the date and the edible pith. 
 From the date is distilled a liquor something like 
 anisette. Trees that do not bear fruit well are tapped 
 near the leafy crown, and every morning the exuding 
 sap is collected in earthen vessels tied under the 
 incisions. When fresh it forms a harmless drink, but 
 when fermented it is a strong intoxicant. " Lakmi," 
 the Arabs call it ; in India it is termed " toddy," and to 
 produce it palms are extensively cultivated along the 
 coast near Bombay. This tapping of a tree has a good 
 effect on it, causing it to subsequently bear better fruit. 
 
FROM BISKRA TO TOUGOURT 179 
 
 A date palm, although it does not produce a crop for 
 the first fifteen or twenty years of its existence, is never- 
 theless a good investment; for it lives more than a 
 hundred years, and even when dead its roots, trunk and 
 leaves are useful for a variety of purposes. It is not 
 usually grown from date-stones, but from slips. Palms 
 are either male or female, and trees of the latter gender 
 must be fertilised from the former. 
 
 They only fructify in the Sahara zone. The prin- 
 cipal regions which produce dates in Southern Algeria 
 are the Oued Rhir, the Ziban, the Souf, Ouargla, the 
 Tidikelt, the Zousfana and the Saoura. There are 
 very many varieties of this fruit. The finest quality, 
 and the one usually exported for foreign consumption 
 in cases, wooden and cardboard boxes, is the transparent 
 Deglet-Nour. 
 
 The produce of the oases of the Souf and the Djerid 
 is considered the best ; and the crop is purchased entire 
 by merchants even before the dates ripen. 
 
 The soft dates called Rhar, which the natives con- 
 sume largely, are sold compressed in goatskins. The 
 Horra and Degla-Beida are eaten by the bulk of the 
 inhabitants of the Sahara and the Hants Plateaux. 
 Other varieties are the Mouchi-Degla, Koutichi, M'hen- 
 tich, M'tima, Alaoua and a host of others. The harvest 
 season is in November. 
 
 The staple, if not the only diet of the nomads is 
 couscous, dates and camel's milk. Only on rare occa- 
 sions, such as feasts, are sheep slaughtered for food — 
 and then they are roasted whole. But dates from their 
 portability — they are packed tight in goatskins sewn up 
 — form the principal nourishment of a wandering Arab ; 
 
180 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 and without the palms the desert would be uninhabit- 
 able to him. But these trees require much water. 
 Here the French come to the aid of the Arabs and sink 
 artesian wells by machinery for them, naturally boring 
 to depths that the old method of digging by hand could 
 never reach. Indeed, all this land, and not only the 
 Sahara, owes much to its rulers, who have developed 
 its resources astonishingly. The man who thinks that 
 the French cannot colonise should visit Algeria. He 
 should see the farms, the cultivation, the vineyards of 
 the northern provinces and the oases that are springing 
 up in the desert thanks to French companies and the 
 money they spend in developing them. It comes as 
 a surprise to the tourist to see at a little wayside station 
 in the Sahara the motor-car or the pony cart of one of 
 their employees with his wife and children sitting in it. 
 These vehicles look as out of place among the tethered 
 camels, mules and donkeys as do their occupants in 
 their European dress among the drapery and flowing 
 robes of the Arab men and the picturesque though 
 tatterdemalion figures of the female desert-dwellers with 
 unveiled faces. 
 
 After El-Berd, where a solitary loopholed picquet 
 tower rises above the desert and a few well-shaped Arab 
 horses with gaily decorated high-peaked saddles were 
 made fast to hitching-posts near the little station, there 
 were several other stops before the train at last reached 
 Tougourt. A real desert town this. Here one saw 
 the bare, uncovered, unmistakable sand. Though 
 around and about are many shady oases in which to hide 
 among the palms, Tougourt stands up naked and 
 unashamed against the sky, perched on a low hillock of 
 
Photo. Service, Government of Algeria. 
 TOUGOURT FROM THE AIR. 
 
 Photo. Service, Government of Algeria. 
 THE PALMS OF TOUGOURT. 
 
FROM BISKRA TO TOUGOURT 181 
 
 loose sand, which drifts up against the deeply crenelated 
 wall on one side of the arched gateways and on the 
 other the barer, uglier one over which peep the flat roofs 
 of the houses and the minarets of a score of mosques. 
 It looks to-day much as it has for centuries, this 
 Tougourt, brought in touch with civilisation at last ; as 
 the railway attests, as do the little Catholic church out- 
 side the town and the miserable horse dragging a small 
 tram along narrow rails below the sand dune and up 
 the one broad, deep-arcaded street that holds a hotel 
 and a few offices. But nothing detracts from the 
 Eastern look of the town. Certainly not the white- 
 washed arches and walls of this main street, at the head 
 of which, backed by a hundred palm-trees rising behind 
 white, open balustrades and bordered by arcaded, one- 
 storied buildings with an occasional domed roof, is the 
 market place. 
 
 Here the sellers, when not engaged in animated 
 disputes with bargaining buyers, squat or lie full length 
 on the ground, comfortably awaiting custom beside their 
 wares. Piles of dried bush-stumps for" fuel and bundles 
 of coarse desert grass for fodder are for sale. On cloths 
 are spread — for stalls there are none — dates, grain, 
 native bread and flat cakes and cooked food. Patient 
 donkeys stand with drooping heads. Camels bunched 
 up on the sand survey the passers-by with supercilious, 
 evil stare and fill the air with burbling complaints when 
 urged to uncurl their long legs and rise. On Fridays 
 the market is filled with them; for the desert carpet- 
 weavers have come in with their weird, gaudy wares 
 for sale, strips and squares of fascinating colours, blues, 
 greens, reds, yellows, purples, magentas, in clashing, 
 
182 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 impossible contrasts, yet subtly harmonising in some 
 strange way. 
 
 Unromantic though a market be, ordinary the 
 actions of all in it, yet this market place of Tougourt is 
 picturesque, and its tones of subdued green from the 
 background of palms, of yellow from the sand that fills 
 it, of white from the buildings and the dress of the 
 chaffering groups, with over all the vivid blue of the 
 Saharan sky, would delight a painter. Lazy, dishonest, 
 immoral though the Arab may be — and I have never 
 met anyone to defend him — the flowing lines of his 
 robes give him a stateliness and a dignity to the eye at 
 least. 
 
 After the market-place comes a square. On one 
 side is a long, white, two-storied building of many- 
 arched verandahs surmounted by a dome, the Bureau 
 Arabe. Similar arcaded houses fill up two other sides ; 
 while the fourth is bounded by the grim, loopholed, 
 bastioned wall of the fort and barracks in which the 
 French Algerian troops are quartered. Above it a tall 
 tower pierced for rifles and machine guns rises high in 
 the air dominating town and desert, a sign for all, nomad 
 or street-dweller, a warning symbol of the Dominant 
 Power—" Lest They Forget." 
 
 In the square is a large, covered well with a stand- 
 pipe from which gushes warm, almost hot water, spring- 
 ing up from a depth of over seven hundred and fifty 
 feet where the French boring-tools had found it and 
 discharging an amazing quantity of water every hour — 
 water so strongly impregnated with magnesia as to have 
 unpleasant effects on the Europeans in Tougourt — about 
 fifty or sixty all told — who are obliged to drink it. 
 
FROM BISKRA TO TOUGOURT 183 
 
 Opposite the fortified wall of the barracks is the 
 Great Mosque — there are nearly a score of these edifices 
 in the small town. 
 
 And now all picturesqueness ends ; for the rest of 
 Tougourt is just narrow, gloomy streets, mere lanes of 
 loose sand, running between high, brown, sun-dried 
 brick walls, blank, but for one small door for each house. 
 If open this door allows a glimpse of a deep courtyard 
 in which a camel is tethered or perhaps a palm-tree 
 towers, hemmed in by mud-coloured buildings where 
 external stairs lead up to the dwelling rooms over the 
 stables on the ground floor. The streets, like all 
 Eastern streets of private residences, are dull, for the 
 town Arab will have no windows through which the 
 outer world may pry into his home life. " He does not 
 live in the street " as he says the European does. 
 
 Even the houses of the two great men of Tougourt, 
 the Marabout or Holy Man and the Caid — the secular 
 chief — present the same depressing external aspect. 
 But when I visited the latter a door in the wall led me 
 into a bright little courtyard where a shapely white horse 
 was tethered and a group of Arab and negro servants 
 lay or squatted against the house. And the room in 
 which, reposing on a white mattress and propped up by 
 pillows, the caid, suffering from a sprained knee, 
 received me, was light and cheerful. And in it we 
 drank coffee and discussed Pierre Benoit's " LAtlan- 
 tide " ; for the author had spent three months in 
 Tougourt when writing the book, and the caid, a 
 charming and educated man, decorS, and speaking 
 French fluently, had known him well. 
 
 Tougourt has played its part in the history of the 
 
184 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 Sahara and could boast its Sultans, whose tombs stand 
 lonely and ruinous in the sand outside the town. One 
 dynasty ruled it from the fourteenth century to the 
 nineteenth when Sultan Ben-Djellab-bou-Lifa acknow- 
 ledged the French suzerainty. His young grandson, 
 Abd-el-Kader-ben-Djellab, a mere boy, was the ruler 
 in 1854 and was murdered by an ambitious relative, 
 Ben-Sliman-ben-Djellab, who seized the power and 
 joined forces with Mohammed-ben-Abd' Allah whom 
 the French had driven out of Ouargla, another desert 
 town and small state a hundred and seventy kilometres 
 south-west of Tougourt. Against them the Algerian 
 Government sent four very mobile columns under 
 Colonel Desvaux, Commandant of the Sub-division of 
 Batna, reinforced by the goums (native irregular contin- 
 gents) of Biskra, Bou-Saada, Laghouat and Geryville 
 under Commandant Marnier. The confederate Arab 
 force was defeated at Megarine on November 29th, 
 1854, losing a thousand men; and the French entered 
 and took possession of Tougourt on 2nd December. 
 
 I think of this as I leave the caid's house and try to 
 picture this small town and the waste of sand around it 
 as an independent kingdom. A Saharan Sultan must 
 have been but a very small potentate. 
 
 Legend tells that the Tougourt of to-day occupies 
 a different site to the Tougourt of the past. North of 
 it was the village of Tala, now in ruins, in which lived 
 a beautiful courtesan named El Bahadja (La Joyeuse), 
 for whose favour all the young men of Tala contended. 
 Driven out of the village as an evil-doer she sought to 
 enter Tougourt. Refused admission she was obliged 
 to shelter in a hut of palm-branches hurriedly con- 
 
FROM BISKRA TO TOUGOURT 185 
 
 structed by her lovers, who followed her in a band and 
 pitched their tents around her dwelling. Shortly after- 
 wards a very holy man, the Grand Marabout of M'Sila, 
 came to Tougourt to beg for his religious school; but 
 as the ruler and people of the town belonged to a 
 different sect of Mahommedanism they refused him 
 admission, too. But the Gay Lady was more charitable 
 and sheltered the venerable greybeard when night found 
 him stranded in the desert ; and she and her young men 
 showed him so much kindness that he blessed his 
 hostess, and prayed, "Allah! protect El Bahadja! 
 May her humble cabin become a palace and the 
 inhospitable houses of Tougourt fall in ruins ! " 
 
 And the marabout's prayer was heard. Civil war 
 set the inhabitants of the town at each other's throat and 
 eventually destroyed the Tougourt of that day. But 
 La Joyeuse's cot had been replaced by a fine building ; 
 and other houses sprang up around it and developed 
 into the Tougourt of our time. 
 
 The afternoon wanes. From the high tower of the 
 fort one can gaze out over the desert, beyond the bare, 
 brown village outside Tougourt, across the jagged tops 
 of the palms in the oases around and watch the sinking 
 sun fill the heavens with glowing reds and pinks and 
 yellows. 
 
 Night comes swiftly, and the air is chill ; so that I 
 wear an overcoat as I walk to the little restaurant with 
 the French aviation officer who was my fellow traveller 
 and is to be my guest. But the dark sky is pierced with 
 a million points of brightness, the stars that shine oyer 
 the desert with a brilliancy that Europe never knows. 
 And the Saharan day is done. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 SHEIKHS, SAINTS AND SECRET SOCIETIES 
 
 Biskra railway station is gaily beflagged and 
 decorated; and on the platform civilians raise their 
 hats and officers salute as the special train glides 
 out on the Tougourt line — and it is all in honour of 
 the kindly-faced, handsome old gentleman with the 
 flowing white beard, who, seated in the centre 
 carriage, is bowing in reply. For he is a Personage. 
 No less than the Governor-General of Algeria;''^ as 
 important an individual as the Viceroy of India, but 
 much more approachable. 
 
 He is going to meet the Arab chieftains of the 
 wide Saharan district of the Zab at the little desert 
 town of Tolga about sixty miles from Biskra. 
 Around him in the carriage sit the members of his 
 Cabinets Civil et Militaire, together with the prin- 
 cipal officials of the Province of Constantine, in which 
 Biskra lies. That exceedingly smart officer with the 
 gold oak-leaves embroidered on the scarlet band of 
 his kepi is the General of the Batna Division; for 
 this part of the military zone is under his command. 
 Those two good-looking men in dark-blue uniform 
 with silver oak-leaves round their caps are the Prefet, 
 
 ♦ The late M. Abel. 
 186 
 
SAINTS AND SECRET SOCIETIES 187 
 
 or Governor, of the Constantine Province and the 
 Sous-Prefet of Batna. 
 
 In the next carriage are some officers of the Biskra 
 garrison; while in a third are a few guests fortunate 
 enough to be invited to witness the great gathering of 
 the desert chiefs and their tribesmen. There is a 
 handsome French countess with her son. There with 
 his family is a British Major- General, who is also a 
 peer, who knows North Africa east and west, from 
 the Suez Canal to the Atlantic, better than most 
 people. He saw the ending of the Mahdi's power 
 when the deryish hordes were blasted off the face of 
 the desert by the rifles of Gatacre's white soldiers 
 and Macdonald's blacks. He played cricket with 
 Sultan Abdul Aziz in the Imperial Palace at Fez 
 long before the coming of the French to Morocco. 
 The white-haired man to whom I am talking was a 
 retired colonel of the Canadian Army when the Great 
 War broke out. They said that he was too old for 
 re-employment in August 19 14 — so he went to Eng- 
 land, enlisted as a private soldier, fought through the 
 campaign, won the Distinguished Conduct Medal, 
 refused a commission; and when the war was over 
 Sergeant- Major Bliss went back to the Retired List 
 as Colonel Bliss. 
 
 Beyond the rocky knoll on which the square 
 watch-tower outside Biskra stands up lonely and 
 untenanted the train passes the aviation hangars 
 by Beni Mora, from which an aeroplane sweeps up 
 into the blue sky to show why the tower is empty. 
 For nowadays the Watchers in the Air keep guard 
 over the peace of the desert; and these winged 
 
188 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 wardens of the Sahara fly over sand dune and water- 
 less stony waste where the camel-soldier scarce can 
 go. The Governor-Generars train would be well 
 guarded now were there any need for it. But France's 
 sway is undisputed and this zone is peaceful, so His 
 Excellency requires no escort. 
 
 Outside the oasis with its sea of palms the' 
 unpromising-looking soil is green, bright green with 
 wide, unfenced fields of growing barley that mock 
 the legend of an unfertile Sahara. Fresher than 
 ever it appears; for unusual rain has actually fallen 
 in the Biskra district during the three days of the 
 Governor-Generars visit; an unwonted phenomenon 
 that makes the Arabs nod their heads solemnly and 
 opine that Allah must regard the Great White Sheikh 
 with special favour since He sent this blessed water 
 to welcome his coming. 
 
 Beyond the barley the desert at first is bare and 
 white with magnesia but soon is dotted with little 
 clumps of Saharan vegetation on which camels, 
 donkeys and goats are grazing. We see the mosque- 
 like dome of the first station out, Oumache; and 
 the train pulls up beside the platform crowded with 
 a bizarre throng. Rows of gaily-clad Arab women 
 with unveiled faces greet our arrival with their soft, 
 shrill " yu-yu-ing " cry of salutation. Behind them 
 a rank of white-garbed desert warriors raise their guns 
 and fire welcoming volleys, while banner-men hold 
 'bright coloured flags aloft. And up and down the 
 platform dances an unkempt old woman with 
 straggling grey hair, waving a naked sword above her 
 Jiead, while a man, also brandishing a curyed sabre^ 
 
SAINTS AND SECRET SOCIETIES 189 
 
 hops after her in weird steps to \he shrill strains of 
 Arab musicians. 
 
 And lifted high in air behind them all is a closed 
 palanquin covered with a silver cloth; and I learn 
 that to-day the son of the Sheikh of Oumache has 
 been married and has brought his bride — hidden from 
 gaze in the palanquin — and the wedding guests to 
 greet the Governor- General in his passage. 
 
 On again, and the line branches off from the main 
 railway to Tougourt. We go oyer waste stretches of 
 desert, by grazing herds, by fruitful oases with mud- 
 walled villages, by date-palm nurseries where the 
 young slips are planted in lines to grow in time into 
 tall trees and form more oases. A few more stations 
 and then gardens, mud walls and scattered huts tell 
 us that we are nearing our destination. Then we 
 reach Tolga. A small group of Europeans awaits 
 the Governor-General on the platform; and a little 
 French girl presents him with a bouquet of flowers. 
 Flowers in the desert ! 
 
 We follow His Excellency out through the station 
 and a wonderful scene bursts on our view. 
 
 The mile or so of sand lying between the railway 
 and the town is packed with a mass of humanity, 
 men, women, children, in fluttering white or coloured 
 garments. 
 
 In the centre a broad space is filled with massed 
 bodies of armed horsemen and foot-soldiers in all 
 the colours of the rainbow. There is a troup of 
 cavaliers in scarlet burnouses embroidered in gold 
 or silver — sheikhs or tribal leaders. Their slim, sinewy 
 horses, mostly greys or whites, are gaily adorned with 
 
190 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 saddle-cloths red, blue, purple, crimson; their stir- 
 rups, spurs and bits are of solid silver, their reins of 
 scented leather are thickly encrusted with gold or 
 silver, their saddles and saddle-cloths of velvet heavy 
 with gold bullion, and the empty scabbards dangling 
 against their chargers' flanks are of precious metal. 
 With the long lines of horsemen behind these 
 black or grey-bearded riders are their sons, nephews, 
 grandsons, in gold-embroidered velvet or fine 
 cloth garments, green, blue, mauve, purple. Their 
 trappings too, are of silver or gold. Many of them 
 command sections and sub-diyisions. 
 
