244 MARTIN L. EOUSE, ESQ., ON " PROCOPIUS's ArRICAN 



that upon two other blocks that he had carted away there 

 was also no inscription, for he had strict orders to take every 

 inscribed stone to the museum at Signs, a town about 

 eight miles to the west of Taxas, where many antiquities 

 have been found. But on other grounds I perceived that 

 Ain Tagasa could not have been the well spoken of by 

 Procopius ; for, even if a town fenced in by the two ridges 

 had guarded the approach to the Avell, the well itself was in 

 no narrow pass, but on the open plain. 



That evening, as Ave Avaited at Taxas station until eight 

 o'clock for the second up train of the day (so scanty is the 

 passenger traffic upon those railways), my friend met with 

 ShaAvis in an Arab house — one of the half-dozen dwellings 

 that surround the lonely station of Taxas. They gladly 

 gaA'e him a host of ShaAvia Avords, Avhich he marshalled 

 according to sense in columns parallel to those culled from 

 other Berber dialects, soon finding Shawia to be a true 

 Berber language ; and meauAvhile the goodman of the house 

 had kusskuss prepared for us and steejied coffee, and pre- 

 sently I Avas called over from the station and Avarned not to 

 Avound the hospitable feelings of the goodman by offering 

 any payment. This friendliness was the more remarkable 

 in that my companion had not shunned to deliver them the 

 message of his Lord and Saviour. Thus, sitting doAvn Avith 

 crossed legs upon mats spread upon the earthen floor, Ave 

 enjoyed our novel food and our Avell-brcAved drink, Avhen 

 what was my pleasure to learn that our entertainers knew 

 of another ancient Avell only 4 kilometers on the opposite, 

 or northern, side of Taxas station, and one AA'hich Europeans 

 never approached, therefore all the more likely to have by 

 its side the imdiscovered pillars of Procopius. The name, 

 too, by which it was known to the French Government — 

 '• Ain el 'Atash " — Avas most suggestiA^e ; for did not this mean 

 AVell of Thirst, and was it not likely that by some old tradi- 

 tion it got the name in memory of the baffling by Althias 

 of the thirsty Moors? It is true that present-day Arabs 

 had forgotten this tradition, if it ever existed, for they 

 instead called the spot El G'soor — the strongholds, while 

 the name " Well of Thirst " may haA^e been giA^en to it simply 

 because the French map makers found the well dry, as it has 

 long been. But Ave Avere determined to see and search for 

 ourselves. Unfortunately there AA^as no sort of inn at Taxas ; 

 so Ave had to return that night, more than tAvo hours' 

 journey by rail, to Constantine. But Ave Avere determined 



