MONUMENT OF JOSHUA's CONQUEST OF CANAAN." 245 



to (;ome back the next morning-, hire horses, and visit both 

 Ain el Bordj and Ain ei 'Atash, which lay almost on the way 

 to it. I may add that the usual route for Ain el Bordj was 

 not through Taxas but through Sigus, so that Ain el 'Atash 

 was seldom or never seen by Frenchmen, few of whom know 

 even that there is such a place as Ain el Bordj. Tourists ot 

 course never visit these mere ruins, which contain no restored 

 temples, baths, and gateways like those of Lambessa and 

 Tim gad. 



Alas ! when we returned early on the morrow, and my 

 friend had gone to the Arab's house and asked him to find 

 horses for the expedition, a stranger introduced himself to 

 him as the Kaid of Ain el Bordj, who had control both of 

 that settlement and of Ain el 'Atash, aod said that no one 

 must visit either place without his permission ; nor could he 

 give it unless he first received instructions from the 

 administrator of Ain M'lilia — to which place if we had gone 

 by rail, we reckoned that we should have lost two days. 

 The end of it was that Ave had to employ our horses to take 

 us first about 20 kilometers out of our way, so that we might 

 get permission, if possible, from the brigadier, or chief 

 constable, at Ain Fakrun. Armed with his permission, we 

 returned to Ain el 'Atash. At this plaoe we found a very 

 large round well with a well preserved wall about it ; but 

 at a depth of about 50 feet the stones T threw in sank into 

 mud. On two sides of it the ruins stretched, nine in number. 

 They were stately ruins with large chambers, around which 

 the broken walls stood up frequently 5 feet high, with 

 posts 6 and 8 feet, and many a pillar, trough, and pipe 

 cut in stone, the outer and inner inclosure of an atrium 

 being distinctly traceable in one case by the rows of pillars 

 still erect. We both searched carefully for inscriptions ; but 

 not one did we find, until when the sun was nearly setting, 

 and our muleteer had twice urged us to depart, and when 

 it was too late to send to the nearest Arab camp for a pick 

 and shovel (if, perchance, they had any), I lighted upon a 

 stone buried nearly to its head but clearly faced with a hard 

 black cement as though for carving on. I made a note of 

 its position and have since told the Constantine Archaeological 

 Society about it. But, whatever it will show, it can hardly 

 be the inscription of Procopius ; for it was not near the well, 

 nor did this well lie in a narrow pass between two heights, 

 but still far into the same great plain. 



Thus false scents and official hindrance had prevented me 