 The compact bodies of footmen are variously 
 clothed and equipped and carry many gaily-coloured 
 flags. They and the horsemen are the followers of 
 the various caids and sheikhs and constitute the 
 goums or native irregular contingents which are ready 
 to fight for the Republic in war and in peace time 
 help to police the district ruled by their leaders. For 
 the conquest of Algeria was aided by many chiefs 
 who sided with the French; and in regions assigned 
 throughout the country for the occupation of certain 
 tribes their leaders are entrusted with the control and 
 are responsible for the maintenance of law and order. 
 They are formally invested with authority by the 
 Algerian Government and dignified with the titles of 
 Sheikh, Caid, Agha, Bach-Agha or Khalifa. 
 
 They are allowed to maintain a military house- 
 hold, like the retainers of a baron in feudal times, 
 to act, as I said, as police or if need be as soldiers. 
 The chiefs have not judicial powers; and it is often 
 a source of great dissatisfaction to them that law- 
 
Photo, by the Author. 
 
 TRIBAL CHIEFS IN TOLGA. 
 
 f- ■ 
 
 
 
 hM 
 
 ^"'lilT f^™^ 
 
 ^m 
 
 
 is 
 
 
 IN TOLGA. 
 
 Photo, by the Author. 
 
SAINTS AND SECRET SOCIETIES 191 
 
 breakers of their tribe arrested by them and tried by 
 French judges profit by the many loopholes of legal 
 intricacies and the perhaps unwise leniency of the 
 European tribunals, are acquitted and return to the 
 tribe free men to jeer at their discomfited caid, whose 
 authority is thus diminished and his prestige shaken. 
 
 In war tribal leaders command their goums under 
 the control of French officers. And now this 
 assemblage of desert warriors before us takes its 
 orders from the white man in gay uniform draped 
 with a scarlet burnous who gives the word to salute 
 when the Governor-General advances towards them 
 from the station. 
 
 From a scenic point of yiew the spectacle is a 
 brilliant and impressive one. The serried ranks of 
 these armed Arabs whose forefathers had fought 
 alternately against the French and their own country- 
 men, their picturesque garb, the restless lines of 
 long-maned, long-tailed desert horses, neighing, 
 plunging, straining at their bits, seeking to savage 
 their neighbours, the countless gaudy banners flutter- 
 ing in the breeze, the masses of white-robed men, of 
 " yu-yu-ing " women, of half-naked children, with 
 the background of brown earthen walls under the 
 rustling plumes of the tall palms, and the desert 
 stretching away behind us to the distant hills, all 
 make a fascinating picture, every detail of which 
 stands out clearly in the vivid light of the Saharan 
 sun. 
 
 But interesting as it all is as a spectacle, it is 
 equally impressive as a testimony to France's sway 
 over the Sahara and its tribes. The Arab chieftain 
 
192 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 in scarlet burnous coyered with glittering decorations 
 who sits on his beautiful horse at the head of the 
 army, the Bach-Agha of the Zibans, the leader of this 
 host, is the lineal descendant and successor of the 
 Ben Gana who fought beside the fallen ruler of 
 Constantine against the Franks, and later made his sub- 
 mission and consented to hold his position as Sheikh-el- 
 Arab of the Zab from them. Another Ben Gana faltered 
 in his allegiance in the fateful year of 187 1 when through 
 Tell, tablelands and desert swift ran the word that 
 France lay in the dust so low that none need do her 
 reverence. But the Ben Gana to-day and all who bear 
 his name and follow his banner have served her faith- 
 fully in more direful straits ; and those who have lived 
 through the storm have seen their faith and loyalty 
 justified. 
 
 And east, west and south of them in this far- 
 stretching Sahara the tens of thousands of similar swift 
 desert riders of clean-limbed horses and fleet camels, 
 burnoused Arab and veiled Touareg, know that the 
 lawless days have gone for ever and that their master 
 is this white-bearded benevolent old gentleman in 
 civilian garb — because he stands for France. 
 
 The salutes given and returned, the inspection over, 
 the Governor-General and his staff entered two-horsed 
 victorias and drove towards the town, the flat roofs of 
 which were white with cheering women. The masses 
 of cavaliers swept after them in clouds of dust, the foot- 
 men followed at a run and the swarming crowds of 
 Arabs hurried behind, scrambling, jostling, shuffling 
 through the deep sand in flapping babouches or with 
 bare feet. The two or three carriages provided for His 
 
SAINTS AND SECRET SOCIETIES 193 
 
 Excellency had exhausted the transport resources of 
 Tolga; and the remainder of the Europeans had to 
 walk. In the open plain this was no hardship ; but when 
 we got into the narrow lanes of deep, loose sand between 
 the mud walls of the houses of the town and tried to hold 
 our own and make our way through the scuffling swarms 
 of humanity all hurrying in the same direction it was 
 unpleasant. For the heat was terrific, the buildings 
 shut off all breeze, but gave no shade, the dust rose 
 under the eager feet in blinding, suffocating clouds, as 
 buffeted and jostled we slipped and struggled through 
 the yielding sand, going we knew not whither. 
 
 At last we reached a small open square in front of 
 a small, semi-European building standing in a dusty 
 garden behind a wall, and learned that it was the one 
 hotel of Tolga, and in it the municipality of the town 
 was to entertain the Governor-General to lunch after 
 his official inspection and his visits to the mosque and 
 the Grand Marabout, the chief religious personage of 
 the place. As we saw that the troops of sheikhs and 
 their cavaliers had halted and dismounted in the square 
 and as we had been hopelessly left behind by the 
 carriages bearing the staff, most of the French officers 
 and guests stopped here and waited on events. His 
 Excellency being long in coming, most of us, as we were 
 not included in the invitation to lunch, wandered about 
 Tolga, which I found differed from other Saharan towns 
 that I had seen by attempts at little gardens, by great 
 vines climbing the whitewashed houses or trained across 
 the tiny courtyards and narrow alleys. The mosques 
 were small and unimposing. In the box-like small 
 shops was displayed a certain amount of European 
 goods, such as kerosene oil lamps, sewing thread, 
 
 N 
 
194 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 English cotton goods, cheap mirrors and imitation 
 jewellery. Outside a small eating house a huge caul- 
 dron of what looked like thick tomato soup was being 
 boiled. 
 
 As I wandered, camera in hand, about the town I 
 encountered an Arab friend. He was mounted on a 
 white horse and was accompanying a burly, spectacled 
 compatriot wrapped, despite the heat of the day, in a 
 thick woollen burnous and perched on a high saddle on 
 a still bigger mule. Greeting my friend I was informed 
 by him that his companion was His Holiness the Grand 
 Marabout. The latter consented to pose for me to 
 photograph him. That a man of his sanctity and 
 religious position should permit this is an instance of 
 the Algerian Moslem being superior to the prejudice 
 that many Mahommedans elsewhere, particularly in 
 Morocco, have against being photographed, holding 
 that it is contrary to the law of the Koran which 
 forbids the making of pictures or images of living 
 beings. 
 
 As it was understood that the Arab cavaliers were 
 to display their skill before the Governor-General in a 
 fantasia or " powder play," we all later made our way 
 to the stretch of desert between the town and the 
 station. We found several of the troops of the goumiers 
 assembled there. Most of them had dismounted and 
 stood about chattering and smoking cigarettes. 
 
 A slight, handsome young horseman dressed in dark 
 green velvet heavily embroidered with gold waved his 
 hand, swung himself out of the saddle and came forward 
 to shake hands with me. He was a friend whom I had 
 made in Biskra, a Ben Gana, the nephew of the Bach- 
 Agha. Like all educated Arabs — and indeed most 
 
' 
 
 .i^ 
 
 _g 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 L-mIhII mK^ 
 
 
 Photo, by the Author, 
 THE GRAND MARABOUT OF TOLGA. 
 
 HAMMA-BEN-GANA. 
 
 I'holo. by Iht^ Author, 
 
SAINTS AND SECRET SOCIETIES 195 
 
 Arabs of no matter what condition — he spoke French 
 fluently. In his rich dress with silver-scabbarded 
 sword, the fine linen hlafa shading his face, his long 
 boots of soft and scented leather adorned with massive 
 silver spurs, he was a picturesque and chivalrous figure. 
 
 Soon more mounted men and footmen came up 
 until all the goums of the Zibans were again assembled ; 
 and to pass the time until His Excellency's arrival many 
 of them began the fantasia. 
 
 A horseman, standing erect in his stirrups, would 
 gallop ventre a terre over the desert, armed with a 
 double-barrelled gun loaded with blank cartridges. 
 As his straining steed bore him past his watching com- 
 rades he would fire his gun at the ground, as though 
 hunting jackals, and with a wild yell twirl it round his 
 head before bringing it down, dropping back into the 
 saddle and reining up. Then another and another 
 followed, doing much the same thing. One man had 
 two guns, fired them in turn, caught both in his left hand, 
 drew his curved sabre with his right and brandished it 
 aloft. 
 
 One cavalier was riding a mare accompanied on 
 parade by its foal. The little animal constantly tried 
 to force its way into the ranks to get beside its mother, 
 but had to be contented with standing behind her. 
 When it came to the rider's turn to perform the foal 
 followed the mare ; and when the latter stretched to a 
 mad gallop her offspring bounded after her with all the 
 speed of which its slim legs were capable, whinnying in 
 deep distress because it could not keep up. The dis- 
 play was not impressive and needed no great skill in 
 the riders. Unfortunately the fantasia as arranged did 
 not take place, owing to the other claims on the 
 
i96 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 Governor-General's time ; and I cannot say if it would 
 have afforded finer exhibitions of horsemanship. 
 
 Riders now dashed wildly up with the news that 
 His Excellency was coming. Cavaliers and footmen 
 formed along either side of a track across the sand in 
 a chequered mass of humanity with waving banners and 
 flying drapery, while the " yu-yu-ing " of the women 
 sounded quaintly on every side. An Oriental crowd 
 of men does not cheer; so no harsher sounds broke in 
 on the soft, not unpleasing voices of the ladies. 
 
 The Governor-General passed on ; and we learned 
 that we had an hour or two to wait before he would return 
 and the train depart for Biskra. So we tramped across 
 the sand to the railway station ; and those who had taken 
 the precaution to bring food lunched in picnic fashion. 
 Then we sat in our carriage until the arrival of the vic- 
 torias escorted by the Arab chiefs on their beautiful 
 horses, accompanied by swarms of cavaliers. The 
 caids and sheikhs followed His Excellency into the 
 station, lined up along the platform and took their fare- 
 well of him as he passed down their ranks shaking hands 
 and saying a few words to each. 
 
 Then the train departed, bearing us all back to 
 Biskra. But at Oumache it halted again; for the 
 wedding party was still there, waiting to greet the 
 Governor-General on his return journey. They were 
 all present, dancers, cheering women, standard-bearers, 
 musketeers. Even the palanquin; and I pitied the 
 young bride if she had been shut up in its stuffy interior 
 for all those hot hours. His Excellency was unusually 
 favoured ; for when he got out again to thank the festive 
 reception party the young husband led him to the cage 
 that held the captive bird and, opening the curtains, let 
 
SAINTS AND SECRET SOCIETIES 197 
 
 him peep iii and address a few words to the fluttered 
 occupant. 
 
 This was the last ceremony of an interesting day; 
 and half an hour later we reached Biskra. I was glad 
 to have beheld Arab chieftains, whom hitherto I had 
 only seen at official receptions, in their houses, sitting 
 around tables in cafes or staking their money on the 
 gambling tables of the Casino, now in situations and 
 surroundings in which they appeared to greater advan- 
 tage — in the saddle at the head of the warriors whom 
 they would lead, had led, in war. The grave, reposeful 
 Arab aristocrat in white woollen burnous and lazy 
 babouches slipping off his stockinged feet, sipping 
 coffee and smoking cigarettes at marble-topped tables 
 around the Place de la Republique in Algiers was a 
 transformed being on the back of a pawing, prancing 
 stallion with a troop of lean, lithe desert-riders behind 
 him on the sands of the Sahara. 
 
 The Moslem is by religion a democrat. " All True 
 BeHevers are equal before Allah," said the Prophet. 
 And the desert preserved Hberty and saved its nomad 
 tribes from tyranny. Yet these same tribes had their 
 aristocracy, their ancient families held in honour and 
 respect, powerful often, though not always, from their 
 wealth in camels and herds and family alHances. From 
 them the chiefs — leaders, but not rulers — were chosen 
 to guide the people in council and in war. The French 
 found them in Algeria, haughty allies or deadly enemies 
 of the Pirate Lords of Algiers, and dealt with them 
 sometimes wisely, sometimes not. 
 
 The chieftain of the tribe has, as I have mentioned, 
 his retainers, usually the hardiest, best-trained fighting 
 men, who wait on him in peace and guard him in war, 
 
198 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 whose wives are the foster-mothers, whose sons are the 
 devoted foster-brothers, of his children, who hand on 
 their service to their offspring and know no other career, 
 no other obHgation, than their duty to him and his. 
 They compose what is termed the zmala, an individual 
 being called a zmali, in plural zmoul. 
 
 The Arab aristocracy was formed from three 
 classes : — those noble by reason of their descent from 
 Fathma, the daughter of the Prophet, or from his uncle, 
 Ali-ben-Ali-Thaleb. Sheurfa, in the singular Shereef, 
 they are termed; and, no matter how low in worldly 
 fortune their descendants may have fallen, anyone in 
 whose veins runs this sanctified blood is honoured by 
 all Moslems and dignified with the title of Sidi. 
 
 The present ruling dynasty of Morocco are Sheurfa, 
 and the country is spoken of as the Shereefian Empire. 
 There is a military nobility derived mostly by 
 descent from the Prophet's tribe or from the Beni- 
 Mehal, the victorious warriors who followed him and 
 his companions. And a third aristocratic class, a verit- 
 able religious nobility, is formed from men renowned 
 for their piety and holy way of living, saints in fact — 
 and their descendants. For they pass on to their 
 children's children the reputation for sanctity and the 
 tide of marabout that they have acquired by their virtue. 
 
 Members of all these classes of aristocracy, saintly v 
 or military, may be found to-day among the poorest ' 
 Arabs. 
 
 The native chieftains, especially those invested with 
 authority by the Algerian Government, are no longer 
 lawless, fierce and ignorant desert warriors. On the 
 contrary they are usually well-educated and often 
 cultured men, I have mentioned my discussing with 
 
Photo. Service, Government of Algeria. 
 A GOUMIER. 
 
SAINTS AND SECRET SOCIETIES 199 
 
 the Caid of Tougourt the literary merits of Pierre 
 Benoit's " L'Atlantide/' which was then all the rage in 
 France. And when a day or two after the Governor- 
 General's visit to Tolga, I was dining with Caid Ali- 
 ben-Gana, brother of the Bach-Agha of the Zibans, at 
 his comfortable house in Biskra I found it almost hard 
 to reconcile the courteous, pleasant-mannered gentle- 
 man who talked with knowledge of European politics 
 and countries or his light-hearted nephew, Hamma, 
 who related humorously his ill-luck at petits-chevaux 
 in the Casino, with my remembrance of them galloping 
 swiftly over the desert sand at the head of their fierce 
 tribal warriors, like figures out of some old-time 
 chronicle of desert chivalry. 
 
 There was nothing Eastern about the well-laid 
 dinner table with its dainty napery, porcelain and silver, 
 or the wines of France filling our glasses. But the 
 cooking was both exquisite and Oriental, though served 
 in European fashion. Fish, couscous, mechoui or 
 sheep roasted whole — but this dish was not to my taste 
 — honey cakes and other confections that recalled the 
 Arabian Nights. Our hosts were good Moslems and 
 avoided the wine. Would that all their co-religionists! 
 in Algeria followed their example! I remember the 
 surprise and disgust I felt at beholding the first drunken 
 Mahommedan that I had eyer seen. He was reeling 
 about the streets of Blida — a painful sight to me who 
 had respected the Mussulmans in many Eastern lands 
 for their adherence to the Prophet's law that forbids; 
 them wine. 
 
 Caid All's brother, the Bach-Agha, also lives in 
 Biskra, where he inhabits a fine residence set in lovely 
 gardens among the palms of the great oasis. 
 
200 
 
 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 The Arab chieftains are not confined to the Sahara. 
 They are found in the Hants Plateaux and the Tell, 
 even close to Algiers. I number among my pleasantest 
 recollections of Algeria a visit to the Caid of LArba. 
 An electric tram from Algiers brought us — a party of 
 ten or so — to Maison Carree, where we changed into 
 a steam tram which conveyed us to the small, clean and 
 bright little, thoroughly French town of L'Arba. Here 
 we were met by the Maire, who was a relative of a lady 
 with us. He and his young son joined us. 
 
 Retainers of the caid were awaiting us with horses 
 and mules gaily caparisoned and bearing big, high- 
 peaked native saddles. A ride of a few miles into the 
 foot-hills of the Atlas Mountain chain brought us to 
 an extensive mansion perched on the steep slopes, a 
 building to which the red-tiled roofs, yellow walls and 
 tall cypresses gave the look of a villa on the hills 
 overlooking Florence. 
 
 Our host, his brother and nephew received us with 
 true Oriental hospitality. On arrival we were served 
 with Moroccan tea flavoured with mint and later on 
 given a sumptuous meal, cooked, we were told, by the 
 ladies of the family. The dishes were innumerable. 
 Couscous and mechoui of course figured on the menu ; 
 and the exquisitely flavoured honey-cakes and other 
 sweets alone would have made a banquet. 
 
 After lunch we drank coffee in the guest apartment, 
 from the windows of which there was a fine view over 
 the Mitidja Plain and the Sahel Hills to half-hidden 
 Algiers. 
 
 The room was furnished in the European style of 
 the seventies with common French carpets on the 
 waxed floor, gilt mirrors, an alabaster clock and a 
 
SAINTS AND SECRET SOCIETIES 201 
 
 Chinese blackwood table inlaid with flowers and butter- 
 flies in mother of pearl. 
 
 Our host showed us beautiful gifts made to his 
 father by Napoleon III. and the Empress Eugenie 
 when they visited Algeria, among these a wonderful 
 gold watch set with diamonds, rubies and pearls, and 
 a tiny gold and steel pistol encrusted with diamonds. 
 
 The ladies of our party were taken into the harem 
 where they were welcomed by the caid's wife, daughter 
 and niece, fair-complexioned and good-looking, dressed 
 in the bright-tinted silken and costly garments of 
 wealthy Arab ladies. They were regaled with very 
 luscious cakes made of almond meal, rice and honey. 
 
 I had just been photographing the caid ; and my 
 camera was sent for for a picture to be taken in an 
 inner courtyard of the harem, a picture of the inter- 
 national group of pretty Moslem, French and English 
 women. And afterwards no objection was made to 
 my developing and printing the film on which were 
 shown the unveiled faces of these Arab ladies. 
 
 The Mahommedans of Algeria are not lacking in 
 spiritual, as well as temporal, leaders. Their religion 
 has no ordained clergy, no priests as we understand 
 them. Even those who conduct the services in the 
 mosques — the muezzin who greets the dawn from the 
 tiny galleries of the minarets when he calls the faithful 
 to prayer before sunrise, the imam who recites the five 
 daily common prayers, the khetib who on the weekly 
 holy day, Friday, prays for the welfare of the ruler of 
 the state — are regarded more as officials of the mosque 
 than as clergy. 
 
