Chapter VI: Of the Matmata Mountains and Their Inhabitants

The Matmata mountains form the northern spur of the comparatively small range which, in a curved line, follows more or less the bend of the coast. Leaving a low stretch of land between itself and the sea, this range runs first along the coast-line to the south of Jurat (of which more hereafter), then continues right into Tripoli, being broken only at intervals.

Here and there it is inhabited by Berber tribes, who are indeed Mohammedans, but have in great measure retained unchanged their primitive habits and customs.

In the mountains Ghurian and Jefren, to the south of Tripoli, are found the brave independent kinsmen of the Berbers of Tunisia. They recall with pride the exploits of their ancestors, and rear their sons to be a free people and to labour. Therefore they have maintained their intelligence and intellectual superiority, and have been able to defy foreign rule, though not always with equal success. For example, in the Jebel Jefren originated all the disturbances which have occurred during the Turkish occupation of Tripoli.

North of Jebel Jefren is Jebel Nefusa, also inhabited by Berbers, some of whom speak a dialect resembling the language of the Tuareg. The greater proportion of these are supposed to be descendants of the Libyans, who conquered the country before the Arabs, and who, like these last, came also from the East.

It is the custom among some of the Nefus tribes, in common with that of the Uled Nail of Algeria, that their young women, for a time before marriage, abandon themselves to prostitution. This practice naturally reminds one of the ancient cult of Astarte.

Tarik, conqueror of the Spaniards, was a Berber, a native of Jebel Nefusa. Perchance he was one of the race who had owned allegiance to Jewish sway. At any rate, after he conquered Spain, the Jews there were treated by him with marked consideration. In his case, as in that of so many Berbers who were drawn into the mighty current of Mohammedanism, they never became fanatical Moslems, and the same may be said at the present day.

Though indeed, like their kindred race the Tuareg, they became Mohammedans (perhaps many of them had been under Christian influence—at least there are signs of it), they are not fanatics. They have no special religious order, and they belong to the so-called fifth sect, and are unacquainted with any ritual.

Not a few of these Berbers reside in caves, “Jebel Ghurian” meaning literally “the Mountain of Caves.” Before these cave dwellers became Mohammedans, they raised altars to God; and, according to travellers, very ancient stone monuments, dating from a period previous to that of the Arabs, are to be found everywhere in these regions. They resemble those found in Algeria, in Andalusia, and even in Brittany.

The language of the country on the borders of Tripoli and Tunisia is partly Arabic, partly Berber. It is probable that in earlier times the Berber tongue was spoken from Jebel Jefren over Duirat to Matmata.

Books written in the Berber language are not to be found here; so far as we know (manuscripts have been discovered on the island of Jerba), the Berber dialect being written in Arabic characters.

I ascertained that the language of Southern Tunisia is still spoken in the villages of Zaraua, Tamezred, Tujud, Shenini, Ghermasi, and Duirat (as also on the island of Jerba), and in part of Urghamma.

From Jebel Jefren to the Matmata mountains, the lively natives closely resemble each other in their expressive eyes, happy dispositions, and ready smile. Contrasted with the Arab, their countenances are shorter and broader, and their hair less black.

They are essentially a free race. An assembly of the people in the villages of Southern Tunisia, known as the “Miad,” settles tribal questions, according to a local code (kanun) which is based on ancient rules and customs, and is even more highly revered than the Koran.

As arable land is extremely valuable, and the inhabitants of the barren mountains are comparatively numerous, it has been the custom from time immemorial, in Southern Tunisia at least, that the young men should go to the coast towns in order to earn money, wherewith, on their return, to buy a house, palms, cattle, and a wife; alike in this respect to the Savoyards and Auvergnats who quit their hearths and homes for a time.

In the towns these mountaineers live with the utmost frugality, sleeping generally by the roadside, and earning their bread by all sorts of work, such as water-carrying, domestic service, etc.

When in 1881-1882 the French army invaded the mountains of Southern Tunisia, they were astonished to find that many of the natives spoke French.

The “Ksar” dwellers are brave and hardy, and accustomed to “hear the powder speak.” Their delight used to be to sally out on a raid, when they made matters hot for all concerned. They were not ordinary thieves—no, weapon in hand they fell on their adversaries, who could never feel secure from a _coup de main_.

On the other hand, they, in their inaccessible and fortified eyries, were prepared to defend themselves.

