Chapter XI

LEAVE TIMEGAD — FOUM KOSENTINA — MEGALITHIC REMAINS — OUM
EL-ASHERA — EL-WADHAHA — ASCENT OF CHELLIA — AIN MEIMOUN
— LIONS.

On May 3 we left Timegad, not without considerable regret that we could not afford to spend a longer time there. We would fain have made some excavations, as there is no more promising field for antiquarian research in Algeria, but the season was advancing, and we were compelled to move onwards. We crossed the Oued Taga and the unusually rich and well-watered plain of Firis, the west side of which is bounded by the Oued Foum Kosentina, _River of the Gorge of Constantine_. This is formed by two streams, the Seba Rekoud and the Oued el-Ahmer, which have worn for themselves deep channels, the precipitous banks of which are in some places five or six hundred feet high. A remarkable tongue of land is enclosed between them, which, probably on account of a certain general resemblance to the plateau on which the city of Constantine is situated, has been named _Ktäa Kosentina_, and the river _Oued Foum Kosentina_.

The numerous Roman remains all over the plain of Firis prove that no part of the Aures was more thoroughly colonised by this great people. Lower down the plain, the river formed by the junction of the Oued Taga and the Foum Kosentina, takes the name of Oued Rabooäa, on which are the Bordj and flour-mill of our friend Si Bou Dhiaf. The latter is of French construction, and brings him in a very considerable revenue. The native mills are of the rudest construction, and are rapidly falling into disuse wherever a European one has been erected.

The whole of this district is of the deepest interest to the student of pre-historic archæology. The hills on the west and south of Firis, Djebel Kharouba and Djebel Bou Dreicen are high, barren of undergrowth but well covered with small trees, especially the _Betoum_, or _Pistachia Atlantica_. The rock crops out in every direction, and is a sandstone with a very laminated stratification, capable of being easily detached in large slabs of no great thickness.

These hills are covered with countless numbers of the most interesting megalithic remains. Their variety is considerable, but the most ordinary type is that of a low circular structure, nearly level with the earth at the upper part of its base, and varying in height according to the slope of the hill on the opposite side, from three to eight feet, and containing from four to eight courses of rough dry masonry.

The walls are generally about six feet in thickness, the tombs from sixteen to thirty-three feet in diameter, containing a central chamber of irregular form covered by a large slab of stone. A very small number of these have been opened, but such as have been examined were found to contain human bones, and the body appears to have been doubled up by the disarticulation of the femur, so that the feet touched the skull. A few vessels of rude pottery have been found.

In some places the monuments are close together, in others they are separated by a number of tombs of the ordinary dolmenic type, as if the latter were intended for people of less consideration than those for whom the circular ones were constructed.

Below the south slope of Djebel Kharouba on the Oued el-Ahmer, or _Red River_, so called from the peculiar tint of the earth on its banks, is the village of Oum el-Ashera, or _Mother of Ten_, where we passed the night. The distance from Timegad is only nine-and-a-half miles, and occupied three hours.

It is a small and unimportant place, of the usual construction, situated at the mouth of a narrow gorge through which the stream breaks into the plain, but to the east of it is a pleasant turfy plateau, which seems as if it had been made by nature expressly as a camping-ground for those who may come to explore the neighbourhood.

On May 4 our journey also was a short but rather adventurous one. We purposed proceeding only as far as El-Wadhaha, a distance of seven-and-a-half miles, the most convenient place whence to ascend Djebel Chellia. The route was unusually mountainous, a constant succession of thickly wooded hills and valleys. When we left the weather was fine though somewhat showery, but we had not been many minutes on the road before the rain began to descend in torrents. The streams increased so rapidly that retreat was hopeless, and we were never sure that we should be able to continue our road. Si Bou Dhiaf who still accompanied us urged us onwards, but our beasts could not increase their pace. We floundered bravely through mud and water till we reached our halting-place, where fortunately the tents had been sent in advance, and pitched before the storm began. A fire was immediately lighted, not of little pieces of wood but with whole trees, so fierce and blazing, that it dried us even as we stood around it in the rain. All the evening it continued to pour and it was nightfall before our baggage arrived, and we could obtain a change of clothing. The Government mules are not well adapted for difficult mountain travelling. Being shod they are much more inclined to slip on bad stony roads than the native animals, and they have not the same marvellous instinct for picking their steps. There never was an animal so unjustly calumniated as a mule. I know none more sagacious, except perhaps the donkey. A horse may be forced to face anything, he has no self-reliance and trusts entirely to the superior intelligence of his rider; but no power on earth will force an Arab donkey or mule to take a single step in advance against its own conviction, and his instincts as to the safety of a road are always superior to his rider’s opinions. We went over some very difficult roads, but none of our animals left to his own sagacity ever came to grief.