 But perhaps nowhere more than in North Africa are 
 found the Moslem religious confraternities that through- 
 
202 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 out Islam aim at making the Faith a priest-ridden one, 
 contrary to the Prophet's intention and teaching. 
 Originally charitable associations they set themselves 
 to establishing their authority over the laity, reforming 
 and purifying the faith and championing it against all 
 unbelievers. And among them fanaticism and 
 antipathy to Christian nations are quickly bred. 
 
 It must be remembered that among all who profess 
 it Mahommedanism is a bond of union that often proves 
 stronger than feelings of nationality. Something that 
 affects the Moslems in Turkey or Syria may inflame 
 their co-religionists in India or Morocco. And as many 
 of these confraternities are in reality secret societies 
 spread over many countries and acting as channels 
 of communication between followers of the Prophet in 
 these lands it results that they may be powerful influ- 
 ences poHtically for good or evil where Moslems are 
 ruled by Christians and must be reckoned with 
 accordingly by the Governments. 
 
 The ordinary resident or traveller in the French 
 African Empire hears little and knows less of these 
 powerful religious organisations which honeycomb it. 
 It is a fascinating subject, this question of vast secret 
 societies that, nominally or really originating as great 
 mutual benefit associations, may at any moment urge 
 their adherents against their rulers and perhaps all 
 Christians in a Sacred War. It has inspired more than 
 one French or English novelist. But romance pales 
 before reality. The guide who leads you through the 
 mud-walled lanes of Old Biskra, the Kabyle waiter who 
 serves you at table in Algiers, the praying Arab 
 who scowls at you in the mosque at Kairouan, the trader 
 who sells you a leather bag in the souks of Fez, may 
 
SAINTS AND SECRET SOCIETIES 203 
 
 all be members of a vast organisation that any 'day 
 might bid them flock to the sacred green banner of Islam 
 and slay you and your brother heretics. But on the 
 other hand they may not. 
 
 Yet do not forget that all Mahommedans are bound 
 by the teachings of their founder to consider them- 
 selves always at war with non-believers. That is, a 
 Djehad, or Holy War, exists until all men believe; 
 i.e., in God and in Mahommed who declared •* My 
 mission is to fight the infidels until they say ' There is 
 no God but God.' . ^ . Finish my work, extend 
 everywhere the House of Islam. The House of War 
 is God's; He gives it to you. Fight the infidels until 
 they are exterminated. Make war on those peoples of 
 the Bible (the Christians and Jews) who do not believe 
 the Truth. When you meet the infidels kill them; 
 slaughter them. Slay them whenever you find them." 
 
 The Prophet divided the world into Dar-el-Islam 
 (the House of Islam) and Dar-el-Harb (the House of 
 War, i.e., the countries of the unbeHevers). But his 
 followers are allowed to temporarily cease the perpetual 
 war where they are not strong enough to wage it, but 
 on the understanding that they shall resume it when 
 they are able to do so. 
 
 Some of these confraternities act as hearths on which 
 the sacred fire of the Holy War is ever kept burning, 
 ready to be fanned into a devouring flame when oppor- 
 tunity offers. And so, where they exist in countries 
 ruled by Christians, they need careful watching. The 
 world has heard something of the best-known of these, 
 the sect of the Sennoussi, which is an avowed enemy 
 of non-Moslems and is a dangerous one from the extent 
 of its secret influence in Africa, where several years ago 
 
204 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 it was supposed to have 10,000,000 adherents, and the 
 number has certainly not grown less. The political 
 chief of the Order used to be all powerful in Tripoli 
 and in the district of Benghazi had 30,000 men under 
 his orders, and sent his emissaries to Egypt, Algeria, 
 Morocco, to the Niger and the borders of Senegal. 
 
 The Sennoussi having turned their attention to the 
 idolaters of Central Africa through affiliated members 
 among the Touareg (a race not much disposed to 
 religion) are spreading in the region of Lake Chad, 
 where they convert to Mahommedanism the immense 
 black populations of Darfur, Kanem, Oudai, Baghmiri, 
 Bornu and Sokoto. They oppose the whites in the 
 Soudan and the Cameroons and dispute this part of 
 Equatorial Africa with European influence. 
 
 Although their founder Mahommedben-Si-Ali-ben- 
 Snoussi-el-Khettabi-el-Hassani-el-Edrissi-el-Medjahiri 
 was bom in what is now Algeria in 1792 at the Hillil 
 near Mostanagem, the sect (which is doubtless closely 
 but unobtrusively watched by the French authorities) 
 is supposed to have few adherents in this country, most 
 of them frequenting the Zaouia of the Hillil. For one 
 thing they hold that it is unlawful for a Moslem to live 
 in Dar-el-Harb, that is any country in the power of 
 infidels. They are opposed to the rulers of Turkey, 
 Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco because these submit to 
 or are friendly with unbelievers. Their principal 
 doctrine is the necessity of the Djehad ; and they are 
 against all modem progress. They desire to return to 
 the universal Imamat of the first Caliphs, when the 
 Chief of the State was the Head of the Church ; and 
 they acknowledge no temporal power outside Theocracy 
 or the government of their own Grand Master. 
 
SAINTS AND SECRET SOCIETIES 205 
 
 In the Libyan desert at Djaraboub near the oasis 
 of Sionah lie the bones of this man of many names, 
 Mahommed-ben-Si-Ali-ben-Snoussi, who died in 1859 
 after a chequered career and many wanderings in 
 Morocco, Tunisia, TripoH, Egypt, and Arabia. He 
 said that he was the " Moulai-Saah," " The Master of 
 the Hour," the mysterious being sent by Allah to 
 regenerate Islam. But his tomb is there in the desert 
 not far from the ancient temple of Ammon and 
 thousands of armed behevers guard it. And around it 
 is the headquarters of this powerful sect, so hostile to 
 Christianity and modern progress; and from it go out 
 the missionaries to add black millions to the fold and 
 teach them hate of the Christian. 
 
 Over two hundred years ago a holy man was 
 preaching one day outside the city of Meknes in 
 Morocco. A workman complained to the saint that he 
 was a-hungered. Others of the audience echoed his 
 complaint. " Eat, then ! Eat what you find on the 
 road," said the preacher, pointing to the stones littering 
 the rough track. His hearers with touching faith took 
 up the stones, caught the scorpions and the snakes that 
 sheltered under them and ate them, rocks, venomous 
 reptiles and all — and — a miracle ! — found them a 
 delicious feast. 
 
 And now you may see to-day in Algeria wandering 
 men who before audiences eat poisonous serpents, 
 scorpions, broken glass, and thorny branches. They 
 are the followers of that long-dead saint, Sidi Mahom- 
 med-ben-Aissa, who handed on to his disciples the 
 power to work miracles, cure all ills, and preserve from 
 poisons. They form a big sect now, these Aissaoua. 
 Their doctrines embrace a continual expansion towards 
 
206 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 the Divinity, an ardent mysticism, and a complete 
 personal abnegation. Their practices are sobriety, 
 abstinence, and hardening to physical pain. They 
 invoke the Deity in loud tones on a rapid rhythm 
 sustained by the beating of drums, always quickening 
 until the excitement and giddiness occasion a physical 
 insensibility and delirium that causes hallucinations 
 and induces a state of religious ecstasy in which they 
 are capable of performing almost incredible acts. 
 
 These devotees do not always scorn money as their 
 founder did; for all the riches heaped on him by the 
 Sultan in Meknes he gave away, keeping only a leopard- 
 skin to sleep on. This is carefully preserved in two 
 places far apart in Morocco — for it has been miracu- 
 lously doubled, and there are now two skins. This is 
 not very much of a miracle compared with that con- 
 nected with another holy man, called for short Sidi 
 Mahommed Abder Rahman Bou Kobrin, whose body 
 was doubled after death so that it lies in two tombs, 
 one the Kouba on the tram-line to Hussein Dey 
 outside Algiers, the other in the Djurdjura Mountains. 
 He, too, founded a religious sect. 
 
 When the great Arab leader, Abd-el-Kader, warred 
 in Algeria against the French in the first half of the 
 nineteenth century he did them a good turn when he 
 quarrelled with the sect of the Tidjania. For in 
 revenge they offered their friendship to the invaders, 
 and have ever since been faithful. And the alliance or 
 the enmity of these powerful associations is of great 
 moment to the ruling power. 
 
 But there are other societies as rabid against 
 Christians as are the Senoussi. The Khadrya — 
 called Djilala in Morocco — is a very rich order spread 
 
SAINTS AND SECRET SOCIETIES 207 
 
 throughout all Moslem countries, ardent propagators of 
 Islamism and very hostile to European domination in 
 Mahommedan countries. They have extended their 
 influence over the West Coast of Africa from Senegal 
 to the mouth of the Niger. 
 
 Equally opposed to the Christian authorities in 
 Dar-el-Harb are the Chadelya, from whom are derived 
 the Derqaoua, the Madanya and the Youssefya (these 
 last founded by Ahmed-ben- Youssef-el-Miliani, whose 
 sanctuary is at Miliana in Algiers. He was an ardent 
 opponent of women's rights.) 
 
 These four religious orders have different mother- 
 houses or headquarters in Cairo, Bou Beih (Morocco), 
 Grib and Tiout (Algeria) ; but they all follow the same 
 rules, and are supposed to have a head, an Im^m 
 reputed to be hidden in Cairo. 
 
 None of all these confraternities can be called 
 monastic orders — such things are opposed to Moslem 
 practices. But they have a head, the Sheikh, his 
 subalterns called Mokaddems, who are authorised to 
 collect arms and direct the consciences of the members, 
 who are termed Khouans (brothers). Each confra- 
 ternity has its special formula of prayer, the Dikr, 
 which is the shibboleth, the distinguishing sign, of its 
 members. The Sheikh gives it out through his mokad- 
 dems; just as one day he may give the word to begin 
 the Holy War and set Islam aflame. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE SAHARA 
 
 The popular conception of the Sahara is a vast flat and 
 trackless waste stretching unbroken to the torrid zone, 
 waterless, treeless, save for a rare oasis, scorched by a 
 pitiless sun in a brassy sky, unpeopled, a desert where 
 human or animal life can scarcely exist, and then only 
 in swift passage, a sea of burning sand that before the 
 deadly breath of the simoon rises in suffocating clouds 
 to overwhelm, smother and entomb the men and camels 
 of ill-fated caravans. 
 
 The reality is far different. The Sahara is certainly 
 not a delectable land ; but it is not quite as bad as it is 
 painted. A vast waste truly; but flat and trackless, 
 no. Its nomads can find their way unerringly from well 
 to well for hundreds of miles, though to the eye of the 
 uninitiated there is no road. Its traders pass regularly 
 from north to south, from east to west, even to and from 
 Algeria, Tunisia, TripoH, and Morocco, bearing dates, 
 tea, salt, sugar, tobacco, cloth, grain and weapons to 
 barter for camels, sheep, goats, saddlery and leather 
 bags. Its wandering Arab tribes, men, women and 
 children, drive their live-stock before them as they 
 migrate to the north in summer to escape the great heat 
 of the south and go back in winter to exchange the 
 
 208 
 
THE SAHARA 209 
 
 chilly heights of the Algerian Hauts Plateaux for the 
 sunshine of the desert. And cold is not unknown even 
 in the heart of the Sahara; for there are high ranges 
 on which the snow rests for months, mountains nine 
 thousand feet in height. There are broad river-beds 
 along which after heavy rainstorms surging torrents of 
 water sweep, filling them from bank to bank, drowning 
 men and beasts unlucky enough to be caught in them, 
 and then, although perhaps in a few hours sinking from 
 sight, only vanishing to form an underground stratum of 
 water needing merely to be tapped by wells to give 
 drink to animal and human, and life to luxuriant 
 vegetation. 
 
 There are oases where the palm-trees are counted 
 by hundreds of thousands and below them oranges and 
 apricots, wheat, barley and vegetables ripen. The 
 Sahara supports a population, nomad and sedentary, of 
 half a million or more. Armies ten, twenty thousand 
 strong have crossed it and found subsistence on the 
 way. Kingdoms have flourished for centuries in it. 
 
 There are indeed vast stretches of its surface covered 
 with sand, level or heaped up in dunes, rising in suffo- 
 cating clouds before the impulse of the hot wind, the 
 chihili. But not in dense masses that overwhelm and 
 bury from sight the unfortunate wayfarers; although 
 anyone luckless enough to be caught in a sandstorm 
 may be excused for imagining that this is to be his fate. 
 The dunes that are sometimes five or six hundred feet 
 high are generally caused by some natural obstruction 
 arresting the flying sand and thus gradually building up 
 a hill. Between the dunes are corridors of hard soil 
 called gas si. 
 
 Ther^ are wide, flat tracts of fine grit or gravelly 
 
 o 
 
210 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 soil, termed reg, on which nothing grows. There are 
 chains of barren sandstone mountains cloven by gloomy 
 ravines in which the thirsty wanderer stumbles unex- 
 pectedly on ghedirs, pools of water left by sudden 
 spates and ringed round by a green margin of reeds and 
 vegetation. And in the hills are scattered trees, thorny 
 as a rule, but yet their spikes provide food for camels, 
 while their seed-pods offer sustenance to men. 
 
 Even in the sandy deserts there is vegetation, as in 
 the stretch between Biskra and Tougourt. Drinn or 
 arthratherum fungens^ — ne(^i or arthratherum flumo- 
 sum and arthratherum floccosum, had or cornulaca 
 fnonocantha^ dhamrane or traganum nudatum, all furn- 
 ish food for camels and other animals. A shower of 
 rain has a magical effect in the desert and causes plants 
 to spring up as if by enchantment and fresh leaves to 
 appear on others eaten down to the wooden stems by 
 grazing beasts. 
 
 But in the Air and the Damergou — in the far south 
 of the Sahara — there are tracts of almost impenetrable 
 jungle full of birds and wild animals of many 
 species. 
 
 Bands of antelopes and gazelles of various kinds 
 wander over apparently inhospitable desert and cause 
 wonder as to where they find food and drink. The 
 Arabs believe them to be the property of devils that live 
 underground and come up at night to feed and water 
 their flocks. But the truth seems to be that these 
 animals can cover great distances in search of pools left 
 by local storms, and also can quench their thirst effectu- 
 ally by eating green plants as camels do. 
 
 Tiger-cats, foxes, the fennec, hares (lepus 
 atlanticus), the goundi, rats, the jerboa, and other 
 
THE SAHARA - 211 
 
 animals manage to exist in the sandy tracts of the 
 Sahara. Geckos and scaly lizards like small crocodiles, 
 chameleons and more dreaded reptiles — the horned 
 viper and other venomous snakes — are found every- 
 where. And bird-life is common in the oases and the 
 mountains. In the jungle of the South the bush teems 
 with guinea-fowl and other feathered game. 
 
 Wherever water is found, either as a result of irregu- 
 lar rainstorms or of man's labour in sinking wells, life 
 human, animal and vegetable, can be supported in 
 the Sahara. The depth of the underground aqueous 
 stratum varies immensely. In some places it is only 
 thirty feet, in others two thousand; and although the 
 desert tribes are skilful in tapping it, naturally only the 
 modern methods of sinking wells and pumping that the 
 French are introducing can reach it at great depths. 
 There is a well-defined system of river-beds (all to-day 
 dry except for a few hours after heavy local storms), 
 which give rise to the belief that formerly down them 
 flowed steady streams from the mountains of the Sahara 
 to the ocean. Possibly, although the climate of North 
 Africa has not sensibly changed in historical times, 
 there has been a gradually drying-up of the land, and 
 vegetation has diminished and forests disappeared. 
 
 The theory that the Sahara is the dry bed of a 
 former inland sea — hence the sand — is strongly com- 
 bated to-day. Shirmer denies it absolutely. " Its 
 geology is very simple," he says. " The formation of 
 the different ages shows itself in regular strata over 
 enormous distances. It is perhaps the desert in which 
 evaporation has left most traces. Nowhere the drying 
 and dissolving action of the winds has more influenced 
 the climate and even the very nature of the soil. In 
 
212 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 fact the formation of the dune is partly due to the 
 erosive action of the winds." He explains how the 
 sudden changes in temperature from the intense heat 
 of the day to the cold, to the frosts even, of night in 
 the tropics causes sudden contractions that crack and 
 break up the hardest rocks, split stones and reduces 
 them to powder — and thus form the sand. The table- 
 shaped plateaux met with frequently in the desert have 
 steep sides ravaged by expansion, and the erosion of 
 the wind has done more damage than the erosion of the 
 rain. 
 
 It is not difficult to understand the action of the sun 
 and wind on the rocky face of a sheer cliff. The 
 intense heat of the day expands the molecules of the 
 stone, the sudden cold after sundown contracts them 
 rapidly and splits off sheets of rock which fall to the 
 base in shattered fragments to be later on similarly still 
 further reduced. The wind scours the rocks with the 
 flying sand and grinds them down. 
 
 I have described the character of the Sahara for 
 the first hundred and sixty odd miles, from the Aures 
 Mountains to Tougourt — a clay or stony soil as far as 
 Biskra, sand from it to Tougourt. South of the 
 Chotts, the dried salt lakes, and east of the railway 
 Biskra — Tougourt is the sandy desert of the Souf 
 Stretching to Tunisia, dotted sparsely with towns or 
 villages in o^ses, EI Oued with its gardens, Guemar 
 with its Zaouia or monastery of the Order of the 
 Tidjania, and others. 
 
 At Tougourt, despite the desert of sand in which the 
 town is planted, is proof enough that the Sahara is not 
 an arid, waterless, burning waste. The great oases 
 with their hundreds of thousands of date-palms are con- 
 
THE SAHARA 213 
 
 vincing, with their labyrinth of irrigation channels ; and 
 in the suburb of Nezla are the little lake of Tatahouine 
 and the larger and water-fowl-haunted one of 
 Merdjaja, of unplumbed depths, for they are outlets 
 of the artesian stratum. 
 
 A few kilometres beyond Tougourt is the old-world 
 village of Temassine, where there is a fortified Zaouia, 
 half monastery, half scholastic institution, of the Order 
 of the Tidjania with many disciples, and in it the silk- 
 covered tomb of the holy Hadj Ali, in defence of whom 
 when attacked by the army of the Sultan of Tougourt 
 countless palm-trees turned themselves into machine- 
 guns and discharged as many bullets as they bore 
 dates. 
 
 A hundred and seventy kilometres of sandy desert 
 lie between Tougourt and Ouargla south-south-west of 
 it. Another surprising Saharan town this, dominated 
 by a minaret of earth over two hundred feet high, the 
 tallest edifice of sun-dried clay in existence. Water 
 is not lacking there, for it has over nine hundred wells 
 to irrigate the oases. 
 