Their plundering raids extended over the Tripolitan frontier, even as far as Rhadamés. They always plundered thoroughly. Dr. Bertholon states that when he, as military surgeon, served in the campaign against them, they not only seized all the herds, but even the clothes of their victims. So completely did they strip prisoners, that these would be left with only a scrap of shirt which barely covered them.

The people of the adjacent oases on the plain and towards the “Shotts,” who are more peaceful and phlegmatic, the circumstances of their lives being better, have often suffered from the attacks and depredations of the mountaineers, when they have not chosen to purchase immunity by paying blackmail to the latter.

Dr. Bertholon maintains that monogamy is usual amongst them, but my experience leads me to a different conclusion, since the men of rank with whom I came in contact had generally several wives.

The abduction of women was not uncommon in earlier times, when the armed inhabitants of the Ksar used to carry off their wives by force.

That they had to guard their women carefully is not strange, since these have the reputation of being light of morals.

One custom is universal amongst these people; it is that at the wedding the bridegroom shows his bride a heavy stick, of which one end that he holds to her nose is thoroughly and sweetly scented. The interpretation of this custom being that so long as she conducts herself properly, her life will be mild and pleasant like the scent; but, on the other hand, should she misbehave she may be sure of being well punished. I saw one of these sticks at Tatuin.

As I wished to form some idea of the manner in which a family lived and worked together in the small troglodyte communities, I took advantage of my stay with the Khalifa of Hadeij to procure information regarding his family and the life they led in common.

These inquiries I had to make with the greatest discretion, for I would not for the world have given them a chance of misjudging me, or of supposing that I had come amongst them to spy. By degrees I put together what I saw and heard till the whole picture is, I may venture to say, correct in the main, though some of the minor details may have been misunderstood by me, or have escaped my observation.

Sadi-ben Mansur-Fatush, as Khalifa of the mountains, exercises authority over the villages of the Matmata range. He is born of the tribe of Uled Sliman, of which his son is a tribal sheikh.

The Khalifa is between sixty and seventy years of age, and has three wives, Mena, Fatima, and Sasia. By the first he has two sons, Amar and Mansur. By the second, one son, Mohammed. He has probably daughters also; if so, they are married and live at a distance, and no longer interest either their family or tribe. I could not gain any information as to whether any had married within the tribe itself.

Sheikh Amar has two wives; the first is named Aisha, the second Meriam. He has two sons, Abderahman (by Aisha) and Mahmud (by Meriam).

Mansur, who bears the title of “Adel” (notary) of the Uled Sliman, has only one wife, named Uda, and no child.

Mohammed, “Kateb” (scribe) to the Uled Sliman, is his father’s secretary. His first wife is called Meriam, and by her he has a son—Hamed. His second wife, to whom he was married during my stay in Hadeij, is called Mena; she is of the Uled Sliman, and a native of the village that bears the name of that tribe.

The age of the Khalifa’s sons may be on an average about twenty-two, none of their wives being probably over twenty. Of the children of these marriages the eldest of the boys is about five years old.

The Khalifa’s family, therefore, consists of about a score of souls, who, as will be seen further on, live together; but to these must be added other members of the household, negroes and servants with their children, and a number of near relatives, and of men who attach themselves to the Khalifa’s service. Many of the latter have homes of their own, and possess palms, olive trees and cattle, which they farm on their own account, but being dependants of the Khalifa must help him to sow and reap his corn, prune his palms, gather the dates and olives, press the oil, and, in short, do any work of which they are capable.

The Khalifa is very rich. He owns many underground dwellings, barns, stables and oil mills, but a large proportion of the profits of all these must be expended in providing food and shelter for the infinity of people whom he protects. His large landed property and all his possessions will be divided, when he dies, amongst his sons, who at present own only what the old patriarch chooses to give them, but after his death each will have his own palm and olive trees, his own house and cattle; unless they prefer to continue living in fellowship.

The Khalifa’s property is valued at some two hundred thousand francs—a pretty penny for a mountaineer living amongst barren hills devoid of either springs or wells, but where the cliffs and valleys are furrowed with channels to conduct the rain-water to cisterns, and where every tree must have the earth banked about it that the water may lie at its foot.

We will now examine the dwelling used by the Khalifa and his family, and endeavour to form an idea of how the various married couples are accommodated; thus ascertaining that, notwithstanding patriarchal house-government and community of life, each little group has its own portion, however small, of the dwelling set aside for its own exclusive use.

The soil in the valley of Hadeij is composed of strong clay and marl, which lend themselves admirably to the excavation of regular well-shaped chambers. These have an advantage over dwellings built above ground, in that they are cooler in summer and warmer in winter, besides being easier to defend; they are not open to discovery by strange, unaccustomed eyes, and afford good protection against thieves and robbers, for cattle can also find shelter within them.