El-Wadhaha is merely a place where the Chawia are in the habit of encamping. There is no village near and the only reason for selecting it is, that there is abundance of wood and water procurable, and it is a convenient place for commencing the ascent of Chellia, which we did early on the following morning. Fortunately the storm of the previous day had passed by, and the day was bright and cool.

Djebel Chellia is the highest peak in Algeria, but, rising as it does from very high ground, it is not nearly so imposing as Djurdjura. There was not a trace of pathway visible, but it was very easy and pleasant riding over its grassy slopes, bare of trees but carpeted with the most exquisite wild flowers, amongst which were yellow tulips, blue pansies, and forget-me-nots, and a lovely little white flower resembling a daisy. We saw many which we had never observed elsewhere, and we deeply regretted every hour of the journey that Dr. Hooker, who had originally intended to join the party, had been prevented from accompanying us.

Nearer the summit we passed through woods and clumps of cedars, in which there were more dead than living trees, some still erect, others torn up by their roots, bearing testimony to the violence of the storms which prevail here in winter. There was no great quantity of snow remaining; in sheltered places we saw banks four feet in depth, and the highest point was covered with it. This is accounted for by the previous rainy season having commenced late: very little snow fell before February, and it is only that of November and December which gets sufficiently frozen to last well into summer. We found the ascent by no means difficult, and hardly ever dismounted from our mules till within a few hundred yards of the top; but, had it been hedged about by all manner of dangers and difficulties, the beauty of the ride up and the glorious panorama from the top would have repaid us for them all.

It might almost be thought that Virgil, if he ever visited Africa at all, had this particular peak in view, when alluding to—

Atlas, whose head with piny forests crowned,

Is beaten by the wind, with foggy vapours bound,

Snows hide his shoulders; from beneath his chin

The founts of rolling streams their run begin![84]

The highest point of the small range, which goes by the name of Djebel Chellia, is 7,611 feet above the sea—only twenty-three feet higher than Djebel Mahmel, and sixty-nine more than the highest peak of Djurdjura. On the summit is a rude hut and stone enclosure, the marabout of Sidi Mohammed Kultoom, who used to make this his residence whenever it was possible to remain there; the Chawia still make pilgrimages to it and offer sacrifices of sheep at the shrine of the holy man. We left a record of our visit in a bottle on the summit, carefully secured to a stone; but I fear it stands a great risk of being removed, not for the value of the autograph, but rather for that of the precious vessel in which it was enclosed. Empty bottles are not so common in the Aures as they are elsewhere. An addition to our party was waiting for us at the top; this was the limit of Bou Dhiaf’s command, and he had here to hand us over to Si Mustafa, the Kaid of Bou Hammama, who with his Khalifa both in their official scarlet bernouses, had come to welcome us and conduct us to where we were to spend the night.

The view from the summit is most extensive. In the foreground is the _massif_ of the Aures itself, containing numerous ranges, generally richly wooded, some scarped and precipitous, others striated like agate by the upheaval of the oolitic strata of which they are composed, while on one or two the tops have been worn away between the strata, leaving the latter like huge lines of defence guarding the summits. Beyond this from north to east the hills between Constantine and Ain Beida bound the horizon, and the Sebkhas or salt lakes are distinctly seen in the middle distance. Behind the hills to the south, glimpses are obtained of the Sahara, while the north-west is bounded by the mountains behind Batna.

The slopes of the mountain exposed to the north and west, the prevailing direction whence come the wind, rain and snow of winter, are richly clothed with forest almost to their base. The southern slopes, exposed to the hot wind of the desert, are much more arid.

We descended the opposite side of the mountain through the valley of Tizou-ghaghin, in which a stream rises near the top and encircles the western slope, till it is met by the Oued el-Khezoum, descending from another portion of the summit. It would be difficult to find a more charming ride, at first through a forest of cedar with here and there an old gnarled yew, but both these trees are slowly disappearing. The highest parts of the range are perfectly bare, though an occasional whitened stump shows that even they were once wooded; lower down dead trees are still erect, and the ground is covered with others that have fallen, or have been torn up by the roots. These become more and more mixed with living trees as the traveller descends, till the dense forests on the lower slope are reached.

But even here destruction is doing its work, principally owing to numerous communities of hairy processional caterpillars, which spin a web-like nest on the higher branches destroying all vegetable life as their ravages descend.