 Formerly a negro kingdom, peopled exclusively by 
 blacks and subject to the French since 1872, the soil 
 now owns new masters ; for the tenacious, hardworking 
 Mozabites have in the last fifty years gradually sup- 
 planted and ousted the lazier black race, not one of 
 whom now possesses land, which ha§ all been bought 
 up by the Beni-M'Zab, 
 
 The route to the south from Ouargla passes at first 
 through a region of gravelly plateaux, dunes and chains 
 of sandhills separated by gassi, corridors of hard soil, 
 or feidj, sandy valleys. There is vegetation of had, 
 drinn and negi to feed animab^ i^nd occasional rain 
 
214 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 causes momentary but luxuriant growth. There are 
 fair quantities of gazelles and antelopes. Wells exist 
 and give enough water to supply caravans. In the 
 valley where the wells of El Biodh are there is usually 
 good grazing. South of it, after more reg (gravelly 
 plain) and sand dunes, is the oasis of Timassanine 
 where the water-bearing stratum rises near the surface. 
 Farther on to the south the caravan route passing the 
 wells of Tabalbalet leads on, with a mountain to the 
 west and dunes to the east, to Ain-el-Hadjadj just north 
 of a chain of hills. Here one approaches the country 
 of the Touareg tribes. Then the dry bed of the Samene 
 with sparse vegetation and a few gum trees in it runs 
 between frowning walls of rocky, barren sandstone 
 hills rising one and two thousand feet above it, on one 
 side split by dark ravines, saw-like and with sharp peaks 
 of strata vertical instead of horizontal, the result of a 
 terrible upheaval, the other perpendicular but more 
 regular. The Samene itself at Inimani is 1,620 feet 
 above the sea. 
 
 The hills farther south in the Azdjer country are 
 over four thousand feet high. 
 
 Still farther south the Hoggar or Ahaggar 
 Mountains are nine thousand feet high, with water, 
 vegetation and cultivation in places and with much 
 snow in winter. East of them are the mountains of the 
 Anahef, between three and four thousand feet in height. 
 
 All this is the land of the strange veiled race of the 
 Touareg, of whom I will speak more fully later. 
 
 By the time that the 20th Parallel is reached the 
 Sahara along this route is seamed with dry river-beds 
 filled with gum and other trees. There is a veritable 
 jungle of iKorunka (calotropis procera) and much 
 
THE SAHARA 215 
 
 Abisga with its disagreeable and peppery smell. This 
 is a big bush, the leaves of which give off the penetrat- 
 ing, almost nauseating odour; but camels eat them 
 greedily. Its seeds are small and globular in bunches, 
 and, although they too have a sour and peppery smell, 
 they are edible. They are dried and soaked in water 
 for hours, which produces a liquid like dark red wine 
 with a not unpleasant flavour. The Touareg are fond 
 of it. 
 
 Between the 20th and the 15th Parallels is the Air, 
 the first and most northerly village or collection of 
 villages of which is Iferouane (which, in Targui, means 
 a " tree-covered place ") in the valley of the Irhazar 
 (in Targui " valley or river ") and has several hundred 
 inhabitants. A very few huts are of clay and rectangu- 
 lar as in the Northern Sahara; but the majority are 
 round, made of mats of the stalks of the nirokba or 
 thin sticks, with roofs of various shapes, flat, conical, or 
 flattened cones, and are usually surrounded by a hedge 
 of interlaced branches. Huts used as granaries are 
 built on stakes four feet from the ground as a protection 
 against insects. 
 
 Sometimes three or four dwellings are grouped in 
 the same enclosure. The fences are generally made 
 of korunka, the wood of which bush is light but of little 
 strength. 
 
 In the bed of the Irhazar are date-palms producing 
 poor and scanty fruit; but under them are hedged 
 gardens of millet, barley, sorghum, a little wheat, and 
 the korna or jujube-tree and an occasional big gum-tree. 
 
 The natives water their gardens from wells by 
 dipping-poles worked by hand or by zebus (small oxen). 
 Small quantities of vegetables are grown — onions, 
 
216 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 carrots, peas, Soudan haricots, tomatoes, pumpkins and 
 water-melons — also a little tobacco and henna. 
 
 The villagers possess some cows and zebus, the 
 Saharan sheep — called detmnane — with hair instead 
 of wool, goats and hens. To caravans they sell fresh 
 and sour milk in calabashes, the cheese of the country 
 known as kemaria, camel-saddles, vegetables and 
 wooden spoons, and ask for payment in malti (an 
 inferior English cotton stuff, apparently manufactured 
 for barter with the people of the Sahara and the 
 Soudan). 
 
 The men of the Air generally wear blouses of the 
 blue cotton of the Soudan called Saye and long trousers 
 of blue or white cotton. Children, negroes and half- 
 castes wear generally only breeches made of a piece of 
 tanned leather wound round the waist, brought between 
 the legs and up behind and fastened by a belt, the 
 almost universal garment of youths and negroes in the 
 Air; though a few wear as well a large, wide but short, 
 sleeveless shirt made of cotton manufactured in the 
 Soudan. Others are quite naked. Children and boys 
 go bare-headed, the hair cut either very short or in a 
 sort of crest from forehead to nape of neck. I have 
 seen little children in Marrakesh in Southern Morocco 
 with their hair trimmed in this latter fashion. 
 
 The Timgue or Timdje Mountains, between 2,500 
 and 3,000 feet above the Irhazar Valley, are a compact 
 and isolated mass ; and east of them lies a formidable 
 region of dunes, waterless and without vegetation, which 
 must be crossed by the caravans that go periodically to 
 Bilma for the salt that is there produced and sent every- 
 where through the Sahara. 
 
 Several days' march south of Iferouane is a city of 
 
THE SAHARA 217 
 
 sun-dried brick, Agadez, ruled absolutely until the 
 coming of the French by a Sultan who called himself 
 " The Prince of BeHevers." And south-east of Agadez 
 the more or less fertile region of the Damergou dotted 
 with villages of straw huts, stretches to Lake Chad. 
 And below the Damergou is the Soudan. 
 
 Many hundreds of miles west of Agadez the River 
 Niger — the city of Timbuctoo almost on its most 
 northerly loop — flows through a region of dense jungle 
 in the beginning of its long and leisurely progress to 
 the Atlantic Ocean, leaving behind the land where the 
 once powerful Songhay Empire flourished and where 
 in our day the remnants of the Songhays were enslaved 
 and plundered by the Touareg until the French came 
 to give them safety and freedom. 
 
 Between it and Morocco there long existed a 
 regular caravan route with wells at regular intervals, 
 over which armies passed, constant intercourse was 
 kept up, and an important import and export 
 trade of slaves and other commerce flourished for 
 centuries. 
 
 This cursory description of the Sahara along a route 
 more than a thousand miles from north to south will 
 give some idea of its vastness, its variety and the 
 diversity of its soil and natural features. 
 
 Daring French explorers paved the way into 
 this great desert for equally courageous military 
 and naval officers — for the Navy had its share in the 
 conquest of Central Africa, and a lieutenant with a 
 3mall gunboat pushed incredibly far up the Niger and 
 in boats attacked and captured Timbuctoo. From 
 Algeria the Army gradually made its way down, and 
 its heroic officers advanced with apparently totally 
 
218 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 inadequate forces, constructed and held absolutely 
 isolated posts for long and weary years, fought cruel 
 and treacherous enemies, and eventually won for their 
 motherland the empire of the Sahara. 
 
 In the Northern Sahara the inhabitants, nomads 
 and sedentary, are chiefly Arabs or Arabised Berbers 
 who have long lost sense of their Berber descent. In 
 the centre and extending to the south are the tribes 
 of the strange Touareg race ; and in the south towards 
 the Soudan there is much negro blood, although negroes 
 are found in all parts of the Sahara. 
 
 The sedentary Arabs inhabiting the northern oases 
 cultivate and sell their dates, grain, vegetables and 
 fruit to the nomads in exchange for live stock or for 
 other necessaries, clothing and luxuries brought by the 
 wanderers. They live in pillages of huts of sun-dried 
 brick, build mosques and possess a certain amount of 
 civilisation, especially where they are in touch with 
 Europeans. 
 
 Certain inhabited districts or groups of villages, cut 
 off from the rest of the world by long stretches of desert, 
 are practically islands in the sandy ocean of the Sahara ; 
 and their populations are naturally very insular in their 
 manners and customs, differ from Arabs elsewhere, and 
 lead a life of their own. The region of the Touat 
 (west of In-Salah and between the 25th and 30th 
 Parallels), the administrative centre of which is Adrar, 
 furnishes a good example. It consists of a number of 
 ksour (plural of ksar) or fortified villages split up into 
 nine districts and having a total population of between 
 fifteen and sixteen thousand divided into the Ahrar or 
 whites (Arabs) and the Omfane or blacks. The latter 
 are formed of negro slaves and of the harratines, who 
 
THE SAHARA 219 
 
 are the descendants of freed slaves, and may have some 
 Arab blood in them. 
 
 Until the coming of the French the Ahrar were 
 lazy proprietors of the soil which they compelled the 
 Ousfane to till for them; and even now, regarding 
 labour as derogatory, they refuse to toil and are letting 
 the land slip from them through purchase by the 
 industrious harratines. 
 
 Intercourse with the outer world is maintained by 
 caravans of nomad Arabs and Touareg. The latter 
 exchange their sheep — before the French came they 
 brought negro slaves — for dates, tobacco and " dokalis," 
 a sort of large haiks or head-shawls. The Arab traders 
 bring from the Tell wool, butter, corn, barley, dried 
 flesh and money in exchange for the dates. 
 
 From the merchants of Adrar the Touatians pur- 
 chase European goods — cloth, sugar, tea, soap, oil, 
 candles, etc. They sell their corn, tobacco, raw cotton 
 and henna to the neighbouring territories of the M'Zab, 
 El Golea, Aoulef, Tidikelt and others, and buy from 
 them woollen goods, cloth and food. 
 
 In the ksour of the Touat the manufacture is carried 
 on of dokalis, gandauras and other garments, of clumsy 
 jewellery, embroidery, crude pottery, and baskets. In 
 the gardens of the oases shaded by the tall date-palms 
 barley, corn, onions, carrots and other vegetables are 
 cultivated in spring, cabbages, haricot-beans, sorghum, 
 maize, grapes, melons, henna, tobacco, and cotton in 
 summer. In autumn figs, dates and tomatoes ripen ; in 
 winter, lentils, luzerne, flax and a second henna crop. 
 
 The Touatians breed a certain amount of sheep, 
 goats, donkeys and a few camels. 
 
 All the inhabitants of a ksar of the same race regard 
 
220 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 themselves as members of one family. The young 
 girls have more freedom than elsewhere among Arabs 
 and move about freely unveiled and with one shoulder 
 bare. When a man desires to marry he sends his 
 parents or goes in person to demand the hand of the 
 maiden from her parents; and if they accept him as 
 a suitor he is allowed to frequent his betrothed's house 
 and join in the family meals in her presence. When 
 the wedding day is fixed he sends her dowry — which 
 varies from thirty to fifty francs for the better class and 
 less for the karraiines and negroes — and her trousseau 
 of garments, ornaments, purse and perfumes. On the 
 day of the marriage the bride goes to his parents' 
 house; and the bridegroom follows her in, having 
 arrived himself with a sabre to show her that he can 
 protect her. Then the happy pair do not separate for 
 the seven days of the honeymoon — with the Arabs — 
 three with the karraiines and negroes. 
 
 The wife is expected to bring to her new home one 
 or two goats and all the cooking utensils. She gener- 
 ally has no rival ; for, owing to their poverty, polygamy 
 is rare among the people of the Touat. 
 
 A widow's mourning is marked by some strange 
 observances. On the day of her husband's funeral she 
 sits at home and receives visits of condolence from the 
 villagers. As each one enters she bites a silver ring 
 held in her hand and presents it to the visitor to bite, 
 too. On the fourth day of mourning she swathes her 
 head in a fragment of her late husband's winding-sheet 
 and goes into seclusion for two months and ten days, 
 abstaining from seeing anyone, from perfumes, the 
 wearing of jewellery, etc. 
 
 At the end of the cus^tomary period of mourning 
 
THE SAHARA 22l 
 
 she washes herself, changes her garments, and leaves 
 the house preceded by a woman beating an old sauce- 
 pan and crying out that " So-and-So has finished her 
 mourning. Hide yourselves. Get out of her way^ 
 lest her glance should fall on you and bring you ill- 
 fortune." Then the widow goes to a spot called " The 
 Hole of Mourning " and there buries the piece of the 
 winding-sheet that she has worn round her head. Then 
 in the evening she returns home and resumes her 
 normal life. 
 
 The nomad Arabs roam with little apparent plan 
 about the desert with their herds of camels, sheep, 
 goats, and donkeys, their movements regulated by the 
 necessity of finding grazing for their beasts. They 
 live in tents formed of strips of camel-hair or woollen 
 cloths sewn together^ supported on low poles and held 
 down by cords to pegs or stones. If they purpose to 
 remain in one spot for any length of time a back wall 
 of earth or stones is built up and a hedge of dried 
 thorn to keep out intruders and keep in their flocks is 
 erected around. 
 
 About them savage, semi-wild dogs maintain 
 effective guard, sleeping by day unless a stranger 
 approaches, watching by night. Their fierceness has 
 to be seen to be appreciated. I had once a very narrow 
 escape from being badly mauled, if not killed, by a troop 
 of these brutes when I incautiously approached a cluster 
 of nomads' dwellings. 
 
 A number of tents of members of the same family or 
 community may be formed into a square, openings in- 
 ward, enclosing a central space for their live-stock and 
 surrounded by an outer zareba. This is called a douar. 
 
 These wanderers do not confine themselves to the 
 
222 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 desert. Their encampments may be seen on the Hants 
 Plateaux where they come to graze their animals, and 
 even farther north. The beauty and picturesqueness 
 that poets and artists find in the tents of the Arabs are 
 not evident to the prosaic-minded observer who sees 
 their filth, squalor and wretchedness. 
 
 The Arab is no fit subject for romance. The 
 unwashed and vermin-covered Bedouin may look pic- 
 turesque in his flowing burnous, gun slung on his back 
 or lance in hand, as he sits on a lean, desert-bred 
 stallion, half-starved but full of endurance. His bold- 
 eyed, unveiled women are often handsome — even to 
 critical European eyes. But a closer acquaintance with 
 Arabs destroys the illusion. They are as a race 
 vicious, immoral, treacherous, thieving, bloodthirsty, 
 cruel and cowardly. This is a crushing indictment; 
 but I am certain that it will be endorsed by everyone 
 who knows them intimately. 
 
 Brought up from childhood to steal they would 
 plunder their nearest relatives and rob the corpses 
 of their dearest. A husband will tear the ornaments 
 from the still warm body of his dead wife lest her 
 family should claim them. Children will pilfer from 
 their parents; and the latter might only praise them 
 for their dexterity in thieving, for a father is proud 
 to call his son a skilful thief and a clever liar. 
 
 In a douar the men from a tent will sneak in the 
 dark to steal from the neighbouring one belonging to 
 a friend ; and, if one of them gets shot in the process, 
 the rest will swear, by the Prophet, that this friend 
 came to rob them and slew the unfortunate wretch when 
 he tried to guard their property. And then they will 
 claim the blood fine. 
 
THE SAHARA 223 
 
 The children from the earliest age are no strangers 
 to any vice; for no attempt is made to conceal the 
 knowledge of evil from them. For the Arabs are 
 immoral to the core. Venereal disease is universal. 
 To minister to their vicious desires old men purposely 
 marry girls who have not reached the age of puberty. 
 Married women are as unfaithful as the fear of their 
 husbands' wrath will let them be. 
 
 The courage of the Arab is rated very low by those 
 who know him, so that he has not even this redeeming 
 quality. To sum up I have found no one — not even 
 Arabs themselves — who had a good word for the 
 race. 
 
 In an Arab family the father's word is law; and 
 wives and children are cruelly punished if they fail to 
 obey him. The best of everything is reserved for him. 
 At meals he eats alone or with other male adults of the 
 family ; his spouses (for he may have several) and off- 
 spring must wait until he has finished. The children 
 receive no instruction whatever and from an early age 
 are sent out to herd the goats, sheep and cattle. All 
 the menial work is performed by the females of the 
 family, who in addition weave the cloth for garments, 
 tents and rugs, while the lord and master sits and 
 smokes in the sun. 
 
 The food of these nomads consists of dates which 
 are carried pressed into a sticky mass in goat or 
 sheepskins, milk of camels or other animals and cheese 
 made from it, and couscous. The base of this last- 
 named universal Arab food is semolina or other flour 
 worked between the hands into the finest dust, then 
 steamed and — if there be any available — made pala- 
 table by the addition of vegetables or even meat. But 
 
224 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 meat is a rare luxury to the poorer Arab. Only at 
 wedding or other feasts is a sheep slaughtered and then 
 for the diffa or banquet roasted whole on a spit over a 
 fire built in a shallow trench. This dish is called 
 mechoui, and is greedily devoured by the f casters. I 
 have tried it at more than one caid's house, but was 
 not impressed by it ; for owing to the method of cook- 
 ing portions of the meat were charred, while others 
 were half-raw. But couscous can be very appetising. 
 
 The sheikh of a tribe or a rich man can have 
 separate tents for each of his sons and their families and 
 for each of his own wives and her children ; but a poor 
 man must be content with one shelter for all, the 
 women sleeping one side, the males the other. 
 
 As with all Easterns the family is the unit; and 
 all the members of it stand together against outsiders, 
 whatever be their internal dissensions. 
 
 The position of women amoung Arabs is far from 
 enviable. A maiden must accept the husband selected 
 by her father, who disposes of her to the highest bidder ; 
 so that usually a very young girl becomes the wedded 
 slave of a rich old debauchee. When his passion is 
 sated and he tires of her he can divorce her by a simple 
 pronouncement or else relegate her to join the other 
 wives that she supplanted and be, like them, merely a 
 servant. 
 
 A divorced woman, even if she returns to the 
 paternal tent, has the right to be consulted if it is 
 proposed to marry her again. 
 
 The religion of the Saharan tribes is Mahommed- 
 anism; but they are very ignorant and know little of 
 the teachings of their faith which never restrains them 
 from indulging in any vice or committing any crime. 
 
THE SAHARA 225 
 
 At the statutory times of praying one sees the desert 
 Arabs wherever they are spreading their mats on the 
 sand outside their tents, near their flocks or beside their 
 tethered camels, kneeHng, bowing to the ground, pros- 
 trating themselves, rising and kneeling again and 
 muttering what they know of the prescribed prayers. 
 For the ablutions they use sand instead of water. They 
 are superstitious and firm believers in witchcraft; and 
 it is interesting to realise that the European beliefs in 
 witches flying on broomsticks through the air, casting 
 spells on human beings and animals, causing persons 
 whose deaths were desired to suffer and to die by 
 making wax or clay figures of them and sticking pins 
 in their images, all have their counterpart in the Arab 
 superstitions, from which indeed they must have been 
 derived. For all these originated in the East and are 
 found to-day in India and Burma. 
 
