CAVE DWELLINGS OF MEN. 



39 



countries in Europe. Sonie of the most interesting pages in Mrs. 

 Olivia M. Stone's account of her visit to the Canary Islands (Ten- 

 eriffe and its Six Satellites) relate to the cave villages, still inhab- 

 ited by a curious troglodyte population mostly potters found 

 in various places in Gran Canaria. Appositely to an account by 

 the Rev. H. F. Tozer of certain underground rock-hewn churches 

 in southern Italy, Mr. J. Hoskyns Abrahall relates that when 

 visiting Monte Vulture, and while a guest of Signor Bozza, at 

 Barili, having expressed surprise at learning the number of inhab- 

 itants in the place, his host told him that the poor lived in caves 

 hollowed out of the side of the mountain, and took him into one 

 of the rock-hewn dwellings ; and he accounts for their existence 

 by the facility with which they are formed. 



Fig. 9. Gh'mrassen, in the Ourghemma, Southern Tunis, with the Rock-cut Dwellings. 



The rock-cut village of Gh'mrassen, in the Ourghemma, south- 

 ern Tunis, consists of rows of snug family dwellings, close to each 

 other, hollowed out of the side of a cliff, the top of which at an 

 overhanging point, is crowned by the remains of a small mosque. 



At a recent meeting of the Royal Geographical Society of 

 Madrid, Dr. Bide gave an account of his exploration of a wild 

 district in the province of Caceres, which he represented as still 

 inhabited by a strange people, who speak a curious patois, and 

 live in caves and inaccessible retreats. They have a hairy skin, 



