Chapter XVI

ES-SABALA — THE MEDJERDA — DRAGONS OF THE ATLAS — BIZERTA —
IMMENSE LAND-LOCKED HARBOUR — FISH IN LAKE — DJEBEL ISHKUL —
WILD BUFFALOES.

As we had still two days to spare after our return from Zaghouan before we could have an audience with the Bey, we determined to utilise them by a visit to Bizerta. The distance is about the same as our last excursion, and though this journey also can be made in carriages, the road is extremely bad, and after much rain must be quite impracticable.

We left Tunis by the Bab el-Khadhera, passed under the Spanish aqueduct behind the Bardo, the ancient palace of the Beys, and the Kasr Saeed, the present sovereign’s favourite residence, and soon entered a vast olive wood. The trees are extremely ancient, contorted in every possible manner, and seemed actually to have been turned inside out, and cut up into fantastic fretwork. At eight miles from Tunis is a wayside fountain and Arab coffee-shop, called Es-Sabala, near a palace built by the celebrated Saheb et-Tabäa, under Hamouda Pacha, now the property of General Kheir-ed-din. This is the only place in all the Regency of Tunis where we ever saw a plantation of young olive or any other trees, and I examined them with peculiar interest, as I felt sure beforehand that in this country, as in Algeria, the principal cause of its decadence was the destruction of its ancient forests.

Beyond this commences a long alluvial plain, which, broken up by several low ranges of hills, extends to the very gates of Bizerta; it is of great fertility, and tolerably well cultivated.

About six miles and a half beyond Es-Sabala, the Medjerda is crossed by a bridge which was built about twenty-five years ago, on the site of an old Roman one. It is a solid structure of seven arches, with a niche between each pair, pierced so as to admit the passage of water when the floods are high. The original structure was entire when Peyssonnel visited it in 1724; it was a tolerably good one, he says, but the arches were badly constructed.[113] This river rises in the beautiful valley of Khamisa, in Algeria, amongst the ruins of Thubursicum Numidarum,[114] and traverses some of the richest parts of Tunis, districts rendered celebrated by many of the most stirring events in Roman history. It is none other than the far-famed Bagradas, on the banks of which took place the combat between the army of Attilius Regulus and the monstrous serpent, 225 years before Christ. Pliny repeats the fable as one well known in his day. They besieged it, says he, with ballista and implements of war, as one would have done to a city. It was 120 feet long, and its skin and jaws were preserved in a temple at Rome until the Numantine war.[115]

The tradition of such animals appears to have lingered long in the country. Leo Africanus says that ‘the Caves of the Atlas contain many huge and monstrous dragons, which are heavy and of a slow motion, because the midst of their body is grosse, but their necks and tails are slender. They are most venemous creatures, insomuch that whosoever is bitten or touched by them, his flesh presently waxeth soft, neither can he by any means escape death.’ Marmol’s account of these marvellous animals is even more amusing. He also says that they are very numerous in the caverns of the great Atlas; their bite and touch are mortal, but they are so heavy and so badly made that they can hardly move, for their body is very thick about the stomach, and the rest slender. They have the head and wings of a bird, the tail and skin of a serpent, the feet of a wolf; they are spotted with divers colours, and they have not strength to lift their eyelids. This pleasant animal is called by the Arabs Taybin, and is supposed to result from the amours of a female wolf and a male eagle.[116] The word _Taybin_ is evidently _Thäaban_, the ordinary Arabic word for a serpent; and it is quite possible that, as wolves and bears have become extinct in the country, so there may have been larger species of serpents, like the python or the boa, which no longer exist.

The Medjerda has greatly changed its course within the limits of history; indeed, it is constantly cutting through the banks of alluvion, and depositing the _débris_ elsewhere. Even at this season a considerable body of water enters the sea, but it is a mere thread in comparison to the width of its bed after continued rain. A passing shower will sometimes suffice to produce a torrent capable of washing away sheep and cattle, and even travellers.

The plain on the right bank of the river at this place goes by the name of Outa el-Kebir, or the large plain; that on the left is Outa es-Segheir, or the smaller one, while the crossing itself is called El-Fonduk, from an inn on its bank, more dirty and repulsive than such places generally are.

At seventeen miles from Tunis a second and smaller bridge is passed, spanning a watercourse running along the southern base of Djebel Zana. From this point the road to Bou-Shater, the ancient Utica, branches off. We saw it in the distance, and thought of the unnecessary self-sacrifice of Cato, but had not time to visit it. Bruce, however, did so. He says—

I went to visit Utica, out of respect to the memory of Cato, without having sanguine expectations of meeting anything remarkable there; and accordingly I found nothing memorable but its name. It may be said that nothing remains of Utica but a heap of rubbish and small stones; without the city, the trenches and approaches of the ancient besiegers are still very perfect.

Beyond Djebel Zana is another wide plain, called Bahirah Gournata, in the middle of which is a well. To the right is seen Ghar el-Melah, or Porto Farino, formerly an important naval station and arsenal, now neglected and almost in ruins. While we stopped to prepare our breakfast here, Lord Kingston strolled into a neighbouring swamp, and soon returned with several brace of snipe. We did not require them on this occasion, but many a good dinner did his gun find us afterwards, when we would otherwise have been reduced to hard-boiled eggs, or the remarkably tough and stringy animals which are in the habit of producing them.