 Before quitting the subject of the Sahara I must 
 record two interesting facts concerning it. The first is 
 that a French savant, M. Ch. de la Ronciere, of the 
 Bibliotheque Nationale, has recently made the remark- 
 able discovery by means of researches in Genoa and 
 elsewhere that Timbuctoo and the principal oases of 
 the Sahara were known to and visited by Europeans in 
 the Middle Ages. From the thirteenth to the six- 
 teenth century commercial relations were established 
 with the great centres of the Niger and of the Soudan. 
 Spanish merchants and Italian artists were acquainted 
 with the Saharan routes that were thought to have first 
 been discovered by nineteenth century explorers. 
 Andalusian architects built, and Genoese painters 
 adorned, palaces on the banks of the Niger, palaces 
 that have long ago disappeared, but of which the sites 
 
226 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 and foundations have been traced. M. de la Ronci^re 
 has shown me maps made in those far-away centuries 
 that plainly indicated the Hoggar, Adrar and other 
 spots in the Sahara, the discovery of which in the 
 nineteenth century was hailed as a great triumph of 
 modern exploration. 
 
 The second fact is not less interesting and is more 
 profitable. Hitherto the sole means of transport in the 
 great desert has been the camel, slow, insecure and 
 unreliable. The French are planning a Trans-Saharan 
 railway; but many years must elapse before it comes 
 into being. The automobile held out no hope of being 
 useful over the sand dunes into which its wheels would 
 sink deep, the rugged mountains, the waterless spaces, 
 and in the torrid heat in which petrol would evaporate 
 too quickly. But a French firm, the Citroen Company, 
 has evolved a type of motor-car which has achieved 
 the impossible. Three of these vehicles, in which the 
 two rear wheels were replaced by four smaller ones 
 provided with caterpillar bands, on which four small 
 pulleys on either side work, went into the Sahara 
 from Tougourt in the beginning of 1922, covered over 
 2b,ooo kilometres in several months' trials, purposely 
 seeking out the worst possible ground, the spaces of 
 softest sand, reaching In-Salah and the Touareg 
 country, and in awful heat returning safely to Algiers, 
 where I saw them defile before the President of the 
 French Republic at his review of Algerian cavalry. 
 
 Inspirited by their success the head of the firm, M. 
 Andre Citroen, has sent out in the winter of 1922-23 
 four lo-h.p. three-seater automobiles of the same type 
 to attempt the crossing of the Sahara from Algeria to 
 Timbuctoo. To help them in their task three similar 
 
THE SAHARA 227 
 
 cars have been sent by sea to Dakar, on the West 
 African Coast, to go by land to Timbuctoo, and from 
 there continue north to lay out supplies of petrol and 
 other necessities at posts as far as the boundary between 
 the Niger Territory and the Territory of the Saharan 
 Oases. Other cars are going south to do the same at 
 the posts of Ouargla, Inifel, and In-Salah. 
 
 Then the four expeditionary cars will be left to their 
 own resources for a stretch of over 3,600 kilometres. 
 Each will carry 300 litres of petrol in two reservoirs ; 
 and they will have between them 120 litres of water to 
 enable them to cross the desert of Tanezrouft, " The 
 Land of Thirst," where no wells are found. The 
 twelve members of the expedition will be armed with 
 rifles and two aeroplane machine-guns; the cars will 
 carry food, spare parts, medicines, and folding tents, 
 while one is fitted up with a complete cinema- 
 photographic apparatus. 
 
 It is hoped to effect the journey between Tougourt 
 and Timbuctoo in a month. If the expedition is suc- 
 cessful — as there is every reason to hope that it will 
 be — the Sahara will have been conquered at last ; and 
 before long regular automobile routes will be estab- 
 lished, and traversing the Great Desert be no longer 
 a superhuman feat. And France's North and West 
 African territories will be effectually linked up. 
 
 Since the above was written the Sahara has been 
 vanquished. The cars of the Citroen Mission under 
 MM. Haardt and Audouin-Dubreuil, which left 
 Tougourt on December 17th, 1922, reached Timbuctoo 
 on January 7th, 1923, having traversed 1,700 miles of 
 desert in three weeks. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE TOUAREG 
 
 Deep in the heart of the Sahara are the tribes of the 
 strange, almost legendary race of the Touareg, the last 
 of its nomads to submit to French rule, which as yet 
 sits lightly on them. Until this generation they were 
 hardly known to the outer world; although a few 
 travellers brought back tales of the veiled men who 
 scoured the desert on swift white camels and spread 
 terror, ruin and desolation as they passed. 
 
 The German explorer Barth penetrated to them 
 early in the nineteenth century, and lived to return; 
 and Duveyrier reached the Azdjer Touareg in 1861 
 and actually resided with them for two years. From 
 these men first came reliable accounts of this race 
 of bloodthirsty robbers who raided from Timbuctoo 
 to the confines of Algeria, plundered and enslaved all 
 other peoples and kept the seclusion of the desert 
 almost inviolable. 
 
 The two travellers mentioned were singular in 
 gaining their friendship ; for, fearing the extension of 
 French influence and clinging fanatically to their 
 freedom, the Touareg usually murdered any explorers 
 that the Sahara had spared. Colonel Flatters and ten 
 European companions with a weak escort of native 
 
 228 
 
THE TOUAREG 229 
 
 soldiers were massacred by them in 1881 ; the Marquis 
 de Mores and his Arab friends and servants were 
 treacherously slain in 1896 — and these were but two 
 of several. 
 
 It was generally believed that their strength and 
 prowess, aided by the extraordinary difficulties of the 
 country, would render their conquest an almost impos- 
 sible undertaking. But a French civilian named 
 Foureau, who had spent years in the Sahara learning 
 their language and ways and exploring the approaches 
 to their territory, induced the Government of the 
 Republic to entrust him with the leadership of an 
 expedition consisting of several white officers and some 
 hundreds of Algerian native troops with camels, horses 
 and two guns, and conducted it safely from Ouargla 
 to the Soudan, eventually reaching the coast of West 
 Africa and returning by sea. He passed right through 
 the regions inhabited by the Touareg, who only 
 once ventured to attack and were then so severely 
 handled that they never again interfered with the 
 expedition. 
 
 Foureau's success showed not only that the Sahara 
 could be traversed by large bodies of men, finding 
 subsistence in it for themselves and their animals — 
 history had long before proved it — but also that 
 the Touareg were not formidable when opposed to 
 disciplined and well-armed troops. 
 
 But even then the French Government was slow to 
 move, being loath to engage in what seemed a profit- 
 less expenditure of men and money ; and not until the 
 twentieth century had almost dawned were the gallant 
 officers of the Algerian Army, who had long chafed at 
 being held back, allowed to act. Fierce and warlike 
 
230 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 as the Touareg are, they never attempted to oppose a 
 serious resistance to the French when in force, their 
 want of cohesion and their tribal jealousies preventing 
 them from uniting in strength against the hated in- 
 vaders. And their fighting-men are not numerous. 
 In the war between the Azdjer and the Ahaggar from 
 1875 to 1878 neither side ever mustered more than 800 
 combatants. The combat of Tit with the French in 
 April, 1902, in which a hundred of them were slain, led 
 eventually to the submission of the Ahaggar Touareg. 
 Lieutenant Bisset's raid on the Azdjer tribes in 1903 
 and the efforts of Commandant Laperrine (who when a 
 General perished tragically in 1920 when his aeroplane 
 was stranded in the Sahara) taught these tyrants of 
 the desert that the white men were too strong for them. 
 But even to-day the Touareg can scarcely be called 
 pacified yet. 
 
 The name " Touareg " (which in the singular is 
 " Targui ") was given this race by the Arabs, because 
 the first Berber tribe that they met with when they 
 invaded the Fezzan (south of Tunisia) was called 
 " Targa." But the Touareg term themselves 
 " Imohar " or " Imochar," which means " raiders." 
 
 There are two great divisions of the tribes of the 
 North, the Azdjer and the Ahaggar, and others are 
 found as far south as the country through which the 
 Niger flows near Timbuctoo. It is generally agreed 
 that all Touareg are of Berber origin, descendants of 
 the aborigines of North Africa, who at the time of 
 the great Arab invasion already inhabited the Sahara 
 or retired into it to preserve the independence that 
 their race has always so jealously guarded. Like their 
 kinsmen in the Djurdjura and the Aur^s, as well as 
 
THE TOUAREG 231 
 
 in Morocco, they embraced Mahomme danism after 
 a time, and also like them abjured it often and have 
 never known nor cared much about it. 
 
 They have always been bitterly opposed to the 
 Arabs, and waged war on them on every occasion. 
 From the Algerian frontier to the Soudan they swept 
 in swift and destructive passage, leaving a trail of 
 blood, rapine and ruin behind them, destroying king- 
 doms but creating none, always the same masterless 
 tribes of cruel robbers, ever at war with the world 
 and each other. Merciless, their very name was a 
 menace. Such terror clung to it that the mere sight 
 of one or two would empty a. village and send its 
 affrighted inhabitants fleeing without thought of 
 resistance, abandoning all they owned* 
 
 And indeed there is Something sinister in the 
 appearance of these men, tall, gaunt, draped in sombre 
 garb, stalking with hidden faces over the sand like 
 spectres or passing swiftly on fleet camels. 
 
 Their manners and customs, although they may 
 vary somewhat in different fractions of the race or in 
 different districts, are in the main similar. Whether 
 of the North or the South the tribes are divided into 
 two categories, noble or vassal. That is, a more 
 powerful tribe is classed as " noble," and has one or 
 more weaker tribes called imrad depending on it and 
 paying it tribute, termed tioussi, in dates, grain, 
 milk or booty won in a raid, for protection against 
 aggression by external foes or by the other " noble *' 
 tribes. These imrad are not serfs in any way and, 
 although they are bound to follow their protectors in 
 war, are not obliged to labour for them. Both 
 categories have their own slaves, generally negroes 
 
282 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 or half-castes, either born in captivity or prisoners 
 made in raids. 
 
 The singular of imrad is amr'id. In the south 
 there is a third category, serf tribes composed 
 of slaves, in most cases the progeny of Touareg 
 masters and captive women of the Songhay race which 
 once ruled an empire in the Niger region but was 
 crushed by the Touareg. These serf tribes are called 
 Elkillan in the tongue of their masters, Bellah in 
 Songhay. They are brown-skinned, smooth-haired 
 and have regular features; the girls are pretty and 
 the men brave and always well to the fore in battle or 
 in the hardly less dangerous pastime of hunting lions 
 and wild elephants in the Niger jungles. 
 
 The " noble " tribes consider themselves of a 
 superior clay to the imrad; and the men wed in their 
 own caste and would regard a marriage with a 
 " vassal " girl as a misaUiance. The offspring of such 
 a union would be imrad; for children among the 
 Touareg take the condition of the mother. Thus, if 
 a " noble " woman marries an amrid their children 
 would be " noble " ; for this people hold the doctrine 
 that " the womb ennobles," and rank and dignities 
 descend in the female line. 
 
 In practice the distinctions between the tribes 
 become somewhat confused, especially in the south. 
 An imrad tribe will only pay the tribute if its supposed 
 protectors are strong enough to enforce it. It may 
 happen that the positions may be reversed by the 
 imrad tribe defeating the " noble " one. And often 
 a vassal tribe may have one or more weaker ones 
 depending on it as its imrad. 
 
 The chieftain of a Targui tribe is termed amr'ar 
 
THE TOUAREG 233 
 
 and his symbol of authority is the drum, tobol, which *^ 
 is beaten to call together the members of the tribe and 
 its imrad for council or war. Hence the word tobol, * 
 which is of Arab origin, designates all who obey this 
 chief's rule. 
 
 A confederation of " noble " tribes with their 
 dependent imrad will choose one such amr'ar to lead 
 them all. He is termed amenokal\ and like e^ery 
 amr'ar his authority depends on his power to enforce 
 it. Theoretically he can fine or wound, but not kill, 
 an offender against his decrees. In each confederacy 
 a certain dominant tribe usually has the right to supply 
 the amenokal. 
 
 The position of the amenokal is partly hereditary, 
 partly elective. He is not succeeded by his son (at 
 least among the Ahaggar) but — in order of inheriting 
 — by his eldest brother, the eldest son of his maternal 
 aunt, and the eldest son of his eldest sister. In 
 practice, on the death of an amenokal his family in 
 council decide which member of it is likely to be the 
 best man to replace him. A meeting of the tobol is 
 called ; and a banquet is given to all who attend it. 
 Sheep are liberally slain to furnish the feast; and the 
 tribesmen, to whom meat is a rare luxury, eat heartily. 
 When repletion has put them in a good humour the 
 name of the selected candidate is mentioned, without 
 being definitely put forward, and his praises sung by 
 a paid claque — in the south this is done by the black- 
 smiths who act as heralds and bards. When a favour- 
 able atmosphere has been created the name is 
 formally put forward, the imrad present having the 
 right to speak first and signify their acceptance of 
 him or the contrary. 
 
284 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 If the assembly cannot choose between two candi- 
 dates there may be a split in the confederacy and a 
 second tohol may be created. 
 
 To-day the Algerian Government must approve of 
 the amenokal\ and if it does it will invest him with 
 the power under its suzerainty. On him as a sign of 
 dignity is conferred the sumptuous gold-embroidered 
 scarlet burnous that is the official garb of an Arab caid. 
 It is an alien garment to the Touareg; but as they 
 are vain and fond of splendour in dress it must be 
 welcome to the recipient, whose womankind could 
 never make for him such good cloth or so magnificent 
 a robe. 
 
 The Touareg tribes, when not at war with each 
 other, spent their time raiding the Arabs of the north 
 and the negroes of the Soudan, the peaceable sedent- 
 ^ary races of the Air and Damergou. Fighting and 
 robbery are the only fit occupations for men in their 
 opinion. Agriculture, the care of their flocks and the 
 making of tents and garments devolve on the women, 
 the slaves and the half-castes. The cultivation of the 
 soil in the Ahaggar Mountains where water is found 
 is left to the despised Harratine, mulattos from Tidi- 
 kelt and Touat. Even the blacksmiths who repair 
 the weapons purchased in the Air are looked down 
 upon, and, since they live by fire, are supposed to be 
 predestined to suffer eternally by it in hell. They 
 form a separate caste; and Sheikh Ben Djellas says 
 of them " They hate and betray God and his 
 Prophet." 
 
 The Touareg, although they prefer to live by raid- 
 ing and levying blackmail on trading caravans passing 
 through their country, do a certain amount of com- 
 
THE TOUAREG 285 
 
 merce themselMes. The men of the Ahaggar bring from 
 the Saharan oases, from Tidikelt and Touat, dateSj 
 chegga (blue cotton cloth), mahmoudi (white cotton 
 cloth), tobacco, snuff, tea, and sugar, and from Bilma 
 to the east of them the salt there produced ; and these 
 they carry to the Air and the Damergou in the 
 Southern Sahara and barter for camels, donkeys, 
 demntcme (sheep coj^ered with hair instead of wool), 
 weapons, saddlery and leather goods. 
 
 When moving in a caravan their camels are 
 fastened in threes, one behind the other, as in India, 
 instead of being driven in herds in the Arab way. 
 Men ride only stallion camels and horses, the females 
 being left for the women's use. A Targui's mehara 
 (riding camel) is usually white, is speedy and full of 
 endurance, and is trained to dash off at a gallop from 
 standing still and to be absolutely silent, unlike the 
 noisy grumbling beasts of the Arabs. 
 
 The Touareg men are excellent horsemen and 
 camel-riders and are trained to the use of arms from 
 their earliest youth. Their usual weapons are lance, 
 sword, and dagger. The last is cross-hilted and is 
 worn strapped along the left forearm, point towards the 
 elbow, pommel at the wrist. The sword, swinging at 
 the left side, has also a cross hilt and is straight and 
 double-edged with rounded point. The long spear- 
 shaft is of iron in the case of nobles, of wood with 
 slaves, but the latter often have it of metal, too, 
 
 The shields are of antelope skin, generally of more 
 than one thickness, but of course will not stop a bullet. 
 
 Until recently the Touareg had rio firearms; but 
 Turkish and Senoussi gun-runners from Tripoli have 
 smuggled to them modern rifles supplied by the 
 
286 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 Germans in the hope of adding to France's 
 embarrassments. 
 
 The endurance of the men of this race seems more 
 than human. Like their camels, and indeed all their 
 domestic animals, they can exist without drinking for 
 two or three days even in the hottest weather, and so 
 can pass over waterless deserts where nothing lives. 
 A handful of coarse, bitter flour, made from the dried 
 and powdered bulbs of the tazia or the dried seeds of 
 the gum-tree will satisfy their hunger. A Targui for 
 the mere love of roaming will leave his tent and family 
 and start off over the gravelly wastes or barren moun- 
 tains for weeks at a time. When night overtakes 
 him he hobbles his camel, eats his frugal meal, scoops 
 out a bed for himself if the soil is not too hard and 
 lies down to sleep in it, his weapons beside him, ready 
 to wake at the least hint of danger. 
 
 The establishment of regular markets near the 
 French mihtary posts tends gradually to lessen the 
 tendency of the Touareg to wander so widely; and 
 perhaps in time they may learn not to despise agricul- 
 ture where cultivation is possible, as in the Ahaggar 
 Mountains. Their favourite pursuits, robbery and 
 raiding for slaves, are being put a stop to and in the 
 future they may take to living honestly. 
 
 In manners and customs the Touareg differ utterly 
 from Arabs. Unlike all other Mahommedan peoples 
 they are monogamous and their women are not only 
 free and respected but are almost of more importance 
 than the men. They usually go unveiled while the 
 sterner sex conceal their faces. A wife's property is 
 entirely her own ; and the succession of dignities, rank, 
 ^nd fortunes pass to the children through her, not 
 
THE TOUAREG 237 
 
 through her husband; and if she and he come of 
 different tribes her offspring belong to hers, not to his. 
 She can divorce him at her will — he would earn 
 universal obloquy if he divorced her, no matter what 
 she did. She is never affronted by the presence of 
 a second wife ; but she can have her cavalier e servente, 
 a male friend to be her knight, to obey her behests, 
 laud her beauty openly and literally sing her praises 
 in verses of his own composition at the musical 
 gatherings of the tribe. She can receive visits from 
 members of the opposite sex freely; and it would be 
 unpardonable for the husband to show jealousy. 
 Before the wedding a marriage settlement on her must 
 be made by the bridegroom. 
 
 The unmarried woman not only must be consulted 
 in the case of a proposal for her hand, but she can 
 herself propose; and the man thus honoured would 
 not if he were free dare to refuse. The liberty 
 allowed girls is amazing, especially when their posi- 
 tion in other Moslem or African races is considered. 
 Chastity is not expected of them; and they can have 
 as many amours as they desire before settling down 
 to matrimony with husbands fully aware of their past. 
 
