588 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



rates of sale are seemingly inordinately high, is incapable of dis- 

 pelling the feeling of desert loneliness that pervades both mind and 

 body; nor yet more conducive to hilarity is the daily visit of the 

 u pet of the desert/' the name given to a somewhat aged and feeble 

 lion, once a monarch of the surrounding sands, which, attended or 

 unattended, saunters about the open squares and roadways, neither 

 disturbing the peace of the community nor in any way disturbed 

 by it. Aged women pet it, little children fondle it, but the great 

 mane no longer rises in wrath, nor does the bushy tail lash the body 

 in the fury of excitement. Impending darkness has settled upon the 

 eyes of the once noble animal, and before long it will be only a chain 

 and scent that will direct its course. The lion was not in Biskra at 

 the time of our visit, and we thus missed the town's most interesting 

 inhabitant. 



We remained only a few days in Biskra, but in that time suf- 

 ficiently familiarized ourselves with the locality to know its most 

 distinctive and special features. Even during the greatest heat of 

 the day it was hardly inconvenient to follow the long lines of road- 

 way; and where these passed within the shade of overhanging palms, 

 or alongside the cool meandering waters of natural streams or 

 artesian wells, there was little in the temperature to suggest that we 

 were sightseeing in presumably very nearly the hottest part of the 

 earth's surface and in its hottest season. During nearly all hours of 

 the day caravans or parts of caravans file out on the long central 

 avenue which leads through the oasis and continues across the open 

 sand flats that follow upon the last palm. This is the great caravan 

 route to the region of Lake Tchad. Near the southern end of the 

 town is the Ethiopian village where one sees the life of the true 

 African, though not the true negro the people whom we associate 

 with the dynasties of Egypt and Nubia, the people who constituted 

 the followers of Cleopatra, and who probably were in the line of 

 parentage of Cleopatra herself. It is here, as well as in the oases 

 farther south, that one sees the stately nut-brown women who figure 

 in the characteristic scenes of ancient Africa, their loose draperies 

 of dark blue, their pendants of gold still hanging and glittering as in 

 days of old. Their high earthen water pots, borne erect on the 

 head or shoulder, still go to the well as they did thousands of years 

 ago, and the litle infant continues to cling to the mother's back, sus- 

 pended in the folds of the parent's tunic. 



We found these people, especially the younger women, exceed- 

 ingly shy, and hardly any amount of coaxing could induce them to 

 stand for a photograph. Sitting in front of their mud houses, roll- 

 ing out corn or some manufacture from corn flour, they would rise 

 the moment they obtained a glimpse of the camera box, and not even 