The hill which bounds the north side of this plain is Djebel Tella; at its foot is a small stream; and from its summit the first view is obtained of the sea and the Lake of Bizerta, along the eastern bank of which the road now runs. At thirty-two and a half miles from Tunis is Menzel-Djemil, well named the _beautiful resting-place_, despite of the filth with which it is surrounded. The narrow neck of land, which here separates the lake from the sea, is a perfect garden covered with plantations of fruit and olive trees and fields of corn.

Bizerta itself is thirty-six miles from Tunis. Its name is a corruption of the Arab one, Benzerte, which is as evidently derived from its ancient one, Hippo Zarytus, or Hippo Diarrhytus, the adjunct being necessary to distinguish this city from its neighbour Hippo Regius, the modern Bone.

It was an ancient Tyrian colony, and was fortified and provided with a new harbour by Agathocles in the fourth century before Christ. It was subsequently raised to the rank of a Roman colony, as is testified by an inscription built into the wall of Bordj Sidi Bou Hadid, containing the ancient name of the place.

COL. IVLIAE . HIPP. DIARR.

El-Bekri mentions that this place was conquered in A.H. 41 (A.D. 661-2) by Moaouia ibn el-Hodaidj. Abd el-Melek ibn Merouan, who accompanied him in this expedition, having been separated from the main body of the army, obtained shelter in the house of a native woman. When he became Khalifa, he wrote to his lieutenant in Ifrikia to take care of this woman and all her family—an order which was of course carried out.[117]

Marmol says that, although the city contained only 4,000 inhabitants, they frequently revolted against the Kings of Tunis and the Lords of Constantine, which was often the cause of their ruin. When Kheir-ed-din took possession of Tunis, they were the first to recognise him, and when he was expelled they killed the governor whom Mulai Hassan had sent with a garrison, and received a Turkish garrison into their fort. Mulai Hassan attacked the place by land, while Andrea Doria co-operated with him by sea, and so the place was taken by assault—‘et le Roy chastia rigoureusement les habitans qui s’estoient revoltez trois fois et qui n’avoient jamais gardé la foy ni par amour ni par crainte.’[118]

It can hardly be said that Bizerta is in a very flourishing condition; still, the presence of a hundred and fifty Europeans amongst its population of five or six thousand souls gives a certain amount of life and commercial activity to it, which no purely Mohammedan city appears to possess. There is no hotel of any kind in the place, and the few Europeans who visit it are dependent on the hospitality of their consuls. We were most cordially received by Signor Spizzichino, who is, as was his father before him, Vice-Consul of the United States. He also acts as Consular Agent of Great Britain, though he does not actually hold a commission as such.

The situation of the town is extremely picturesque, being built on each side of the canal which connects the lake with the sea, and on an island in the middle of it, principally occupied by Europeans and joined to the mainland on either side by substantial bridges. The town is entirely surrounded by walls, the entrance to the canal being protected by what in former times would have been considered formidable defences. That on the west is the Kasbah or citadel, and contains a number of residences both of private individuals and of public functionaries; on the opposite side is the fort of Sidi el-Houni, containing the shrine of that holy man. Between these the canal is embanked. The foundations are, no doubt, ancient, though the superstructure is modern. The west wall is produced as a breakwater, but it is very ruinous, and has evidently projected much further into the sea than it does at present. Its length is not sufficient to prevent the sand being drifted in by the north-west winds, whereby the canal has been so much filled up as to render it practicable only for light fishing-boats. Near the gate of the Kasbah may be seen the chain formerly used to protect the entrance. To the west of the town is an isolated fort, called Bordj Sidi Salim, built on a rocky promontory jutting out into the sea.

The only antiquities now remaining, besides the usual frusta of columns lying about and built into the corners of the street, are the two inscriptions recorded by M. Guerin,[119] one a remarkably fine milliary column in the warehouse of Hadj Mohammed Sfaxi, Janissary of the American Consulate, bearing the name of M. Aurelius Antoninus Pius (A.D. 161-180), and the other, which has already been mentioned, built high up in the wall of the Bordj Sidi Bou Hadid, and turned upside down, recording the ancient name of the place.

The important feature of Bizerta, however, is its lake, now called Tinja, formerly Hipponitis Pallus, which in the hands of a European Power might become one of the finest harbours and one of the most important strategical positions in the Mediterranean.[120] Its length from east to west is about eight geographical miles, and its width five and a half; the channel, which connects it with the sea, is at its N.E. angle and is about four miles long and half a mile broad; but the shallow portion which passes through the town is less than a mile in length, with a depth of from two to ten feet. Beyond, it widens out, and has a depth equal to that of the lake, from five to seven fathoms. A comparatively slight expenditure would be required to convert this lake into a perfectly landlocked harbour, containing fifty square miles of anchorage for the largest vessels afloat. At present the anchorage off the entrance is very insecure; vessels are compelled to remain in the open roadstead, and at a considerable distance from the town; there is no shelter from the prevailing bad weather, and if shipwrecks are rare, it is simply because the place is avoided by large vessels.