 There is a surprising amount of freedom between 
 the sexes. Among unciviUsed peoples as a rule 
 there is little or no social intercourse allowed between 
 men and women, especially if young and unwed. But 
 the Touareg exceed most European races in this 
 respect. They are passionately fond of " musical 
 evenings," called ahal', and whenever there are a few 
 men and women in an encampment they gather out- 
 ride the tents after sundown, the ladies play the 
 €Lmz'ad^ a single-stringed violin made of half a cala- 
 
238 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 bash rind with a string stretched across it, and a long 
 handle. The string and the cord of the bow are of 
 horsehair. 
 
 The singing is generally left to the men, who chant 
 ballads of their own composition extolling the beauty 
 of their mistresses, satirising their enemies and vaunt- 
 ing their own prowess in war. 
 
 After the singing games of forfeits are played ; for 
 this amusement of civilised children is of great anti- 
 quity and known in the Far East. 
 
 The women elect a sultana, the men a sultan ; and 
 the royal pair decide the penalties to be inflicted on 
 the losers in the trial of wit, which is the form that the 
 games take. 
 
 All through the evening the lovers pay open and 
 unrestrained court; and the girls are proud to flaunt 
 their conquests before the eyes of everyone. They 
 sit on their adorers' knees in sight of all and kiss the 
 chosen swains — on their noses ! For as the Targui 
 man must not expose his face in public he only lowers 
 his veil below his nostrils and presents his nasal organ 
 to the lips of his inamorata. The ahal often lasts 
 through the night and gives ample opportunity for 
 intrigues — opportunities of which the married women 
 as well as the girls avail themselves freely. All this 
 will seem almost incredible to anyone acquainted with 
 other African or Oriental uncivilised races, and, above 
 all, Moslem's. 
 
 The freedom conceded to a Targui woman is 
 unique. Her position is indeed enviable. She does 
 not need to work; for, no matter how poor she may 
 be, she has always at least one negress slave to cook 
 and undertake the menial labour for her. If married 
 
THE TOUAREG 239 
 
 her property is her own absolutely, She can divorce 
 her husband by the simple process of leaving him. 
 If she has an intrigue with a negro slave from which a 
 black baby results no suspicion is aroused; as every- 
 one will accept the standard explanation that some 
 evil wizard has cast a spell on her and caused the poor 
 infant to resemble the despised negro race. 
 
 Indeed if an unmarried woman becomes a mother 
 it is politely assumed that the child's father ig a 
 spiritual being. It is no wonder that with the liberty 
 allowed them the Touareg girls do not pine if they 
 fail to find husbands. 
 
 For the men are not in a hurry to marry, since the 
 necessity of making a settlement on the bride and of 
 providing for the upkeep of the manage — as the 
 wife need contribute nothing to it, no matter how rich 
 she is — makes the young man shy of embarking on 
 matrimony. And he has many consolations; for not 
 only are intrigues with girls and married women of his 
 own race possible, but he can choose concubines from 
 his negress slaves; or a widow or a diyorced woman, 
 enriched by her marriage settlement which she retains, 
 may propose to him. 
 
 So it follows that among the Touareg the young 
 men marry older women; while it is generally only 
 elderly men who have accumulated wealth who can 
 afford to espouse the young and attractive girls. 
 
 When a Targui decides to marry and has fixed on 
 the lady he sends to her parents an embassy of two 
 marabouts or tolbas with a couple of influential men 
 to solicit her hand. The request is laid before her 
 whole family; for even the most distant relatives both 
 in point of blood artd distance must be consulted. 
 
240 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 And the girl's consent has to be obtained; because 
 if her father marries her off against her will, she has 
 only to refuse herself to her husband and he will 
 arrange a divorce and let her return to her kindred. 
 
 When the wedding day is fixed the guests assemble 
 at the encampment of the bride's family, the women 
 on camels or donkeys and carrying their drums and 
 one-stringed violins, the men in gala costume with 
 their weapons and mounted on their best ynehara. An 
 hour after noon the male guests indulge in a faittasia 
 — a sort of mounted sports consisting chiefly of dis- 
 charging firearms from the saddle at a mad gallop, 
 while the ladies urge them on by song and music. 
 The bridegroom is present, seated on his camel beside 
 a friend, but does not take part; while the bride is 
 hidden in the tent of some female relative on the 
 maternal side and carefully avoids looking at the 
 spectacle, as her glance would bring bad luck on some 
 rider or other and cause an accident. 
 
 The fantasia continues to sunset, when a deputa- 
 tion of four men representing the husband-to-be waits 
 on the girl's father— or, if she be a widow or divorced 
 woman, on the bride herself — and asks that someone 
 be chosen to act for her, nominating at the same time 
 a person to act for the man. These two nominees 
 then join them; and the contract of marriage is settled 
 and the dowry arranged. This the husband provides ; 
 for a noble it is seven camels, for an amrid sl camel or 
 some sheep or goats, according to his means. He 
 only hands over a part at the time and owes the rest. 
 Beasts are slain for the marriage feast and prayers are 
 said to call down the blessing of Allah on the happy 
 pair. 
 
THE TOUAREG 241 
 
 Then the female relations and guests gather, pro- 
 vide music and prepare the nuptial couch, which is of 
 sand or earth on which a cloth is spread. Then they 
 proceed to erect a tent over it; but the men rush on 
 them, seize the tent, raise it three times for luck before 
 pitching it, and lead the bridegroom to it. 
 
 The women escort the bride towards the entrance ; 
 but before she reaches it a male cousin on the mother's 
 side pretends to hold her back, crying; 
 
 " I shall not let thee go from us until I have received 
 a gift of sandals." 
 
 A pair of sandals or ^ome other present is given 
 him and he releases hen 
 
 Then the women sing in chorus : 
 
 ** We are a-hungeredl 
 We are naked I 
 We are afoot! " 
 
 And the men reply: 
 
 "Ye shall be fed! 
 Ye shall be clothed I 
 Ye shall be mounted! " 
 
 Then the bride and the women chant a verse to 
 the husband intimating that they expect him to behave 
 like a strong and bold man and not as a child. After 
 which admonition the bride goes into the tent to him ; 
 and they are left alone while the guests retire and 
 feast. 
 
 The honeymoon consists of the new-married pair 
 remaining in their tent for seven days, fed by the 
 wife's family and cheered by frequent visits from their 
 friends. 
 
 For a year afterwards they remain near the bride's 
 
 9 
 
242 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 parents, to give her time to get used to parting from 
 them. 
 
 Divorce is a much simpler proceeding than the 
 marriage ; and incompatibiHty of temperament is the 
 most general cause. For usually it is the wife who 
 seeks it, since a husband who gets rid of his spouse 
 must pay her the balance of the marriage settlement. 
 And pubHc opinion is against him if he divorce her, 
 even though he detects her in adultery. " Women's 
 Rights " need no advocate among the Touareg. 
 
 This race has a superstitious dread of even the 
 mention of death. When a Targui dies a marabout 
 washes his corpse in warm water according to Mahom- 
 medan rites and sews it up in a clean white cloth. 
 For his services he is rewarded with a cow and the 
 deceased's clothes. The body is placed on its right 
 side facing towards Mecca in a shallow grave on which 
 branches are heaped to prevent jackals and hyenas 
 scratching it up again ; and tombstones are put at the 
 head and foot. Then the grave is surrounded by one 
 or two rectangles or ovals marked out in stones and, 
 when the prayers have been said, the mourners leave 
 it and go to the funeral feast; after which camp is 
 struck and all quit the spot where death took place, 
 for they consider that it must be unlucky. 
 
 Touareg turn aside if they come upon a tomb ; and 
 they never mention the name of a deceased person. 
 
 They are exceedingly superstitious and believe 
 firmly in the evil eye, sorcerers, vampires, ghosts, and 
 djinns. According to them sorcerers, called akiriko, 
 are either male or female and are invariably vampires, 
 who can suck blood without the necessity of going 
 near the victim. It is enough to breathe in air while 
 
THE TOUAREG 243 
 
 thinking of him or her; and the poor wretch's blood 
 passes invisibly into the akiriko's body to fatten him, 
 while the victim grows weak for loss of it and will 
 die unless the sorcerer relents. The children of the 
 akiriko inherit their parent's magical powers. 
 
 These vampires are known by their habit of per- 
 sistently licking their lips in the presence of human 
 beings or horses — for they also suck the blood of the 
 latter. When discovered they are punished by the 
 confiscation of their possessions and by exile. 
 
 More terrible and less easily bafHed are the djinns. 
 These spirits, for the most part evil, live in big cities 
 in the interior of the earth and among certain isolated 
 mountains called Idinen on the caravan route from 
 Ghadames to Rhat. They travel much, so they are 
 frequently met with on the roads, but are usually 
 invisible. They are in the habit of entering tents and 
 joining in mortals' meals; and should any luckless 
 wight try to sit on the mat, eat from the dish or drink 
 from the cup that the unseen and uninvited guest is 
 using, he will die on the spot. Unless, indeed, he has 
 been careful to guard against evil by the pious utter- 
 ance " Bismillai! " 
 
 Sudden deaths from apoplexy, heart failure or 
 similar causes are thus accounted for. Accidents, 
 such as a fall from a horse or camel, are attributed to 
 some dj inn's anger. 
 
 If a Targui hears at night any regular cadenced 
 noise like the blows of a blacksmith's hammer he 
 promptly flees in the opposite direction; for djinns 
 often set up anvils to forge or sharpen their arms and 
 generally do so near encampments. Any mortal who 
 blunders on them then dies. 
 
M4 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 There are male and female djinn^. They marry 
 and have children. Sometimes they carry off human 
 babies, if the parents have not fulfilled certain pre- 
 scribed rites, and replace them by their own 
 offspring. 
 
 As the gods and goddesses of old fell in love with 
 mortals, so do the djinns male and female descend 
 upon in their slumbers the men or women whom they 
 honour with their affections. 
 
 Some of the djinns are the spirits of long-dead 
 Touareg and they will foretell the future to human 
 beings. So often women dressed in their best and 
 wearing all their jewellery will pass the night lying on 
 an ancient tomb, hoping that in their dreams 
 knowledge will be granted them as to when their 
 absent men will return. Occasionally one of them is 
 found in the morning dead — strangled by the djinn, 
 it is said. But as her jewellery has disappeared a more 
 feasible explanation is easy to find. ^^^^ ^ 
 
 The Touareg are nominally Mahommedans, but 
 hardly practising ones. They have no mosques and 
 never make the pilgrimage to Mecca. They regard 
 their marabouts with a certain respect, as long as these 
 priests do not worry them about religion. But indeed 
 the holy men know little about the faith that they 
 profess. They have not much instruction, are 
 acquainted with a few texts of the Koran which they 
 make use of freely, and perhaps write a little Arabic. 
 They receive no zekat, or tithe, from their flocks but are 
 paid for marriages, circumcisions, and burials or for 
 writing letters and numbering herds. 
 
 The marabouts belong to special tribes, such as 
 the Kel es Souk and the Segokhanes, originally from 
 
THE TOUAREG 245 
 
 the destroyed town of Souk, and the Cherfig, 
 descended from men of Marrakesh in the far distant 
 days when the Sultan of the kingdom of Morocco — 
 then only the region about the city of Marrakesh — 
 conquered Timbuctoo. 
 
 As the clergy are so ignorant it is natural that the 
 laity are more so. The women are more educated 
 than the men and many of them know something of 
 the tifinar, the written characters of the Targui 
 language — characters which are shaped like circles, 
 squares, dots, crosses, and parallel lines — which is 
 now rarely employed. 
 
 Every girl is taught to play the amz'ad, the single- 
 stringed violin, as skill with it will add to her popularity 
 in the ahal — the musical At Homes where the court- 
 ing is done. If she is of wealthy parentage she will 
 be crammed from earliest youth with fattening food 
 like a Strasbourg goose; for fatness is considered 
 beautiful by the men. 
 
 In dress as in almost everything else the Touareg 
 differ from the Arabs. The garments of the men, 
 made of dark blue, almost black, cotton, consist of a 
 sleeveless inner gown — called takarbast by the 
 Ahaggar — open at the sides, an outer one with wide 
 sleeves, the takammist, and loose trousers gathered in 
 at the ankles. The characteristic veil, the iiedjel- 
 moust, is a long strip of blue cotton, one end of which 
 is placed on the top of the head, the rest brought down 
 to and across the lower part of the face, then up and 
 across the brow, leaving the eyes visible, then wound 
 around the skull. Their bare feet are thrust into 
 broad, flat sandals. Everywhere about them they 
 hang little leather bags or boxes containing amulets— 
 
246 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 scraps of paper with a text from the Koran scrawled 
 on it by a marabout, an inch or two of giraffe skin, a 
 lion's claw or some other similar charm. 
 
 The women wear sleeved shirts or blouses, a haik 
 and a skirt, and the ikerhi, a black veil which is never 
 drawn across the face except in the presence of some 
 elderly and important relative as a mark of respect. 
 In summer they put on large hats to shade them from 
 the sun. They load themselves with ornaments — 
 bracelets of silver, glass or horn, rings, and large- 
 hooped ear-rings — and like the men wear many 
 amulets. 
 
 The reason of the men being veiled is lost in 
 antiquity. The Arabs on their first introduction to 
 the Touareg found them thus masking their faces and 
 called them Ahl-el-Litham, the Veiled People. The 
 Touareg say themselves that their ancestors adopted 
 this fashion because the Prophet veiled his face before 
 entering Mecca after its capture. But the truth 
 probably is that the habit originated in these desert- 
 riders' desire to protect their eyes from the glare of the 
 sun and their mouths and nostrils from the sand. 
 To-day a Targui thinks it shameful to expose his 
 mouth to view. When entering an encampment of 
 strangers he shrouds his eyes and in assemblies and 
 council-meetings his whole face. 
 
 The Touareg, both noble and imrad, possess 
 slaves, mostly negroes, either born in captivity or 
 captured in raids. The males herd the flocks and 
 attend their masters in war and in the chase. The 
 females do the heavy work indoor and out, gather 
 and shell the seed-pods of wild plants to make flour 
 for couscous, weave mats, tan and dye sheepskins, 
 
Photo. Service, Government of Algeria. 
 MEN OF THE CAMEL CORPS IN THE SAHARA. 
 
THE TOUAREG 247 
 
 make garments, fetch water from the wells and make 
 cheese and butter. 
 
 The coming of the French has materially inter- 
 fered with the national pursuit of raiding for booty 
 and slaves. And to-day any slave who can reach a 
 French military post can claim his freedom. Yet 
 few desire it ; for if born in captivity they are regarded 
 almost as part of the family and are well treated. 
 The women are often their master's concubines. 
 Sometimes slaves liberated by the French have 
 demanded to return to servitude in order to be among 
 their friends and companions again. 
 
 The fog of mystery that for so long shrouded 
 this strange race has lifted. French officers lead 
 their camelry through the country and impose peace 
 on it. Fortified posts dot it. Even as far back as 
 1887 warriors of the Taitoq clans raiding tribes under 
 French protection and captured were brought to 
 Algiers — some even to Paris. Veiled chieftains of 
 the Ahaggar met a President of France in the 
 Algerian capital, haye driven behind him in stately 
 procession, have accompanied him on warships in the 
 bay, have seen and heard the guns on battleship and 
 cruiser salute him, have been stared at by tens of 
 thousands of white folk in the streets, and watched 
 the rank, beauty and fashion of Algiers dance one- 
 step and tango in the Summer Palace — and gone 
 back again by train, automobile and camel on the 
 long journey to the dark ravines of the Hoggar 
 Mountains and the grim deserts of their motherland. 
 The fierce eyes had gazed intently from the shrouded 
 faces at Modern Civilisation — what did the brains 
 behind them think of it.^ 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 ALGERIA TO-MORROW 
 
 I HAVE said much of the Algeria of Yesterday and 
 To-day. iWhat of the Algeria of To-morrow? 
 
 Its prosperity depends on its remaining under 
 European control; for no one who knows Eastern or 
 African Moslem races would have faith in the power 
 of Algerian Arabs and Berbers to successfully 
 conduct the affairs of the country if they won or were 
 given their complete independence. 
 
 The French when they arrived found Algeria in a 
 state of almost barbarism; and their achievement in 
 ninety-two years of stress and storm is marvellous. 
 They have made a success of it despite the vacillating 
 policies of their statesmen, the doubts, the fears of 
 the faint-hearted among them. If they have not 
 succeeded altogether as colonisers they have certainly 
 done well as organisers ; and I do not believe that any 
 other nation would have done better. I say that 
 deliberately, having seen the Americans in Hawaii 
 and the Philippines, the British in Egypt, India, the 
 Straits Settlements and Hong Kong, the Japanese in 
 Corea, the Portuguese in Goa and Macao and the 
 Russians formerly in Manchuria. France has made 
 mistakes, and grave ones, in Algeria; but others 
 might have made worse. 
 
 248 
 
ALGERIA TO-MORROW 249 
 
 The success, the future, of the land depend on her 
 continued predominance. Is it threatened from within ?, 
 
 I quote from Captain Raymond Peyronnet's 
 interesting article on the 192 1 Census, in the 
 Bulletin de la Societe de Geographic d' Alger : — 
 
 " The European population of Algeria has 
 increased by 21,000 in ten years. It has been proved 
 on the other hand that in the same period the 
 European element of the three large cities, Algiers^ 
 Oran and Constantine, has grown by 39,000. The 
 conclusion forces itself on us that the French of the 
 rural districts (" the bled ") are disappearing. They 
 are 18,000 less in 192 1 than 191 1. And this is a 
 grave matter. It is the solid framework of Algeria 
 that is being weakened. If the European element 
 in the country districts is lacking our domination is 
 imperilled. 
 
 " A second fact proved is that the proportion 
 between natives and Europeans is in each province 
 substantially the same. In the Department of Oran 
 there is one European to a little under three natives, 
 in the Department of Algiers one to a little less than 
 fixe, of Constantine one to twelve. 
 
 " It is in the Department of Algiers that the purely 
 French are much the more numerous. In that of 
 Oran there is a majority of French of Spanish origin, 
 of Constantine many colonists are of Maltese or 
 Italian origin. 
 
 " M. Demontes has proved that the annual increase 
 of the Algerian population is in normal times 3,000 
 French, 6,000 Europeans or other races, and 60,000 
 natives. The native population has doubled in the 
 last forty or fifty years." 
 
250 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 He points out that the security of life in Algeria 
 given by the French occupation, which has put an end 
 to tribal wars, and the decrease of infantile mortality 
 owing to improved hygiene and the medical help 
 available now tend to increase the disproportion 
 between the two races which is becoming greater 
 every day. 
 
 " To have in Algeria a million Europeans against 
 six million natives or two millions against twelve 
 millions is not at all the same thing. But what when 
 four million Europeans have to face twenty-four 
 millions ? " 
 
 It must be remembered that Algeria does not 
 stand alone, that Tunisia and Morocco with the 
 proportion of one white man to twelve natives and 
 one to twenty-eight (or if French-born Europeans 
 only are counted, one to twenty-six and one to fifty- 
 five) must be reckoned with if ever there were a big 
 upheaval against white domination. 
 
