Ht PROGLODY TEs OF SOUTHERN TUNISIA 
839 
ON THE TRAIL BETWEEN DOUIRAT AND CHININI 
Photo by Frank Edward Johnson 
MOHAM MED, BRABISCH, AND A 
SON OF SIDI HADJ 
The boys have on the large straw summer hats worn all over extreme southern Tunisia 
caliph of the tribes of Ourdana and the 
inseparable chum of Mohammed. ‘The 
caliph confided his son to me during my 
journeys into the mountains. 
A great quantity of food and provis- 
ions having been sent ahead with serv- 
ants and Ben Sada, the cook, we started 
out one day for the Troglodyte town of 
Douirat. It took a long time to get 
started, as Mohammed insisted upon 
making some new cartridges. Every one 
goes fully armed, “‘to shoot quail,” they 
said. Our trail passed through the lovely 
oasis of Foum Tatahouine and up the 
oued. Nothing but rocks and _ stones 
everywhere. About 8 kilometers from 
Tatahouine we visited a walled-in town 
of Rhorfas, looking like a small Méde- 
nine. It was silhouetted against the sky 
on the top of a hill. A great well was 
at the base of the hill and nomad women 
were drawing up water for themselves 
and their animals. The town was rather 
large and well preserved. 
About 4 o'clock we came into the 
grateful shadow of the mountains, and 
our trail wound up and down precipices 
and was extremely wild. Coming out on 
top of the mountain range, we had an ex- 
tensive view—a sky of azure blue, pink- 
ish, purple mountains, and great stretches 
of golden sand, relieved here and there 
by tufts of silvery gray sage brush. 
Several kilometers further on the trail 
opened out on a valley containing patches 
of barley and some fine ove and fig 
trees, and just before sunset we came 
to Douirat. It is difficult to describe and 
very bizarre—like a beehive mountain 
perched high over a deep ravine (picture. 
page 836). The village extends for 
about two kilometers; everywhere are 
caves and niches; in many places the 
trail zigzags up, and there are tiers above 
tiers of human Troglodyte dwellings 
Above all rises the huge ‘ ‘sais on cita- 
del, now a mass of ruins. At the foot of 
the ravine is a Troglodyte cemetery, 
