LUNIS.OF TODAY 743 
WEALTHY ARAB 
fertile wherever water was to be had, 
and it was to be found in abundance in 
the mountains. The aqueduct, built 
under Hadrian, about 136 A. D., supplied 
Carthage with 32 million liters of water 
a day (somewhat over eight million gal- 
lons). 
The invasion of the Vandals, Arabs, 
Berbers, Spaniards, and Turks laid waste 
the fertile plains, filled up the wells, and 
destroyed the aqueducts, so that the 
French found deserts where the Romans 
left gardens. Their task of reconstruc- 
tion has not been a light one, but the 
change wrought since 1881 is wonderful, 
and the cultivation of cereals is once 
more on the increase. 
History tells how the “Province of 
Eeypt” was taxed in grain, and how an 
WOMEN 
OF TUNIS 
annual tribute of 144 million bushels of 
grain were sent to Rome by the “Egyp- 
tian fleet.” 
In the golden days of proconsular 
Africa these figures were more than 
doubled, and the grain was paid for, not 
sent as a tribute. No wonder that mo- 
saics and statues of Africa represent her 
allegorically as a young girl holding 
great ears of corn in her hands, or with 
her arms clasping horns of plenty, over- 
flowing with cereals and fruit. 
At Rome during the fourth century 
A. D. African olive oil was preferred 
above all others, and Czsar taxed the 
community of ‘Little Leptis’ three mil- 
lion pounds of oil per annum for the 
Roman baths. 
Today Tunisia has over ten million 
