HERE AND THERE IN NORTHERN AFRICA 



3 



picion upon Troglodytes of other dis- 

 tricts and with hatred on a stranger. 

 Many were the looks of hatred cast at 

 me by the inhabitants of the rock caves 

 as we wound around the narrow and 

 slippery trail in front of their dwellings. 



My companions, Mohammed and Bre- 

 bisch, were very quiet ; this was unknown 

 country to them, and they remembered 

 the stories told in their childhood about 

 their great enemy, the Troglodyte town 

 of Guermessa. 



About three months in the year the 

 inhabitants of Guermessa live in their 

 stone caves, dug deep into the sides of 

 the mountain. Nine months of the year 

 they spend as nomads on the borders of 

 the Great Sahara, or in their gourbis — 

 tents made of goats' and camels' hair 

 woven together — on the mountain side, 

 where their great herds of long-haired 

 goats, broad-tailed sheep, and young 

 camels can find pasturage. 



Down in the valleys are to be found 

 plantations of superb olive and fig trees, 

 and here and there fields of barley. 

 Every drop of rain has filtered down to 

 the valley, and by a system of crude but 

 practical stone walls the fields have been 

 terraced, one below the other, so that all 

 the water has been utilized ; not one drop 

 goes to waste. 



When the olives and figs begin to 

 ripen, the Troglodytes leave a few trust- 

 worthy men in their ksar, or fortified 

 storehouse and citadel, fully armed, of 

 course, and the rest move down to the 

 valleys, where they can protect their 

 olive and fig groves, for unless the fields 

 were guarded day and night all the olives 

 and figs would be stolen by Troglodytes 

 of other districts. 



Unlike the underground cave-dwellers 

 of Matmata and the Houaia Mountains, 

 the men of Guermessa have separate es- 

 tablishments for themselves, their wives 

 and families. 



How many caves were owned in Guer- 

 messa by the sons and grandsons of Sidi 

 Hadj is impossible for me to state, but 

 they owned a great number. 



THE) INTERIOR OF A CAVE-DWEUJNG 



Sidi Hadj's own cave was large, and 

 the rear part of the floor was raised 



about a foot higher than the front of the 

 cave. Rugs from Kairowan and Persia 

 were laid over the stone floor and nu- 

 merous Touareg leather cushions stuffed 

 with sheeps' wool were strewn about. 



These thick Oriental rugs were in- 

 tended to sleep on and not to walk upon. 

 The uneven stone floor of a Troglodyte 

 cave is a very uncomfortable place to 

 sleep on, but use a couple of thick Ori- 

 ental rugs and cover oneself with a 

 bernous, or Arab cloak, and you have a 

 most comfortable bed. 



On the stone walls of the cave hung a 

 miniature arsenal of flint-lock pistols 

 and long-barreled guns and shotguns. 

 A very large wooden chest, painted 

 green, with Moorish designs in red and 

 gold, stood at the back of the cave, which 

 was about 7 feet high by 14 feet wide 

 and about 24 feet deep. 



Two Persian pictures of Mecca deco- 

 rated the walls, and some ornamental 

 bernous for wearing during a fantasia, 

 and the usual cous-cous plates and plat- 

 ters brought from Ghadames, usually 

 used for decoration by the Troglodytes. 

 They reminded me of our Indian woven 

 plates and baskets of certain tribes of 

 the Far West and New Mexico. They 

 are so well woven that they hold water 

 or liquid like a dish, and they have sim- 

 ple but decorative patterns worked in 

 color. 



Being far away from the wells, none 

 of our animals were watered that even- 

 ing. Arab horses of southern Tunisia 

 are watered but once every 24 hours, and 

 frequently not for 48 hours. It seemed 

 to me terribly cruel, but the animals are 

 used to it. 



About 5 p. m. is the usual time for 

 watering the horses. Strange to say, 

 when watered they do not seem to want 

 to drink more than half as much as 

 horses in America. They like to splash 

 their noses and heads and play with the 

 water. 



We had an excellent dinner, prepared 

 by the wives of Sidi Hadj's sons and 

 Ben Saada, our own remarkable cook. 

 About twelve of us ate first, including 

 Mohammed ben Cadhi and Brebisch ben 

 Kaliphe, my devoted friends and com- 

 panions during my trip. 



