HERE AND THERE IN NORTHERN AFRICA 



117 



by the clock to empty itself of water. 

 By means of a simple water gate one of 

 the 21 equal streams is entirely turned 

 into the garden to be irrigated. 



The khammes plunges his gourd into 

 the stream, fills it to the brim, and hangs 

 it up and ties a knot into a long fiber of 

 palm leaf to keep count of the number of 

 periods. As soon as the gourd is empty 

 the khammes refills it and ties a second 

 knot. 



He keeps this up until his number of 

 periods have come to an end. The water 

 gate is closed, the gourd wiped, and the 

 small hole at the base carefully plugged 

 to prevent sand and dirt from clogging 

 the aperture. 



Four hundred and seventy-nine kham- 

 mes are employed in the oasis of Tozeur. 

 The occupation descends as a rule from 

 father to son and the men are greatly 

 respected. At Tozeur the volume of 

 water used during the period it takes a 

 gourd to empty itself (five minutes) is 

 equal to ten cubic meters* (2,641 gallons) 

 and such a water right is bought and sold 

 in perpetuity for 120 to 180 francs. 



The volume of water varies at each 

 oasis. The combined springs at Tozeur 

 have an output of 740 liters a second, or 

 44 cubic meters a minute and 63,936 

 cubic meters every 24 hours, which is 

 equal to 16,879,104 gallons. The oasis of 

 Nefta has a total output of over 800 

 liters a second. 



Of course, these two oases are espe- 

 cially favored by nature ; curiously 

 enough, the more abundant the water the 

 less the natives use it for performing 

 their ablutions. Never have we seen such 

 filthy natives as at Tozeur and Nefta. 

 They use sand instead of water. 



Between Nefta, Tunisia, and Biskra, 

 in Algeria, in a region called Souf, there 

 are to be found curious oases. 



The most important is called El-Oued ; 

 it is a large and wealthy native town, and 

 there is a French military outpost. The 

 natives centuries ago dug enormous holes 



*i liter contains 2.1 13 American pints, or 1.76 

 English pints. 



1 cubic meter contains 264.18 American gal- 

 lons of 231 cubic inches. 



1 meter is equal to 39.37 inches. 



1 kilogram is equal to 2 1/5 pounds avoir- 

 dupois. 



in the sand and planted palm groves in 

 the holes, which were so deep that the 

 roots of the palms have sufficient moist- 

 ure throughout the year. A continual 

 war is waged by the inhabitants of El- 

 Oued against nature, for each sand- 

 storm, and these are many, tends to fill 

 in the holes, and all the sand that is 

 blown in has to be taken out again in 

 small baskets (see pages 105 and 114).* 



Most of us think of an oasis as an 

 ideal cluster of tall palm trees with a 

 beautiful pool, in which is reflected the 

 azure sky and the waving palm leaves. 

 Time and again while riding over the 

 borders of the Sahara we have looked up 

 and seen such an oasis with a wonder- 

 fully limpid lake, but it was a magic oasis 

 that vanished on our approach, and the 

 blue lake turned into scorching yellow 

 sand — an optical illusion, a mirage ! 



Oases vary in size and are measured 

 by the number of date palms in them ; a 

 small one contains several hundred palm 

 trees and a large one 300,000 or 400,000. 



A l,egend of the date palm 



The Arabs call the palm tree "My 

 Aunt," and say that it resembles a human 

 being more than any other variety of 

 tree. 



"Cut off its head and the palm will die. 

 Its head likes sunshine and its feet 

 (roots) like moisture." 



An old Arab legend runs something 

 like this : "When Allah created Adam, a 

 few grains of dust fell between his 

 fingers ; these grains made the palm 

 trees." 



Another legendf runs as follows : 

 "The Emperor of Byzantium wrote one 

 day to the Caliph Amor Ben El Khat- 

 tab : 'It has been told me that in your 

 country there grows a tree that bears 

 pods, the shape of which reminds one of 

 donkey's ears ; when these open they ex- 

 pose to view a substance of immaculate 

 whiteness, as white as milk, which after- 

 ward becomes the green color of an 



*See also "The Country of the Ant Men," by 

 Thos. H. Kearney, in the April, 191 1, number 

 of the National Geographic Magazine. 



t Translated from the Arabic Commentaries 

 of Iman Ibn Amor Ibn Chabbath by Monsieur 

 Lucien Fleury, who has kindly permitted the 

 writer to use his unpublished work. 



