waved a handkerchief and repelled the salutations and the pressure of the multitude. He took us to the courtyard of the mosque, and actually invited us, booted as we were, to ascend the tower. We mounted by thirty-five steep steps, and had a bird's-eye view of the oasis, and the ocean-like desert whose billows surround it; but as we had already, in our promenade, climbed several exaggerated dunghills, we saw little we had not seen before.

On inquiring for the Tunisian white silk haïks, which are chiefly fabricated here, we were taken into the souk, a large open space, and made sundry dives into dark dens to examine the goods. But as the crowd, which gathered round, obstructed both light and movement, the khalifat proclaimed that those who had wares to sell should bring them to us in the afternoon.

We returned to find a second breakfast awaiting us; and insisted upon our host partaking with us, a point of etiquette which he at length conceded. The first dish was a large bowl of stewed apricots, highly seasoned with capsicums, and into which we dived for fragments of stewed fowl, raisins, and parched lentils. The chief fished most successfully, plunging in his fingers and bringing up pieces of fowl, which he considerately tore in small morsels for us, handing the bones to his retainers. Kouskousou with a pile of boiled mutton followed, and then of course coffee and pipes.

Over these last we held a sort of Dutch auction. The traders and idlers of the city crowded the court; and all sorts of wares were exhibited and examined amidst the clamour of a Babel. I now knew sufficient Arabic to bargain for myself, which was convenient, as Omar was stupid with feasting, and we referred to the khalifat for his approval of the purchases. P. was less

310

GARDENING UNDER DIFFICULTIES.

CHAP. XVIII.

extravagant but the negociations ended in my being the lighter by a bag of dollars, while I found myself the possessor of various silk haïks, woollen burnouses, silver anklets, spurs, and pins. A Touareg traveller, who, the khalifat informed us, was a professed bandit, tempted me by several articles from the interior, and especially a huge broadsword of very fine temper.

Our investments pleasantly arranged, I went to the palm-gardens until dark, to look for rare birds, but could not bring them to account from the impossible nature of the ground. For miles and miles to the north and east were to be seen dark green patches rising between the desert billows. These were the tops of palm-trees; each garden being merely a deep sloping pit scooped out of the sand to the depth of from twenty to eighty feet, at the bottom of which rose clumps of from twenty to fifty date-palms. Though there seems not a vestige of soil, except the salt sand, to nourish them, I never saw such luxuriant trees, their tops forming solid domes of deepest green. Underneath their shade are raised, by dint of daily watering, luxuriant crops of tobacco, carrots, a long small turnip, a small trefoil, onions, water-melons, cucumbers, pumpkins, and various cabbage, but no cereals. The only manure used to give consistency to the soil appeared to be that of camels.

In each of these pits is at least one well, generally shallow, about eighteen to thirty feet, making the average water-level about 100 feet below the natural surface of the oasis. The water is drawn in leathern buckets by the hand; or in the deeper wells the operation is partially aided by a long pole swung on a pivot. But this daily watering is not the only struggle of the industrious Souafa. Not a day of the year but

the battle with the desert must be urged, and morning after morning every man toils with his shovel to throw up the sand which the last few hours have rained in upon his plot. Even their precaution of striking in rows of djereeds on the top and sides of all the embankments, in varying lines, to intercept the drift, would, of itself, be ineffectual. A few days' neglect, and the labour of years would be hopelessly buried in the desert

waste.

So barren is the sand-ocean round that not a serpent, not a lizard, can find sustenance. The scorpion is the only known poisonous creature, while beyond the gardens the roaming jackal, who doubtless depends chiefly on the offal of Souf for existence, and the little omnivorous fennek (Megalotis bruciï, Cuv.; Fenneccus brucii, Desm.), not larger than a cat, are the only quadrupeds. Of birds there are many in the gardens; but if I caught a glimpse of one, and descended into the pit after him, a flight of a few yards left me behind, with a toilsome ascent in the dazzling glare and another descent to be made with like ill-success. Besides, I was followed

by troops of curious boys and men, though I engaged two retainers with long sticks to beat them off. On looking up from a palm-pit the whole encircling ridge was a line of burnoused figures, shouting and scaring every bird by their yells of wonder at the European monster, and thus I had to give up the chase in despair.

The women within doors are not less industrious with their looms than their husbands outside with their spades; and the spindle and distaff hummed in every cottage from dawn till long after sunset. Yet saints are scarce, as two marabouts complete, with the simple mosque and the kasbah, all the public buildings.

I was soon compelled to desist from all attempts to lionize, as ophthalmia rendered the light intolerable, and I was glad to repose in a dark corner for the afternoon, and during the whole of the next day, when we enjoyed certainly a peaceful though a lonely Sunday, keeping my eyes constantly bathed in solution of sulphate of zinc-a specific which almost magically reduced the inflammation. With sulphate of zinc, quinine, and opium cum cretâ, the African traveller's medicine-chest is complete, unless indeed he desires to add a bottle of croton oil for the satisfaction of the many patients who crowd round a western hakeem.

CHAPTER XIX.

The warrior Sheik of Souf-A desert foray-Tunis and FranceCommercial politics of the Sahara - Reports of Roman cities in the interior — The prison of Souf - The wild ass of the Sahara Arrival of a horseman from G'hadames - Capitaine Bonnemain Trade Dates- Fabrics - Caravans-Wonderful powers of sight

- The Arabs of Souf - Our departure - Taïbeit - A nocturnal intruder Return to Tuggurt-Evening ride - Camp and villages -Palm-trees by moonlight - A military mass - A warrior's sermon in a mosque · Tact of General Desvaux - Dinner with the Commandant The fennek or desert fox.

WE had remained three days at El Oued when we received an evening visit from another magnate, the military Sheik of Souf, a fine bronzed-looking warrior, with noble Arab type of feature, and a lustrous black but most good-humoured eye. A scarlet cloth burnous worn under his white one, and thrown back on his left shoulder, marked his rank. Souf combines hereditary with elective dignities. An hereditary khalifat presides as ædile at home; an elective sheik heads the army in war. He apologized for not having come sooner, but had only this afternoon returned from an expedition against the people of Nefta, two days' journey further on, within the Tunisian territory.

Last week the Nefta folk made a foray on the Souafa camels, which have to go one or two days' journey for pasture, and drove off several herds. All the available horsemen of Souf started in pursuit, and have to-day returned from their bootless errand. The marauders had got the camels safe within the walls of Nefta, where the Souafa cavalry could not attack; so after