THE TROGLODYTES OF SOUTHERN TUNISIA 
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Photo by Frank Edward Johnson 
MOHAMMED ES SEGHIR, CADI DU DJEBEL-EL-ABIODH, AND HIS LITTLE DAUGHTER, 
MABRUCKA 
Another was employed as cook at the 
Residence Generale de France during the 
regency of Monsieur Massicault. 
The cadi has adopted his nephew, 
Mohammed, a youth of about 18, and he 
has a sweet little daughter about eight 
years old and three small sons. Courtesy 
forces me to draw a veil over his family 
life. I was his guest and, knowing Ori- 
ental etiquette, never asked questions 
about the life within his closed doors. 
Foum Tatahouine is situated 52 kilo- 
meters south of Médenine, at the base 
of a picturesque gorge and at the foot of 
Djebel-E1-Abiodh (the White Mountain). 
It is surrounded by sharp peaks and 
high table-lands, in which are dug the 
dwellings and villages of the tribes of 
‘Ouderna. 
Four large oueds, dry river beds 
(barrancas in Spanish), traverse the 
country of Tatahouine. They are dry 
except during the rainy season, when 
they are fed by a great number of little 
oueds, called by the Arabs “chebat.” 
Their banks are fertile, and barley can 
be grown in the valleys watered by these 
streams. Enough can be raised to live 
on in average years, and in good years 
sufficient can be raised to carry one over 
one or even two bad years of famine. 
One good crop in six years is the average 
around Tatahouine. 
Foum Tatahouine was created in order 
to keep the various tribes and towns at 
peace ; to keep out the hordes of pillagers 
from Tripoli and the caravans of robbers 
from Ghadames and the south. 
Thirty years ago each village was at 
war with its neighbor—a war to the 
death, where man, woman, and child 
were put to the sword and only the plun- 
der, flocks, and beautiful young girls 
were carried away. Above all, the Toua- 
