12 AGRICULTURE IN THE SAHARA DESERT. 



POPULATION. 



There are about 25,000 people in the Soiif region, 5,500 of whom 

 inhabit the capital town. El Oiied, and its immediate neighborhood. 

 Several distinct tribes are included in this population, some being 

 chiefly nomadic shepherds, and others more sedentary, devoting most, 

 of their time to the care of their gardens. They are for the most part 

 a healthy and strong looking race, and are much more energetic than 

 the inhabitants of otJier north African oases. This is doubtless 

 l^artly due to the unceasing labor demanded by the conditions under 

 which they live and partly to the fact that their climate is a healthful 

 one, despite the intense heat of summer. There is no standing water 

 nor even moist surface soil, and mosquitoes are said to be unknown. 

 The dry air and the hot sand are not friendly to the germs of con- 

 tagious diseases. The conditions are, therefore, very different from 

 those in other oases of the Sahara, which are so overirrigated as to be 

 mere swamjDS in summer, scourged with malarial fevers. 



The inhabitants of the Souf region, who are called " Souafas," 

 depend for a livelihood largely upon the products of their gardens, 

 but they have other resources as well. The more nomadic tribes 

 possess flocks of sheep and goats. They have almost a monopoly of 

 the trade of camel drivers in a large part of the Sahara, guiding 

 caravans eastward into Tunis, westward to Biskra, and far south 

 into the heart of the great desert. Their camels are considered the 

 largest and finest of the Sahara. The men of the Souf are indefati- 

 gable walkers, thinking nothing of traveling 20 or 25 miles a day 

 through the loose sand. Their camel's-hair shoes, tightly bound 

 around the ankles, are much better adapted to this sort of travel than 

 the loose-fitting, heelless slippers generally worn by the Arabs. 



In building their houses, as in cultivating their palms, the Souafas 

 have many difficulties to contend wdth that are not experienced by 

 the dwellers in other oases. Elsewhere in the Sahara, sun-dried 

 brick, like the Mexican adobe, is the universal building material. 

 But in the Oued Souf there is no clay to be had. Consequently the 

 town of El Oued and all the villages of the region are constructed 

 with irregular masses of grayish, crystalline, gypseous rock, cemented 

 by plaster made from the same material, which thus furnishes both 

 stone and mortar. Wood being very scarce, the roofs are not flat, 

 Avooden ones, but consist of rows of small, flattened cupolas, not 

 unlike old-fashioned beehives, which give a very odd look to the cube- 

 shaped houses. (PI. II, fig. 2.) In its architecture, as in everything 

 else, the Souf is unique. The immaculate cleanliness of the villages 

 is surprising to the traveler who is familiar wnth the filthy streets of 

 most Arab towns. The pure, dry sand is constantly drifting among 

 the houses, and quickly buries all refuse. 



