428 THE HOME OF THE TROGLODYTES. 
This dar is composed of five parallel chambers in masonry, which, 
beyond the first glance, are not Troglodytic in character. A small 
quantity of loose earth has been carried for appearance sake onto the 
terrace which surmounts the structure. In this detail the residence of 
Ali—Berber in style although strongly Arabized—is that of the great 
semi-sedentary chiefs, which one meets with more especially in the 
interior of Tunis. 
One of the last surface structures is an old cistern, of which the 
partially demolished arches bring to mind, by their form and construe- 
tion, those of Malga, at Carthage. 
The remainder of the village, which extends over 4 kilometers and 
contains more than 2,000 inhabitants, is entirely under-ground. The 
dar even, which shelters us, covers a vast cave, descent into which is 
made by a semi-circular declivity. It is a part of the dwelling of the 
ancient chiefs, constructed, Ali informs us, in the time of the Romans, - 
which, to the good Caliph, seemed to stand for the most remote period. 
The excavators who executed this ancient work had to penetrate first 
through the calcareous clay, which forms the soil of the whole valley; 
then through a pebbly conglomerate, and finally through a quarry of ° 
hard millstone, which forms the floor of the grotto. A second excava- 
tion, of more recent origin, is dug out of the clay a little higher and to 
the right of the first. This serves as a stable for the horses of Ali. 
Dwellings, stables, cattle sheds, workshops, and factories, everything 
in the village of Matmatia, are likewise excavated from the clay. In 
one instance the descent is made, as in the caves of the abode of the 
Caliphs, by means of an incline more or less perpendicular, and lighted 
from without; in another it is necessary to seek an entrance through a 
tunnel, which terminates, after several windings, in an interior court, 
more or less regular and lighted from above at the summit of the allu- 
vial peak of the elevation from which the dwelling has been dug. 
A little factory, which we can enter, gives a good idea of the manner 
in which work is carried on by tradition among the excavators of Mat- 
matia. It is an oil factory, composed of three compartments, the first 
of which commands the other two and is lighted by an arched door, to 
which a straight flight of steps gives access. The two deep chambers 
remain unfinished, a wall, consisting of a mass of earth, dividing one 
from the other. The interior was dug out with a pick-axe, forming 
arches, and there remain cubes sufliciently large to support the center. 
The largest room contained the mill and its accessories, resembling 
closely the apparatus used all over the Berber states. 
The entrance to this primitive factory is ornamented with a row of 
uncemented stones around the aperture forming the entrance. The de- 
tail of this ornamentation recalls the custom among ancient builders of 
covering the front of their subterranean dwellings with a facing of stones, 
in more or less regular lines. Net far from the dar, a sort of palace (be- 
longing to a very remote period and for the most part in ruins, where I 