The formation of the valley is undulating, and extends over low hills divided by smooth level ground or by narrow gorges, where streams flow in the rainy season. Seen from the mountain, the whole looks like a great sand-pit scored with faint paths, and with depressions where the olive and palm trees grow amongst the mounds.

The plan of a dwelling is as follows:—

From the side of a hill, and through the solid earth, leads an underground path—long or short, as the case may be—and quite the height of a man. This takes one to the ground-level of a large square excavation, open overhead, which is generally dug in the highest part of the hill, and forms the courtyard. The walls of this court are perpendicular and smooth. From the ground-level of this cave one enters through an opening, a somewhat long underground chamber with a vaulted roof, like that of a wine vault. These chambers are used either as stores, stables, or dwelling-places.

The courtyards measure, as a rule, between eleven and twelve feet in depth and breadth.

The side caves are usually about twenty-seven feet long, but not even half that in breadth; though I have seen them both larger and smaller. These rooms are generally furnished with doors. The passage also is, as a rule, closed at both the outer and the inner end by means of a strong door or gate.

In the court is a fireplace intended for common use; in wet weather the cooking is done in one of the underground rooms. Further, there is often a tank into which water is conducted by pipes from the earth’s surface. At the sides of the court stand large rush baskets filled with corn, and sufficient space remains for fowls and domestic animals, when, under special circumstances, such as threatened danger, these are driven within.

Here and there in the passages are recesses for stabling horses and donkeys, which stand therefore in utter darkness.

In a cave chamber it is dark when the door is closed, otherwise there is sufficient light.

The accompanying sketch shows some of the dwellings inhabited by the Khalifa and his nearest relatives.

From the flat, smooth, open space grown with olive and palm trees, leads the passage to the courtyard.

Dwellings I. and II. are united, and have but one entrance. Through the gate (A) is the entrance to a cave passage, and thereby to the first courtyard. Here are to be found the following chambers: One for the horses, one for the sheep, one containing a tank, another is a kitchen, and, lastly, a store.

From the first courtyard one passes through another cave passage into courtyard No. II. This provides dwellings for all the Khalifa’s sons with their wives and children, and for the mothers of these sons.

The Khalifa himself resides at night in an adjacent cave in company with his third wife, but both spend the day with the rest of the family in courtyard No. II., where they cook and eat in common. As far as I could ascertain, no domestics live here.

This courtyard is furnished with rush baskets for corn, and with a fireplace.

Amar has two chambers, one for each of his wives; and his mother has another close by, so they occupy a whole side of the court.

Two chambers are used as barley stores.

Fatima, Mohammed’s mother, has a room, and beside it is another to which Mohammed’s second wife was brought. Exactly opposite lives Mohammed’s first wife, and, on the same side, Mansur and his only wife.

Last of all comes the kitchen.

I visited all these caves; each woman had her household pots and pans prettily arranged on the inner wall of the chamber, as our cooks do their brass utensils on their kitchen walls. Ranged on the sides were various articles, while in the centre of the clay floor, adorned, as a rule, with rush matting or with carpets, stood what appeared to be a low table. This is the sleeping couch, on which carpets are generally spread; on this the inmates sleep without undressing.

The whitewashed walls are bare but for the guns which are sometimes hung there, as also keys, yarn, etc.

In Mohammed’s and Mansur’s rooms I saw some frightful framed pictures, apparently supposed to represent the Prophet, and evidently cheap rubbish bought at Gabés, corresponding in all respects to the coloured prints of the Christ which we find in every cottage in our country.

The comfortable cave rooms, and even the courtyard, were clean and well kept. The fowls, indeed, had the run of yard No. II., but it was evidently forbidden to cattle, which were restricted to the first yard.

By a long underground passage, provided with side recesses for horses and donkeys, one entered yard No. III.; its chambers included a large banqueting hall, the roof of which was composed of two parallel vaults, supported where they met by a central row of pillars. This hall occupied one entire side of the court, and opposite to it were two rooms, used when I was there as guest-chambers; one of these I occupied. They could also be utilised as corn stores; to this end a shaft is dug from the surface, through the solid earth to the dome, so that the corn may be poured down; and when the camels bring the grain, it is unloaded near the mouth of the shaft.

Near the entrance to the passage are two rooms, also available as stores for grain, but during my visit they were used as dwellings for several male servants.

