Chapter XXII: Bruce’s Journey From Sbeitla to Hydra

Here I must make a digression to follow Bruce on his route to Hydra, which time did not permit us actually to visit. The following account is taken partly from his rough notebook, and partly from the narrative written on his return from Abyssinia:—

_November_ 16, 1765.—Continued our course near northwards; decamped at half-past eight. At two o’clock passed the Wed Hataab as before, near the tents of the Welled Hassan. At night encamped on the west side of the plain among the Welled Hassan, called Ghazelma,[158] part of Majerg.[159] This was about three miles south-west of a steep precipice of reddish stone, called Keff, away about twenty-two miles from our last lodging.

_November_ 17.—At the ordinary time, between eight and nine, decamped and continued our course till ten. Passed Keff, away along the plains filled with tents of the Dreedy and their camels, after which turned due west, continued our course along a plain, in the middle of which was a rivulet, so had this day good water. At night came to an encampment of Welled Seel, under the mountain Jibbel Henneish, west of the Marabout Sidi Abdel Azeez twenty-six miles, and due south of Gella Adjmaar.[160]

This was November 18. The mountains were covered with cedars[161] and fir[162] very thick, the resort of lions. The plains below partly waste, partly cultivated by the Ghazelma.

The 19th, arrived at Hydera. Began immediately designing the triumphal arch, which was finished the day after—the 20th.

Hydera belongs to the Algerines,[163] though it is inhabited by the Welled Boogannim, Moors of Tunis, whose saint is here buried. By the instructions of their founder they are obliged to live off lions’ flesh, as far as they can procure it, and in consideration of the utility of their vow they are not taxed, like the other Arabs, with payments to the State. The consequence of this life is that they are excellent and well-armed horsemen, exceedingly bold and undaunted hunters. It is generally imagined that these considerations, and that of their situation on the frontier, have as much influence in procuring them exemption from taxes as the utility of their vow.

Before Dr. Shaw’s travels first acquired the celebrity that they have maintained ever since, there was a circumstance that very near ruined their credit. He had ventured to say, in conversation, that these Welled Sidi Boogannim were eaters of lions, and this was considered at Oxford, the university where he had studied, as a traveller’s licence on the part of the doctor. They thought it a subversion of the natural order of things that a man should eat a lion, when it had long passed as almost the peculiar province of the lion to eat the man. The doctor flinched under the sagacity and severity of this criticism. He could not deny that the Welled Sidi Boogannim did eat lions, as he had repeatedly said; but he had not yet published his travels, and therefore left it out of his narrative, and only hinted at it in his appendix.

With all submission to that learned university, I will not dispute the lion’s title to eating men, but since it is not founded upon patent, no consideration will make me stifle the merits of the Welled Sidi Boogannim, who have turned the chase upon the enemy. It is an historical fact, and I will not suffer the public to be misled by a misrepresentation of it. On the contrary, I do aver, in the face of these fantastic prejudices, that I have eaten the flesh of lions—that is, part of three lions—in the tents of the Welled Sidi Boogannim. The first was a he-lion, tough, and smelling violently of musk, and had the taste which I imagine old horseflesh would have. The second was a lioness, which they said had been barren that year; she had a considerable quantity of fat within her, and had it not been for the musky smell which the flesh had, though in a lesser degree than in the former, and for our foolish prejudices against it, the meat, when broiled, would not have been very bad. The third was a lion whelp, six or seven months old; it tasted, on the whole, the worst of the three.

I confess I have no desire of being again served with such a morsel, but the Arabs, a brutish and ignorant folk, will, I fear, notwithstanding the disbelief of the University of Oxford continue to eat lions as long as they exist.

Hydera is about two miles in length, and a quarter in breadth, along a riverside well watered with springs, likewise a fine natural cascade, below the castle, which is a modern building.

There is at Thunodronum[164] a triumphal arch, which Dr. Shaw thinks is more remarkable for its size than for its taste or execution; but the size is not extraordinary. On the other hand, both taste and execution are admirable. _It is, with all its parts, in the King’s Collection_, and, taking the whole together, is one of the most beautiful landscapes in black and white now existing. The distance, as well as the foreground, are both from nature, and exceedingly well calculated for such representation.

There are no other antiquities, except four sepulchres, one of which is in front sustained by four Corinthian pillars, but is in very bad taste and form. The other is a simple pentagon without ornament. They are both small, and of no consequence. The mountains to the south of Hydera are all covered with wood, chiefly pines and cedars, stored with game. It is about twenty-four miles from the encampment of Bel Hanneish, and three miles from this last place are the remains of an ancient city called Sicca, which retains its name to the present time. From Hydera we continued our route to Tebessa. The 21st November, arrived there at four. Twenty-two miles, through deep valleys, between high mountains covered with firs, which now grow first to the height of timber trees. Saw ostriches this day for the first time,[165] and a species of red deer,[166] called Edmee.

There are two sheets of drawings of Hydra in the Kinnaird Collection; the first, a single one, containing a beautifully executed perspective view in Indian ink (Plate XVI.), and the second, a double sheet, containing a rough plan of the same building, and exquisite pencil drawings of details of architrave of order, enrichments of soffits, capitals, &c.

On the latter sheet is given the inscription:—

IMP. CAES. L. SEPTIMIO . SEVERO . PERTINACI . AVG. P.M.

TRIB. POT. III. IMP. V. COS. II. PP. PARTHICO . ARA

BICO . ET . PARTHICO . AZIABENICO . DD. PP.

This fixes the date of the building, A.D. 195.

This monument is ornamented with two monolithic, disengaged Corinthian columns on each side of the arch, behind which are square pilasters. They stand on a common pedestal, one-third the height of the columns, and are surmounted by a very high entablature, the frieze of which carries the inscription. It is of unusual height, being three times that of the architrave, and making the entablature half the height of the columns. There is a blocking course above the cornice, but no attic proper. The arch is without archivolt. The impost encircles the building, except that it stops short at the pilasters.

The following are the dimensions given in the plan:—

Ft. in. lines.

Width of opening of arch 8 10 6

Angle of jamb to pilaster 1 10 0

Width of pilaster 2 3 0

Between pilasters 6 1 1

Depth of arch 9 11 1

J. LEITCH &. Co. Sc.

TRIUMPHAL ARCH AT AMMAEDARA (HYDRA)

FAC-SIMILE OF INDIAN INK DRAWING BY BRUCE.

HENRY S. KING Co. LONDON.]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 158: Zeghalma.]

[Footnote 159: Medjers.]

[Footnote 160: Doubtless Geläat es-Senan is here meant, the ancient citadel of the Harrars.]

[Footnote 161: If cedars ever existed in the Regency of Tunis, they certainly do not at the present day.]

[Footnote 162: Aleppo pine.]

[Footnote 163: It now belongs to Tunis.]

[Footnote 164: Both Shaw and Bruce identified Hydra with the ancient _Thunodronum_; but Sir Grenville Temple is certainly correct. He recognised it as the _Ammædara_ of Ptolemy, the _Admedera_ of the Itinerary, and the Ad Medera of the Tables of Peutinger, twenty-five miles north-east of Tebessa. The word _Ammædara_ has since been found in inscriptions on the spot.]

[Footnote 165: Ostriches are now no longer found, save in the Sahara.]

[Footnote 166: _Cervus Barbarus_, still existing in the mountains of the Beni Salah in Algeria, where they are called _Bukr el-Wahash_, wild cows.]