After leaving the region of cedars the lower parts of the mountain present new features of grandeur and interest. Ilex, pistachia and juniper begin to appear, and soon the road passes through a dense forest of Aleppo pines, which for picturesque beauty can hardly be surpassed in any part of the country. Eventually we entered the well-watered plain of Melagou, and turning eastward found ourselves at the small village of Bou Hammama.

We had sent our camp on by an easier route, so everything was ready for our reception, the usual _dhifa_ was cooked and only waiting to be eaten. Si Mustafa is quite a different type from Bou Dhiaf, and we remarked that the meeting between them on the top of Chellia was not very cordial. He is not a man of ancient family, nor in fact is he in any way connected with the Aures. His ancestors were Turks and he has risen through military service elsewhere to a high position, which ended in his being appointed by the French, Kaid of Bou Hammama. The district appears a fine one, but the village itself is the poorest we have yet seen, and is only occupied during a certain portion of the year. At other times the inhabitants live in tents, following their flocks wherever pasture is most abundant. To-day we rode about twenty-two miles, which occupied us six hours and a half.

On May 6 we started for Ain Meimoun, a distance of nineteen miles. After crossing the plain of Melagou the road enters an undulating plain, and for some distance is comparatively uninteresting. At last it passes into the long and fertile valley of Noughis, one continuous stretch of corn and meadow land. Its general direction is from west to east. It is bounded on the north by low hills and on the south by a lofty range, clothed to its summit with forests of oak below and cedars above. These mountains, facing as they do the north, from which point all the rain of winter comes, retain their mantle of snow till late in spring. Thus the numerous springs and streams are well supplied, and continue to flow even in summer.

There is no doubt that during the Roman occupation this valley was as carefully terraced and watered as the Oued Abdi is now; traces of retaining walls are still visible, though none of the massive foundations so common elsewhere are to be seen. After a long ride through a country which seems to weary the traveller by its monotonous richness, the culminating point is reached and the streams, which have hitherto flowed towards the west, now run in a contrary direction. In the middle of the narrow pass forming the watershed, called Cherf-Noughis, is a mound on which are the remains of what was no doubt a military post, intended to command it. The view from this spot is very beautiful. To the west is the long plain from which we had just passed, bounded by the ever-narrowing hills on either side, till the vista is shut in by the distant peak of Chellia. To the east in the valley of Tasgeen is a total change of scenery. Every trace of monotony has disappeared; the green pasture land mixing with the darker tints of the forest give both softness and grandeur to the landscape, while in the distance, instead of the mountain scenery of the Aures, the view is bounded by the _Sebkhas_, or salt lakes of the Nememcha and the plain beyond. The road still continues along the north side of the plain, winding amongst the most exquisite forest scenery till it reaches Ain Meimoun.

Here we were met by Si Ismael, the Kaid of Khenchla, quite a different type from any we had seen before. He is a young and handsome Lieutenant of Spahis, belonging to one of the best families in the province of Oran. He speaks French with perfect fluency, and both frequents and seems to enjoy European society.

This place takes its name from a beautiful and copious spring situated just on the edge of the forest, and at the top of a rich clearing, which it serves to irrigate. There is no village here, but both a civil and a military establishment for preparing cedar timber. The former sends the wood for sale to Batna, Constantine and elsewhere; the latter supplies the public works in process of construction at Ain Khenchla, to which place there is a road practicable for carts. No more pleasant spot could be found for a halt. The traveller might fancy himself in one of the finest parts of Switzerland, but with a new and delightful sensation added, the scent of the freshly sawn cedar with which the air is embalmed. If he is a sportsman he may chance to get a shot at a lion. This is perhaps the only part of the Aures where they still exist. We met a brother of the far-famed Chassaing working at the timber-yard. He told us that he had himself killed seven, and that his brother had bagged between fifty and sixty before his death, and that, though they are exceedingly rare now, two had been heard during the previous night.

These grand old cedar forests are the glory of Algeria. Influences which it is difficult to control are causing their gradual disappearance, and there was a time when the reckless extravagance with which the timber was consumed threatened to consummate the evil even in our own time. But greater order has now been introduced into the administration. Wise laws have been framed to prevent the destruction of forests, and we hope that we may never have to lament the disappearance of this noble tree in the words of Shakespeare when he describes the fall of Warwick—

Thus yields the cedar to the axe’s edge,

Whose arm gave shelter to the princely eagle,

Under whose shade the ramping lion slept,

Whose top-branch overpeered Jove’s spreading tree

And kept low shrubs from winter’s powerful wind.

‘Henry VI.’ Part III. act v. scene 2.

This was the last night we spent actually in the Aures Mountains. We now entered the plains which skirt their northern base.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 84: _Æn._ Lib. iv. 246-251 (Dryden).]