In yard No. IV. lived a negro family, who were entrusted with the care of Mohammed’s and Amar’s two horses, and the two mules belonging to the Khalifa and Mansur which were stabled there. There was also a corn store, where the barley for the horses and mules was kept, a writing-room, and a tank.

These four yards were used indiscriminately by the Khalifa and his household.

Now we come to the two other dwellings—V. and VI. In one lived a cousin of the Khalifa; the other was occupied by an old fellow called Uncle Srair Feteish, under the same conditions as the courts already mentioned.

A little farther off was the dwelling occupied by the Khalifa and his third wife; this was also composed of subterranean rooms, two on either side. One of these chambers was occupied by the Khalifa and his third wife, one by an Arab servant, another was used to keep clothing in, a fourth as a kitchen, two others as stores for dates, and the last as a writing-room.

Owing to his official position, the Khalifa has a certain amount of correspondence, and therefore requires a proper place in which to preserve documents. These are all written in Arabic characters; the Berber alphabet being unknown in Hadeij, and but little, I believe, in the whole of Southern Tunisia. Though in many villages the Berber language is spoken, it is not in Hadeij, where it appears to be forgotten in spite of the natives being Berbers.

The above-mentioned dwellings are far from being the only ones possessed by the Khalifa, for both in Hadeij proper and in the environs he owns several houses occupied by his retainers. He also owns caves, reserved for his occasional use, in the vicinity of his distant groves of palms and olives, when, as in harvest time, the trees have to be watched.

The caves that I saw in the Matmata mountains were, with few exceptions, of the same description. Of these exceptions may be mentioned the caves I found in Sid ben Aissa. To these led uncovered ways, so that one had a direct view into the courtyards from the outside. Also at Beni Sultan I observed steps that sloped from the upper surface to the courtyard. The rooms in this instance were not so symmetrical; many of them were not excavated on the same level as the court, but were raised a few steps above it. This very irregularity rendered these caves more picturesque and interesting than those of Hadeij.

In the enclosures were several tanks, and in the rooms I saw women spinning with wheels.

The approach to these houses was by means of steps cut in the calcareous soil; where the steps terminated was a gate by which one passed into a fine vaulted underground chamber, and thence into the courtyard.

The Sheikh of Beni Sultan owned also an oil mill, erected in an underground cave, that, with its vaults and colonnades, closely resembled the crypt of a church. In one of these vaults I saw the mill, which is worked by a donkey or a camel, and is composed of a large round stone turning on a broad low stone cylinder. In a neighbouring vault close by was erected a primitive oil press.

In Duirat, the most southern village of Tunisia, I found caves of a rather different description. These were of the same dimensions as the chambers already described, and were cut in the sides of cliffs. Before the door of the caves an enclosure was frequently made, and within this stood a house, through the centre of which was a passage leading into the cave.

This style of building has the advantage that in summer the natives can seek the shelter of the cave, where it is cooler than in the house; and, again, should the house be attacked, they could retire into the cave, the entrance being easy to defend.

That the dwellings are not all caves probably arises from the fact that there is not always sufficient space in the mountains for the many large chambers required to accommodate a number of people. The cave is the original dwelling; the house followed as an appendage. The hedged-in enclosure mentioned can be utilised as a shelter for cattle.

Near Tatuin I noticed, in passing, a rock cave that was merely an irregularly dug hole. It was inhabited.

In the mountains I discovered several of the same description, but uninhabited; being occupied in harvest time, when the dates and olives need guarding.

At Tujan I saw, excavated in the cliffs, several ancient caves with small terraces in front of them; they had long been abandoned as dwellings.

Lastly, I must touch briefly on a mode of building found on the plains, in the villages of Metamer and Medinin, and evidently deriving its origin from the cave.

Small, oblong, domed houses are built side by side in a square, thus forming a complete citadel of exactly the same form as a cave dwelling; the plan of cave construction having been copied aboveground.

In Southern Tunisia there are numerous large villages, such as Hadeij, Lasheish, Ben Aissa, besides some smaller, as, for instance, Judlig, which are composed exclusively of cave dwellings.

Moreover, caves are found mingled with other dwellings in Beni Sultan, Smerten, and Sguimi.

Cave dwellings therefore prevail in the valleys, and real houses on the mountains.

Finally, the more primitive caves are found on mountain slopes, as, for instance, at Duirat.

The villages that consist of houses are of stone or sun-dried blocks of clay. They stand, as a rule, high on the mountains, and much resemble those of the Kabail in Algeria, or the ancient French villages on the mountains of Auvergne.