THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 
regs were dreaded. Mounted on their 
fast racing camels (mehari), they would 
swoop down and carry off everything 
they could lay their hands upon and 
vanish into the Sahara. 
Today, thanks to the officers of the 
“Affaires Indigenes,’ a large market- 
place has been created not far from the 
military camp (page 833), and here on 
Mondays and Thursdays a huge market 
takes place, where deadly enemies of 30 
years ago meet and sell and exchange 
goats, sheep, wool, grain, barley and 
wheat, olive oil, and all the necessities of 
life. Dwellings have sprung up around 
the market-place, most of them shaped 
like Rhorfa and inhabited by industri- 
ous natives from Douirat and Chinini, 
some southern Jews, and merchants of 
pottery from the island of Djerba. 
Besides several deep wells, a new well 
has just been finished, built by the gov- 
ernment. It cost all told 1,500 francs, 
including digging, pumps, and a lot of 
Photo by Frank Edward Johnson 
BROADTAIL SHEEP AT THE MARKET OF FOUM TATAHOUINE 
masonry work, which includes a large 
cistern, or reservoir. 
This well is worked by Arab prisoners 
walking around and around pushing a 
capstan, four or five men in a gang; each 
gang works three hours at a time. From 
II a. m. to 3 p. m., owing to the great 
heat, the pump is stopped. Afternoons 
about half past four the women and 
nomads would come by the hundreds 
with their great water jars and goat-skin 
water bottles, and their horses, mules, 
and donkeys. Other prisoners were 
made to carry stone for building govern- 
ment buildings. The prisoners were 
serving time for minor offenses—thefts, 
fighting, etc—and their terms of im- 
prisonment varied from three days to 
one month. They seemed quite happy. 
The semi-weekly market at Foum 
Tatahouine is a large affair ; people come 
from all over the country to buy, sell, 
and exchange. Caravans come fre- 
quently from Ghadames, 466 kilometers 