The lake teems with fish, which produce a yearly revenue of 180,000 piastres, or 4,500_l._, to the State. They are caught both by nets and in weirs of reeds erected at the narrowest portion of the straits, and are then carried on donkeys to Tunis for sale. They are not only most abundant, of excellent quality, very different from the mud-tainted produce of the Tunis lake, but of great variety. The inhabitants of Bizerta say that there are twelve principal kinds, one of which comes into season each month. This is by no means a modern idea; it is mentioned by El-Edrisi, who says: ‘When the month has expired, the species which corresponds to it disappears, and is replaced by a new one, and so on till the end of the year and every year.’[121] El-Bekri also mentions this succession of fishes, and adds a curious account of the manner in which any particular species is caught: ‘When the merchants come to buy fish, they indicate the kind and the exact number they require. The fisherman then takes a living female of the desired species, lets it loose in the lake, and follows it with his net; he is thus able to take almost the exact number he requires, and hardly ever makes a mistake.’[122]

A favourite means of catching the larger kind is for a man to station himself at the prow of a boat under one of the arches of the bridge, with a ten-pronged grane in his hand and a vessel of oil beside him. From time to time he sprinkles a few drops of oil on the surface to calm its ripples and enable him to see the larger fish passing, and these he spears with great dexterity. Wild fowl of all kinds are numerous on the lake, and for quail and snipe its banks are a sportsman’s paradise.

To the S.W. of this lake is another nearly as large, but with a depth of from two to eight feet only. It is the ancient Sisara, now called the Gharat Djebel Ishkul, or lake of Mount Ishkul, a remarkable hill of 1,740 feet high, situated at its southern extremity, the Kirna Mons of Ptolemy. This, no doubt, was originally an island, as it is now only separated from the mainland by a stretch of marshy ground. The water is almost sweet in winter, when a considerable body is poured into it by the Oued Djoumin or river of Mater, but in summer, when the level sinks, the overflow from the salt lake pours into it by the Oued Tinga, a tortuous canal which connects the two, and then its waters are not potable. The water is generally very turbid, owing to the washing of the clay banks on its margin, and the muddy streams flowing in from the plains of Mater. This lake also abounds in fish, principally barbel and alose (_clupea finta_), which are held in no esteem by the natives.

Lieut. Spratt observes: ‘Fresh-water shell-fish are rare in this lake, but I procured a species of _unio_ from one of the streams flowing into it. In some of the clay banks along the north and east shores are abundance of marine fossils, principally a _carduum_, which, by the wasting of the cliffs, are washed along the shore, the sands of which in consequence present the singular appearance of a sea beach encircling a freshwater lake; and, until I discovered the localities whence they were derived, I was led to suppose that they had been living inhabitants of this lake at no very distant period of time, when, of course, the waters were salt, and the scarcity of fresh-water shells leant to the idea of its recent conversion from a salt to a fresh lake. The Oued Tinga is navigable for boats of not more than two feet draught. Its general depth is six feet, and its breadth 25 yards, but at the entrance to the lake of Djebel Ishkul there are shallows with a very rapid current, against which our boat had great difficulty in contending. Above the shallows there is a ferry, opposite the marabout of Sidi Ali Hassan, which is completely enveloped by a small grove of trees. This spot appears also to have been the site of an ancient town of some importance, as there are considerable remains on both sides of the ferry.’[123]

The vicinity abounds in game, and on Djebel Ishkul itself there are a number of wild buffaloes, introduced by a former Bey, which are very strictly preserved.

At the eastern base of Djebel Ishkul there are several mineral springs, which are held in great repute amongst the natives, who bathe in small pools, made by hollowing out the sand, and in these the water bubbles up from the ground. The temperature is about 110° Fahr.

The people about Bizerta seem to affect an exaggeration of the tight and ungraceful costumes with which the Tunisians disfigure themselves; and in addition they have adopted a peculiarly fashioned jacket of white wool with a hood, which they usually wear over the head, leaving the sleeves to dangle unused at the sides.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 113: Peyssonnel, ap. Dureau de la Malle, i. p. 232.]

[Footnote 114: See Murray’s _Handbook to Alg._ p. 185.]

[Footnote 115: Pliny, viii. c. 14. Gellius, vi. 3.]

[Footnote 116: Marmol, trad. d’Ablancourt, i. p. 62.]

[Footnote 117: El-Bekri, trad. de Slane, p. 140.]

[Footnote 118: Marmol, trad. d’Ablancourt, ii. p. 437.]

[Footnote 119: Guérin, vol. ii. p. 22.]

[Footnote 120: This lake was surveyed by H.M.S. _Beacon_ in 1845, and an excellent memoir on it published by Lieutenant (now Admiral) Spratt in the _Journal of the Royal Geographical Society_, xvi. 1846, p. 251.]

[Footnote 121: El-Edrisi, _Geog._ trad. Jaubert, i. p. 265.]

[Footnote 122: El-Bekri, trad. de Slane, p. 140.]

[Footnote 123: Spratt, _l.c._]