 So Captain Peyronnet is of opinion that " It 
 is necessary to develop strongly the European 
 immigration into Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. As 
 France has a feeble birth-rate one must appeal to the 
 Mediterranean European races that will readily be 
 acclimatised in North Africa. But to prevent any 
 danger from our national point of view it is necessary 
 to prevent any one race becoming too numerous. 
 In the Department of Oran which is crowded with 
 Spaniards let us call in mostly Italians, in Tunisia 
 counterbalance the existing Italian influence by 
 Spanish immigration, in Morocco welcome equal 
 numbers of Italians and Spaniards. 
 
 *' Let us apgeal as well to prolific races which swarm 
 
ALGERIA TO-MORROW 251 
 
 and which are not too far away from our mentaHty. 
 We see two — the Czecho-Slovaks and the Poles. . . . 
 
 "... If it is impossible to create in North Africa 
 a race strictly French at least it is necessary that the 
 race that will be formed there should be French by 
 culture. . . . Let us at least fashion foreigners in a 
 French mould. . . . 
 
 " The European races should hold first place, no 
 matter what happens. To do this they must be at least 
 the quarter of the total population. Of the twelve and 
 a half million inhabitants of North Africa there are 
 800,000 Europeans in Algeria, 150,000 in Tunisia, 
 150,000 in Morocco. Add 200,000 Tunisian and 
 Moroccan Jews who will adopt French customs. This 
 makes a total of 1,300,000 souls. There should be 
 four million Europeans to twelve million natives. 
 Can we create such a current of immigration ? I doubt 
 it. At least we could attempt it. . . . Why do not the 
 many emigrants who turn their steps to the United 
 States and South Africa take the road to North 
 Africa.? . . . 
 
 " To attract the Italian, Spaniard, Pole, Czecho- 
 slovak, Bulgarian, Roumanian, one must ensure their 
 finding land or work. . . . There is enough land in 
 North Africa for new comers without dispossessing 
 present proprietors and driving them to revolt. 
 
 " . . A policy of immigration will only succeed if 
 linked with a programme of improving the soil — 
 agricultural hydraulic works will be the first considera- 
 tion in Algeria, ways of communication in Morocco, 
 
 " . . . If at the end of ten years there are three 
 million Europeans in North Africa, who will be six 
 millions in fifty years and ten in a century, France will 
 
252 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 have fulfilled her destiny. Facing these ten millions 
 of Europeans will be forty million North African 
 natives and thirty million negroes (i.e., the latter 
 chiefly in French West Africa). ... In a century 
 Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and French West Africa 
 will be made capable of supporting this population. 
 The ten million Europeans could direct this mass of 
 natives, greatly civilised and intimately associated with 
 the conduct of their own affairs. . . . 
 
 'V. . . But ... it is necessary that the European 
 element in North Africa should be from now on and 
 before the lapse of ten years much more important 
 than it is. If not, the disproportion between Euro- 
 peans and natives will only grow greater and more 
 dangerous." 
 
 M. Saurin, president of the Comit6 Bugeaud, a 
 society formed to develop this Europeanisation, 
 says: 
 
 " Our North Africa is menaced. So many French 
 soldiers struck down by bullets or by fever from the 
 taking of Algiers to the pacification of Morocco will 
 have died in vain. 
 
 " The danger is the increasing insufficiency of the 
 French population. The soldier, the official, the 
 large proprietor, pass ; only the peasant remains. We 
 must therefore settle French peasants. Public 
 opinion should insist on the creation of powerful 
 Caisses de Colonisation charged with this mission." 
 
 Captain Peyronnet, however, has wisely recognised 
 the impossibility of securing a sufficient immigration 
 of French peasants and has suggested a more 
 practicable plan. 
 
 A former Governor-General of Algeria, M, 
 
ALGERIA TO-MORROW 253 
 
 Lutaud, warns his compatriots, " If we do not people 
 North Africa we shall lose it." 
 
 The passing of Algeria and its neighbours from 
 European, that is, French, control would be a world 
 calamity. For the sake of the generations that follow 
 us let us hope that it will never happen. Their native 
 populations would never keep these countries in the 
 van of progress as France is doing. Look at 
 Morocco ! Ten years ago she was sunk in barbarism ; 
 and were European control removed from her she 
 would relapse again. I was amazed at the work that 
 France has already accomplished in her Protectorate. 
 If anyone doubts its value let them compare it with 
 the state of the parts of the land — in the Riff and else- 
 where — still independent ! 
 
 Algeria has advanced centuries since 1830 and will 
 go much farther still. Her first and most pressing 
 need is a remedy for the droughts when the rainfall 
 is deficient; and that is irrigation. The water that 
 sweeps unprofitably to the sea from the streams and 
 rivers swollen by the rain when it does come should be 
 stored to be used when required. This was actually 
 done better in the days of the Romans than now. 
 With a sufficient and dependable water supply Algeria 
 could maintain a population vastly greater than the 
 present one. 
 
 Her mineral wealth has only been scratched as yet. 
 When war-stricken France has more money to spare 
 and her financiers and thrifty citizens can be induced 
 to invest their cash in their own dependencies instead 
 of Eastern Europe Algeria will return them ample 
 dividends. 
 
 She has already proved a source of strength to 
 
254 ALGERIA TO-DAY 
 
 France in times of peril. In 1870-71 and in 1 914- 19 
 she sent her sons, European and native, to the help 
 of the stricken motherland; and she will do so again 
 in ever increasing numbers. 
 
 Some day the Trans-Saharan railway will be built 
 and even if its main outlet be to the Atlantic through 
 Morocco, it will be connected with the railways of 
 Algeria and increase her wealth. 
 
 So the sky over this fair Department of France 
 across the Mediterranean has but one cloud — the dark 
 menace of an increasing disproportion between Euro- 
 peans and the native populations. Let us hope that 
 it will come to nothing and that the country that 
 shouldered the white man's burden for a century may 
 continue to reap the reward that she merits. In 
 Algeria France has deserved well of the world — let 
 those who doubt it visit this storied land! 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abadites, 47 
 Abd-el-Kader, 78, i6q, 206 
 
 , A descendant of, 50 
 
 , Mount, no 
 
 Abderrames, Rue des, 12 
 
 Abel, M., 186 
 
 Abencerrages, Rue des, .12 
 
 Abisga, 215 
 
 Abou Tachfin's silver tree, 149 
 
 Abou Yakoub, 147 
 
 Adjar, 45, 100 
 
 Admiral's House, 29, 52 
 
 Adrar, 218 
 
 Ad Piscinam, 167 
 
 Agadez, 217 
 
 Agents de Surete, 31 
 
 Agents de ville, 31 
 
 Agha-hashiy 76 
 
 Aghalik of Ouargla, 48' 
 
 Agriculture, Sahara, 215; Kabyle, 
 
 122; Touat, 219 
 Ahaggar or Hoggar Mountains, 
 
 59, 214, 230 
 Ahal, 237 
 Ahl-el-Litham, 246 
 Ahmed-El-Kebir, no, in, 112 
 Ahrar, 218 
 Ain-el-Hadjadj, 214 
 Ain Touta Mac Mahon, 160 
 Air, 215 
 Aissaoua, 205 
 AkirikOy 242 
 Alaoua dates, 179 
 Alexandrine Greeks, Knowledg-e 
 
 derived from, 72 
 Alfa, 57 
 Algeria under the Romans, 66; 
 
 under the Turks, 76 ; to- 
 morrow, 248 
 Algiers. Description, 10 et seq. ; 
 
 as a port, 56 ; as a winter resort, 
 
 58 ; history, 73 et seq. 
 Ali-ben-Ali-Thaleb, 198 
 
 Ali-ben-Gana, Caiid, 168, 199 
 
 Alma, 129, 154 
 
 Almoravide kings, 72 
 
 Amenokaly 233, 234 
 
 Amin amina, 125 
 
 Amr'aVy 232 
 
 AfnrHdy 232 
 
 Amulets, Touareg, 95, 245 
 
 Amz^ady 237 
 
 Anahef Mountains, 214 
 
 Andalusian Moors, no, 112 
 
 Aoulef, 219 
 
 Arab learning, 72 
 
 Arabs. Street singer, 15; 
 
 musicians, 16; funeral, 23; 
 
 invasions of, 69, 71 ; nomad, 
 
 221; character, 222; food, 223; 
 
 superstitions, 225 
 Argel, TZy 74 
 Aristocracy, Moslem, 197 
 Aroudj, 74 
 Atlas Mountains, 9, 40, 62, 66, 
 
 III, 113 
 Andouin-Dubreuil, M., 227 
 Augustan Legion, 66 
 Aumale, Due d', wj 
 Aures Mountains, 62, 120, 157, 
 
 160 
 Azdjer, 214, 230 
 
 Bab Azoun, 34 
 
 Bab-el-Oued, 21, 23, 29 
 
 Babouches, 44 
 
 Badestan, 88 
 
 Balagnier, Ponce de, 34 
 
 Balearic slingers, 65 
 
 Barbarossaj 30, 74 
 
 Barbary coast. Colonies on, 65; 
 
 pirates of, 72 
 Bardo, 102 
 Barth, 228 
 Batna, 158 
 Bedouins, 222 
 
 255 
 
256 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Belisarius, 69 
 
 Bellah, 232 
 
 Belle Fontaine, 129 
 
 Belleville, 127 
 
 Ben Aknoun, 25, 58 
 
 Ben Djellab, 184 
 
 Ben Gana. Bou-Aziz, 168; the 
 
 Bach-Agha, 168, 192, 199; 
 
 Caid Ali, 168, 199; Hamma, 
 
 ^ ^99, . 
 Benghazi, 204 
 Beni-Hilal, 71 
 
 Isguen, 48 
 
 Mansour, 155 
 
 M'Zab, 48, 213 
 
 Mora, 187 
 
 Salah, 113 
 
 Benzert, 65 
 
 Berbers. Origin of name, 62 ; 
 girls, 19; workmen in Algiers, 
 36 ; history of, 62 et seq. ; 
 divisions, 64; struggles for 
 freedom, 68 ; religions, 69, 70 ; 
 character and customs, 121 et 
 seq. 
 
 Berrian, 48 
 
 Berrouaghia, 112, 117 
 
 Bey, 74; of Titeri, 74 
 
 Beylerbeg, 74 
 
 Bilma, 216, 235 
 
 Birkadem, 104 
 
 Birmandreis, 104 
 
 Biskra, 47; climate, 59; descrip- 
 tion, 164 et seq. 
 
 Bismillail 243 
 
 Bisset, Lieutenant, 230 
 
 Blacksmiths, Touareg, 234 
 
 Blandon, Sergeant, 105 
 
 Bled, the, 249 
 
 Blida, 100 • destruction of, 105 ; 
 under tne pirates, 106; its 
 Daughters of Joy, 107; history, 
 110; college at, 58 
 
 Bliss, Colonel, 187 
 
 Boghar, iii, 117 
 
 Boghari, 19, 117 et seq. 
 
 Bois de Boulogne, 40 
 
 Bone, 58, 65 
 
 Boniface, Count, 68 
 
 Bordj-bou-Arreridj, 156 
 
 Boulevard de la R^publique, 30, 
 
 33 
 Boulevard Laferri^re, 37 
 Boulevard Sadi Carnot, 33 
 Boufarik, 104 
 
 Bougie, ^6; Carthaginian Colony, 
 65 ; pirates, 72 ; captured by 
 Spaniards, 73 
 
 Bou Beih, 207 
 
 Bourbons, 10 
 
 Bou-Saada, goum of, 184 
 
 Bridge, El Kantara, 161 
 
 Bridges of Constantine, 137 
 
 Britain, Phoenicians and, 64 
 
 Bugeaud, Comity, 252 
 
 , Marshal, 2>7 
 
 Bureau Arabe, 48; Tougourt, 182 
 
 Burnous, 17, 18, 44 
 
 Byzantines, 69, 73 
 
 CiESAREA, 66 
 
 Caesarean Mauritania, 66 
 
 Cafe Maure, 15 
 
 Caids, 92, 94, 197 
 
 Caid Ali-ben-Gana, 168, 199 
 
 Caid of L'Arba, 200 
 
 Caid of Tougourt, 183, 199 
 
 Cairo, 16, 207 
 
 Caisses de Colonisation, 253 
 
 Caliphs of Bagdad, 69, 72 
 
 Caliphs, Eastern, 71 
 
 Camp des Chenes, 113 
 
 Canton, 16 
 
 Carnival in Algiers, 55, 56 
 
 Cartagena, 145 
 
 Carthage, 65, 66 
 
 Cathedral, Algiers, 25 ; Constan- 
 tine, 137 
 
 Caxine, Cape, 74 
 
 Celtiberians, 62 
 
 Celts, 62 
 
 Cemeterie?s, Moslem, 14; El 
 Kettar, 23; St Eugene, 34 
 
 Ceuta, 70 
 
 Chadelya, 207 
 
 Chambre des D^put^s, 10 
 
 Chamba of El Golea, 48 
 
 Chamba of Metlili, 48 
 
 Chameau, Rue du, 12 
 
 Charles V., 24, 25. 34, 77, 79 
 
 Chaouias, 71, 121, 161 
 
 Checchia, 16 
 
 Chegga (cloth), 235 
 
 Chegga, station of, 175 
 
 Cheliff, 74 
 
 Chenoua, iii 
 
 Cherchel, 66, 72 
 
 Chiffa, III, 116 
 
 Chott El Melghir, 176 
 
 Chotts. 176 
 
INDEX 
 
 257 
 
 Citroen, M. Andr6, 226; Saharan 
 
 mission, 227 
 Climate of Alg-iers, 58; of 
 
 Algeria, 5g, 151 
 Col de Chrea, 1 1 1 
 Compagnies de Discipline, 112 
 Concierges in Algiers, 54 
 Confectioner, 17 
 Confraternities, religious, 201 
 Conseils Municipaux, 50 
 Constantine, 19, 57, 78, 136 
 
 et seq. 
 Constantinople, 13, 46 
 Convicts, Algerian, 32, 98 
 Cork oaks, 142 
 Costume, of dancer, 20; of 
 
 men in Algiers, 44; Arab, 44; 
 
 Arab women's, 45 ; Jews', 45 ; 
 
 Jewesses', 45, 139; Air, 216; 
 
 Touareg, 245» 246 
 
 Dahra, 120 
 
 Damergou, 217 
 
 Dance, native, 20 
 
 Dancing girls in Algiers, 19 
 
 Dancing girls in Boghari, iig 
 
 Dar-el-Harb, 203, 204 
 
 Dar-el-Islam, 203 
 
 Dates, 179 
 
 Date palms, 178 
 
 Dattes, Rue des, 12 
 
 Daughters of the Dey, 26 
 
 Daughters of Joy, 19, 107 
 
 Degla-Beida, 179 
 
 Deglet-Nour, 179 
 
 Delhi, 16 
 
 Dellys, 72 
 
 Demmane, 216, 235 
 
 Democracy, Moslem, 197 
 
 Demontes, M., 249 
 
 Depeche Algerienne, 38, 99 
 
 Derbrouka, 16 
 
 Derqaoua, 207 
 
 Desvaux, Colonel, 184 
 
 Dey, II, 3Q, 74 ^ 
 
 Dey Hassan, 77, 78 
 
 Dido, 65 
 
 Diifa, 224 
 
 Dikr, 207 
 
 Divorce, among Arabs, 224; 
 
 among Touareg, 242 
 Diwan of Algiers, 75, 84 
 Djama El Djedid, 27, 29 
 Djama El Kebir, 28 
 Djama El Kebir in Tlemgen, 148 
 
 Djaraboub, 205 
 Djebel Amour, 119 
 Djebel Belloua, 131 
 Djebel Tarik, 70 
 Djehad, 203 
 Djelfa, 119 
 Djemaa, M'Zab, 48 
 
 , Kabyle, 124 
 
 Djerid, 179 
 
 Djezair-Beni-Mezr'anna, 74 
 
 Djidjel, 65 
 
 Djidjelli, 65, 72 
 
 Djilala, 206 
 
 Djinns, 243 
 
 Djurdjura Mountains, 24, 33, 37, 
 
 130, 155 
 Dokalis, 219 
 
 Don Juan of Austria, 83 
 Douar, 163, 221 
 Dowry in the Touat, 220 
 Dowry among Touareg, 240 
 Due d'Aumale, 117 
 Due d'Orleans, 27 
 Duvivier, General, 103 
 
 Education in Algeria, 57, 58 
 
 Eikoci, 65 
 
 Eikosion, 73 
 
 Eixosi, 72, 
 
 El Ateuf, 48 
 
 El Bahadja, 184 
 
 El Bekri, 74 
 
 El Berd, 180 
 
 El Biar, 25, 40 
 
 El Biodh, 214 
 
 El Djezair, 10 
 
 El Golea, 48, 219 
 
 El Guerrah, 153, 157 
 
 El Hadj, Ahmed, 137 
 
 El Kantara, 161 
 
 EI Kettar, 23 
 
 Elkillan, 232 
 
 Elissar, 65 
 
 Emirs, 72 
 
 Emperors, Berber-Roman, 68 
 
 Exmouth, Lord, 77 
 
 Exports, Algerian, 56; under 
 
 Rome, 67 
 Eucalyptus trees, 22, 128 
 
 Fair at Tizi Ouzou, 133 
 Fantasia at Tolga, 195 
 Fantasia Touareg, 240 
 Fatemide dynasty, 47 
 Father Francis, 87 
 Fathma, 198 
 
 R 
 
258 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Fathma, hand of, i8 
 
 Feidj, 213 
 
 Fezzan, 230 
 
 Fish Market, 33 
 
 Flatters, Colonel, 228 
 
 Flora of Algeria, 41 
 
 Flora of Northern Algeria, 152 
 
 Flora of Sahara, 152, 210 
 
 Fontaine Chaude, 167 
 
 Forfeits played by Touareg, 238 
 
 Fort Bab Azoun, 89 
 
 Fort de I'Eau, 24 
 
 Fort I'Empereur, 25, 37, 78 
 
 Fort National, 135 
 
 Fort of Tougourt, 182 
 
 GABfes, Gulf of, 176 
 
 Gandaura,' 18, 44 
 
 Garden of Allah, 24 
 
 Gauls, 65 
 
 Gassi, 213 
 
 General Post Office in Algiers, 
 
 38. loi 
 Genseric, 68 
 
 Geographic, Soci^t^ de, 38 
 Geryville, goum of, 184 
 Getulians, 63 
 Ghaita, 16 
 Ghardaia, 48 
 Ghardimaou, 143 
 Girafe, Rue de la, 12 
 Giudicelli, Sanson Napollon, 83 
 Golden Apples of the Hesperides, 
 
 10, no 
 Gorge of El Kantara, 161 
 Gorge of the ChifFa, 112 et seq. 
 Gorge of the Isser, 154 
 Gorge of the Rummel, 140 _ 
 \ Governor-General. His position, 
 
 51 ; present, 51 ; visit to Tolga, 
 
 186 et seq. 
 Goum, 190 
 
 Granary of Europe, 40 
 Granary of Rome, 103 
 Grand Marabout of M'Sila, 185 
 Grand Marabout of Tolga, 194 
 Greeks, 65 
 Grib, 207 
 Guerrara, 48 
 
 Haardt, M., 227 
 Had, 210 
 Hadj Ali, 213 
 Haick, 17 
 Hamal, 13 
 
 Hamma-ben-Gana, 199 
 Hammam Meskoutine, 142 
 Harbour of Algiers, 10, 30 
 Harbour of Oran, 144 
 Harrach river, 127 
 Harratines, 218, 234 
 Hassan-ben-Kheir-ed-Din, 25 
 Hassan Pacha, 26, 39 
 Haussonvilliers, 129 
 Hants Plateaux, 59, 151, 156 
 Hercules, 10; meaning of legend, 
 
 61 ; pillars of, 62 
 Hesperides, Golden Apples of, 61 
 Hilalian Invasion, 71 
 Hillil, 204 
 Hlafa, 17, 100 
 Hole of Mourning, 221 
 Horse-breeding at Blida, 109 
 Houses of Algiers, 53 
 Housewives of Algiers, 54 
 Hussein Pasha, 24, 39 
 Hussein Dey, suburb of Algiers, 
 
 127 
 Hycsos, 63 
 
 Iberians, 62 
 
 Ice in the Sahara, 177 
 
 Icosium, 73 
 
 Iferouane, 215 
 
 Ifrikya, 69 
 
 Ikerhit 246 
 
 Imam, 47, 201 
 
 ImSmat, 204 
 
 Imrady 231 
 
 Inimani, 214 
 
 Inner Harbour, 29, 30 
 
 In-Salah, 218 
 
 Invincible Militia, 75, 76, 84, 85 
 
 Irhazar river, 215 
 
 Irrigation, 67, 253 
 
 Islam, 27 
 
 Isly, Rue d'. 35, 37 
 
 Victory of, 37 
 
 Israelites in Africa, 69 
 
 Janissaries, 43, 75, 76 
 ardin Bizot, 109 
 ardin d'Essai, 25, 41, 127 
 ewellery of dancing girl, 20 
 ewesses, 19, 139 
 Tews, 17, 25, 65, 6q, 251 
 [udaism, spread of, 69 
 
 Kaaba, 46 
 
 Kabylia, 24, 29. 36, 62, 120, 126 
 et seq. 
 
INDEX 
 
 259 
 
 Kabyles. Appearance, 121 ; food, 
 121; agriculture, 122; family 
 love, 123; character, 123; 
 women, 124; tribal system, 
 124; number, 125 
 
 Kairouan, foundation of, 70 
 
 Khamsa, 18 
 
 Kanoums, 125 
 
 Kasbah, 11. 22, 24, 80, 89, 90 
 
 Kaya, 76 
 
 Keir-ed-Din, 29, 74, no 
 
 Kel-es-Souk, 244 
 
 Khadrya, 206 
 
 Karoubas, 124 
 
 Khetib, 201 
 
 Khouans, 207 
 
 Kissing among Touareg, 238 
 
 Korunka, 214 
 
 Kouba, 206 
 
 Koudiat-es-Saboun, 24 
 
 Koulouglis, 75 
 
 Ksar of Boghari, 19, 118, 119 
 
 Ksour of Touat, 218 
 
 Laghouat, goum of, 184 
 
 La Guyane, 32 
 
 Lake Chad, 204 
 
 Laila Khadidja, in, 155 
 
 Lalahoum, Rue, 12 
 
 Lambessa, 66, 158 
 
 Lamta, 65 
 
 Landon de Longeville, Comte, 
 
 166 
 Languagei of natives of Algiers, 
 
 43 ; French in Algeria, 57 
 Laperrine, General, 230 
 Leptis, 67 
 Les Glacieres, in 
 Libyans, 62, 63 
 Lutaud, M., 253 
 Lycees in Algeria, 57 
 
 Magnesia, 173 
 Mag'reb, 64 
 Mahmoudi, 235 
 Mahommed, 203 
 Mahommed-ben-Abd'Allah, 184 
 Mahommed-ben-Snoussi, 203 
 Mahommedanism in Barbary, 
 
 70; spiritual leaders of, 201 
 Mahonese, 52 
 Mahourim, 63 
 Maillot, 155 
 Maison Blanche, 128 
 Maison Carree, 127 
 
 Malta, knights of, 34 
 Maltese, 13, 14, 29, 52 
 Maltiy 216 
 Mansoura, 147 
 Marabout, 198 
 
 candles, 108 
 
 of Tougourt, 183 
 
 , Grand, of M'Sila, 185 
 
 , , of Tougourt, 183 
 
 Marine, Algerian, 76 
 
 , Rue de la, 28 
 
 , Turkish Minister of, 29, 
 
 75 
 Markets in Algiers, 14, 54; fish, 
 
 32> ; Tizi Ouzou, 133 ; Tougourt, 
 
 181 
 Marriage among Touareg, 239 
 
 et seq. 
 Marriage among Arabs, 224 
 Marnier, Commandant, 184 
 Marseilles, 10, 23, 36 
 Mathan of Tyre, 65 
 Matifou, Cape, 24 
 Mauretania, 63, 66 
 Mecca, 18 
 Mechouar, 148 
 Mechoui, 224 
 
 Medea, 117; college, 58; dili- 
 gence, 109, 112 
 Medersa in Algiers, 58 
 Mediterranean, 9 
 Megarine, battle of, 184 
 Mehara, 235 
 Mekarra river, 146 
 Mesple, M. Armand, 38 
 Metlili, 48 
 
 Mezr'anna, 72>y 74 a 
 
 M'hentich, 179 
 Mica in the Sahara, 172 
 Michelet, 135 
 
 , Rue, 38, loi 
 
 Militia, Invincible, 43, 75, 76, 
 
 84, 85 
 Millerand, President, 50; visits 
 
 Algiers, 91 et seq. 
 Minepthah, 63 
 Mirabeau, 130 
 Mitidja, 9, 40, 102, 127 
 Mokranis, 156 
 Monkeys in Atlas Mountains, 
 
 114 
 Monument to African Dead, 25 
 Morbihan, 62 
 
 Moors, 63 ; origin of name, 63 
 Mores, Marquis of, 229 
 
260 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Moroccans, 37 
 
 Morocco, 47, 64, 78, 150, 253 
 
 Moslems, 18 
 
 Mosque, El Djedid, 27 
 
 , El Kebir, 28 
 
 in Constantine, 137 
 
 in Tlemgen, 148 
 
 Mostanagem, college in, 58 
 Mouchi-Degla, 179 
 Moulai-Saah, 205 
 Mouzaia, in 
 
 Mourning in Touat, 220 
 
 Mozabite peril, 49 
 
 Mozabites, 17, 25, 47 
 
 M'tima, 179 
 
 Muezzin, 27, 201 
 
 Mussulmans, 17 
 
 Mustapha Sup^rieur, 24, 38, loi 
 
 M'Zab, 17, 120 
 
 Napoleon I. and Algiers, ^^ 
 
 Napoleon III., 10, 201 
 
 Natives in Algeria, legal posi- 
 tion, 49; naturalisation, 50 
 education, 57 
 
 Navy of pirate Algiers, 76 
 
 Navy, French, in Algiers, 52 
 
 Neqi^ 210 
 
 Negresses, 19, 162 
 
 Neo-Mauresque Architecture, 37 
 
 Niger river, 217 
 
 Nineteenth Army Corps, 51 
 
 Nineteenth Dynasty, 63 
 
 Nirokba, 215 
 
 Nobles, Touareg, 231 
 
 Nomad Arabs, 221 
 
 Notre Dame d'Afrique, 21, 23 
 
 Notre Dame de la Garde, 23 
 
 Nuit, Rue de, 12 
 
 Numidia, 66 
 
 Numidians, 10, 63; cavalry, 65 
 
 Oases, 163, 178 
 
 Oasis, what is an, 163 
 
 Oda-hashi, 76 
 
 Odjak, 75 
 
 Oflficers* Club in Algiers, 75 
 
 Okba-ben-Mafa, Sidi, invades 
 
 Barbarv, 69; builds Kairouan, 
 
 70; killed, 70; tomb, 168 
 Old Algiers, 11 et seq. 
 Old Biskra, 166 
 
 Opera House in Algiers, 34, 35, 55 
 Oran, 19; schools, 57, 58; pirates, 
 
 72, 73; captured by Spain, 73; 
 
 description, 144 et seq. 
 
 Ottoman Porte, 75 
 Ouahbite Abadites, 47 
 Ouargla, 179, 213, 229 
 Ouarsenis, iii 
 Oudjda, 150 
 Oued-el-Kebir, 106, in 
 Oued Rhir, 179 
 Oued-Smar, 128 
 Oukil-el-Hardj, 29 
 Oukhilhardji, 76 
 Ouled, 118 
 
 Nails, 19, 118, 119, 165 
 
 Sidi Sheikh, 48 
 
 Oumache, 174, 189, 196 
 Ourida, no 
 
 Our Lady of Mercy, Order of, 82 
 Ousfane, 218 
 
 Pannonia, 67 
 Parthian Cavalry, 67 
 Pasha, 74 
 Penon, 29 
 
 de Argel, 73 
 
 Peyronnet, Captain Raymond, 
 
 on Kabyle population, 125 ; on 
 future of Algeria, 249 et seq. 
 
 Pharaoh, 63 
 
 Philippeville, 56, 137 ; college 
 in, 58 ; Carthaginian Colony, 
 
 65 
 Phoenicians, 63, 64 
 Piracy in Algiers, 83 et seq. 
 Pirates, n, 83 et seq. 
 
 , Barbary, 72 ; Oran, yz 
 
 Pirate Town, n 
 
 Place du Gouvernement, 27, 28, 
 
 33 
 Population of Algiers under the 
 
 Pashas, 43 ; to-day, 50 
 Population of the Berbers, 125 
 Population, Constantine, 139 
 
 , Oran, 145 
 
 Portes-dC'Fer, 155 
 
 Ports, Algiers, 56; other, 56 
 
 Pr^fet of Constantine, 186 
 
 President, French, in Algiers, 93 
 
 Proconsul, 66 
 
 Proportion between native and 
 
 European population, 249 
 
 Rabat, 72 
 
 Railways, Algerian, 143 
 Railway journey to Biskra, 153 
 Railway to Tunis, 141 
 Rainfall, 52, 152, 253 
 
INDEX 
 
 261 
 
 Rain in Algiers, 50 
 Rain in the Atlas Mountains, no 
 Rain in the Sahara, 151, i77» 188 
 Rameses, 63 t,^.,-.- 
 
 Ranks in the Invincible Militia, 
 
 76 
 
 Reception of the Governor- 
 General in Tolga, 189 et seg.. 
 
 Redemptorist Orders, 82 
 
 Regency of Algiers, 74 et seq. 
 
 Reghaia, 129 
 
 Regnard, poet and slave, 34 
 
 Rhar, 179 
 
 Roberts, Chas. G. D.. 117 
 
 Romans in North Africa, 66, 159 
 
 Ronciere, M. Ch. de la, 225 
 
 Rouiba, 128 
 
 Rovigo, Rue, 25 __, . 
 
 Ruisseau des Singes, 113; Hotel 
 du, 113 . ^ ^ 
 
 Rummel river, 136 et seq. 
 
 Rusicade, 138 
 
 Rus-Cuar, 65 
 
 Sahara, 162; climate, 209; 
 dunes, 209; flora and fauna, 
 210; water in, 211; theory of, 
 as a dry sea-bed, 211; how 
 sand is formed, 212; caravan 
 route to the Soudan, 212 et 
 seq.', inhabitants, 218; early 
 intercourse with Europe, 225; 
 the Citroen Mission in, 226 
 
 Sahel Hills, 25, 38, 40, 127 
 
 Sacred Wood, 109 
 
 Sale, 72 
 
 Samene river, 214 
 
 Saoura, 179 
 
 Sanson NapoUon, 83 et seq. 
 
 Sardinia, 67 
 
 Sarrasins, Rue des, 12 
 
 Saurin, M., 252 
 
 Savignac, Sire de, 34 
 
 Saye, 216 
 
 Sbahihis, 75 ^ , , 
 
 Schoolboys, Kabyle, 132 
 
 Schools in Algeria, 57 
 
 Sebaou river, 130. i33 
 
 Sebka of M'Zab, 48 
 
 Secretaries of State. 75, ©4 
 
 Segokhanes, 244 
 
 Senate, 10 
 
 Senegalese, 31* 9i 
 
 Senhadja, 74 
 
 Sennoussi, 203 
 
 Setif, 156; college in, 58 
 
 Seventeenth Dynasty, 63 
 
 Shaoush, 76 
 
 Sheikh of a confraternity, 207 
 
 Sheikh Ben Djellas, 234 
 
 Shereef, 198 
 
 Sheurfa, 19S 
 
 Sicilians, 22, 29 
 
 Sicily, 30 
 
 Sidi Ahmed ben Yousef, 105 
 
 Bel Abbes, 146; college, 58 
 
 bou Medine, 149 
 
 Ferruch, 78 
 
 Madani, 113 
 
 Mahommed-ben-Aissa, 205 
 
 Okba, 168 
 
 Yakoub, 109 
 
 Sidon, 64 
 Sionah, 205 
 Siroccos in Algiers, 59 
 Sitifis, 156 
 
 Slaves in Algiers, 80 et seq. 
 
 Social life in Algiers, 55 
 
 Soap, Hill of, 24, 34. 37 
 
 Songhay Empire, 217 
 
 Souca, 65 
 
 Souf, 179. 212 
 
 Souk, 245 
 
 Souk Ahras, 143 
 
 Sous-Prefet of Constantme, 187 
 
 Souss, 70 , . ,,.1 
 
 Societe de Geographic d'Alger, 
 
 38 
 Spahis, 36, 67, 93 
 Spain, 30 
 
 Spaniards, 13, 29, 52, 250 
 Spanish Moors, no 
 Square de la Republique, 34, 99 
 St Augustine, 143 
 St Eugene, 34 
 St Louis, 72 
 St Sophia, 46 
 Stamboul, 13 
 Steeg, M., 51 
 Stofla, 73 
 
 Storks in Algeria, 128, 138 
 Street Arabs, 95, 96 
 Sultan Kalassi, 25, 89, 90 
 Summer Palace, 39, Q3, 94 
 Superstitions of Arabs, 225 
 Superstitions of Touareg, 242 
 
 Tabalbalet 
 Tabarka, 66 
 Tailors Street, 
 
 214 
 
 16 
 
262 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Taitog, 247 
 
 Takammist, 245 
 
 Takarbast, 245 
 
 Tala, 184 
 
 Tanezrouft, 227 
 
 Tangiers, 65, 66 
 
 Tar, 16 
 
 Targa, 230 
 
 Targui, 230, 236 
 
 Tarik-Ibn-Ziad, 70 
 
 Tassili des Adjer, 59 
 
 Taziay 236 
 
 Teboul, 16 
 
 Tell, 151 et -passim. 
 
 Temassine, 213 
 
 Thaddert, 124 
 
 Thagaste, 143 
 
 Theatre, Municipal, 34 
 
 Thieves' Bazaar, 21 
 
 Thracian ^horsemen, 67 
 
 Tidikelt, 179, 219, 235 
 
 Tidjania, 206, 313 
 
 Tiedjelmoust, 245 
 
 Tifinar, 245 
 
 Tiharet, 47 
 
 Timassanine, 214 
 
 Timbuctoo, 217 
 
 Timdje, 216 
 
 Timgad, 67, 159 
 
 Timgue, 216 
 
 Tingis, 65 
 
 Tingitanian Mauretania, 66 
 
 Tiousse, 231 
 
 Tiout, 207 
 
 Tirailleurs Indigenes, 18, 21, 91 
 
 Tit, battle of, 230 
 
 Tizi Ouzou, 130 et seq. 
 
 Tlemgen, women of, 45 ; college, 
 58, description, 147 et seq. 
 
 Tobol, 233 
 
 Toddy, 178 
 
 Tolga, 189 et seq. 
 
 Tomboctou, Rue de, 12 
 
 Touareg. Intercourse with ex- 
 plorers, 228; conquest of, 230; 
 name, 230; manners and 
 customs, 231; tribes, 232; 
 tobol, amr'ar and amenokal, 
 233; trading:, 234; weapons, 
 235; women, 237; marriage, 
 239; superstitions, 243; dress, 
 245 ; the veil, 246 
 
 Touat, 218, 235 
 
 Tougourt, 180 et seq., 2x2 
 
 Toufl&k, 124 
 
 22 
 
 Trajan's Arch, Timgad, 159 
 Tramcars in Algiers, 28 
 Transatlantic liners, 31, 109 
 Transport in the Sahara, 175 
 Trans Saharan Railway, 226, 254 
 Tribute to Algiers from Euro- 
 pean nations, 76, 77 
 Tunis, 16, 65 ; French expedi- 
 tions against, 72, 73 
 Tunisia, Phoenician colonies, 
 65 ; Roman ruins, 66 ; a Roman 
 province, 66 ; Arabs invade, 
 69; French Protectorate, 78 
 Turcos, 18 
 Tusca, 66 
 Tyre, 64 
 
 University of Algiers, 38, 58 
 
 Vampires, 242 
 Vandals, 10, 68, 69 
 Viceroy of Algiers, 75 
 Victoire, Rue de la, 21, 
 
 , Boulevard, 21 
 
 Voirol, Colonne, 39 
 , General, 39 
 
 Watchers of the Air, 187 
 
 Weavers, desert, 181 
 
 Well, artesian, in Tougourt, 182 
 
 White City of Algiers, 26 
 
 Wild boars in Algeria, 141 
 
 Winter Palace, 26 
 
 Women, dress of, in Algiers, 44; 
 
 among Touareg, 246; position 
 
 of, among Kabyles, 124; 
 
 among nomad Arabs, 224; 
 
 among Touareg, 236 et seq. 
 
 XlMENES, Cardinal, 73 
 
 Yakoub, 47 
 
 Young Algerian Party, 50 
 
 Yoldash, 76 
 
 Zab, 47, 168 
 
 Zaccar, iii 
 
 Zekat, 244 
 
 Zenetes, 47 
 
 Ziban, 168 
 
 Zigomar, 114 
 
 Zmala, Zmali, 198 
 
 Zmoul, 198 
 
 Zouaves, 21, 36, 91, 112 
 
 Zousfana, 179 
 
LOAN DEPT. 
 
 Ren^vv' 
 
 r^neraX Library . 
 
YC 47439 
 
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