ROCK TOMBS IN THE NECROPOLIS OF CYRENE.(Large-size)
ROCK TOMBS IN THE NECROPOLIS OF CYRENE.(Large-size)
ROCK TOMBS IN THE NECROPOLIS OF CYRENE.
(Large-size)
Some feelings of melancholy must be awakened in every visitor, as he follows those long lines of violated sepulchres, ranged along the sides of the hills, obtruding far into the plain below, and stretching in every direction across the table-land to the south. The simple sarcophagus and proud mausoleum now alike gape tenantless; perpetuating neither the affection of the survivors nor the merits of the dead, they are mute as to their history, their fate, and almost their names. Barbarian hands have disturbed the relics, and rifled the treasures which they once contained; the existence of such treasures must have been the incentive to, and can alone account for, the universal violation of thetombs—hatred, if profitless as well as toilsome, is seldom thus unrelenting.
ROCK TOMBS ON THE WESTERN SIDE OF THE NECROPOLIS AT CYRENE.(Large-size)
ROCK TOMBS ON THE WESTERN SIDE OF THE NECROPOLIS AT CYRENE.(Large-size)
ROCK TOMBS ON THE WESTERN SIDE OF THE NECROPOLIS AT CYRENE.
(Large-size)
The influence of the vicinity, and, at one time, the domination of Egypt, seems to have inspired the Cyreneans with the same anxious reverence for the dead which distinguished their neighbours; and they seem early to have abandoned the habit of incremation, though it is not evident that they adopted that of embalming. Few of the monuments are fitted for the reception of urns, and the very few bones which are sometimes met with, bear no marks of burning.
The northern face of the eastern hill seems to have been the first place used for sepulture; and, judging from the style, I should think that some monuments, about half a mile from the fountain, on the road to Apollonia, are among the earliest. They are large sepulchres, with façades cut in the solid rock, with porticoes, in a very early Greek, almost Egyptian, style. I am inclined to think that the sepulchres, which are entirely excavated, without any adjuncts of masonry, are of two epochs, the earliest and latest: the former, though generally rude, impressive in their monolithic vastness; the latter, in their meretriciously minute though graceful decorations, reminding me forcibly of Pompeii. Some of these one finds, in which the smoothed rock is scored with lines, to imitate masonry, like the stuccoed houses of Belgravia.To an intermediate period—that of the greatest prosperity—I ascribe the cave-tombs, faced with masonry, and the circular and temple-shaped monuments which are so frequent; while the plain sarcophagus, rising from the rock on which it was hewn, may belong to any epoch. The road to Apollonia ran along the side of the hill, at about half its elevation; and, above and below, the tombs are built in long lines, tier above tier, forming, in some places, as many as twelve terraces, connected together by flights of steps.
The disposition in each form of tomb varies but little. The sarcophagus contained, in general, room for one occupant; though I found an instance where two bodies had been deposited in the same excavation, one above the other, with a stone to separate them. The cave-sepulchres have, in general, a forecourt, excavated in the hill, presenting internally a low chamber, containing four or six plain sarcophagi, cut in the sides, and as many, or even a greater number, of similar cavities sunk in the floor. There are some which form a long, narrow gallery, on which open lateral chambers, each capable of containing two sarcophagi in length, and two or three tiers, one above the other. The interiors are, in general, left quite rough, without remaining marks of decoration: a few have been plastered and painted, and others present beautiful finishing of the stone-work inside. Thosehewn in the rock, and adorned with a façade of masonry, were, in their original state, undoubtedly the most magnificent, as shown by the frequent remains of columns and statues, but they are now the least interesting. The façade has, in general, fallen away, leaving the sepulchre, with its bare wall and shapeless entrance, the ghastly spectacle of a fleshless skull. In only one case did I find such a façade still entire; it has separated from the rock, and leans slightly forward, ready to fall in the first violent rains. It seemed to me the better worth remarking, as it explains the many smooth surfaces the rock presents, as well as the decoration applied to the fountain.
Among the most interesting tombs in the northern Necropolis are three, standing together, at a place where the road, following the outline of the hill, makes a deep bend. They are monolithic, and in one, the Doric columns, which support the excavated porticoes in front of the cave, are of abnormal proportions. Beneath them, descending the abrupt hill, on the third or fourth tier—it is difficult to say which, the tombs, principally sarcophagi, being so closely grouped—is a sepulchre without any external ornament, but exhibiting on its interior walls the only frescoes of any merit I have found. On the right hand, and on either side of the doorway, the paintings are well preserved; those on the other two sides are, excepting two groups, almost obliteratedby the peeling off of the plaster in some places, in others by a hard, stalactitic crust which has formed on them. The inscriptions scribbled over the ground, partly with the brush, partly scratched with a point, have bestowed a certain interest on these paintings, in which Pacho, who has not given quite a correct delineation of the paintings, thought he had discovered indications of Judaism. The inscriptions, scarcely legible, seem to consist of the names of visitors, and to the unlearned offer no interest. The whole series evidently refer to the games of the ancients; chariot-races, gladiators, wrestlers, and pugilists, occupying the two sides which are damaged. There are two wrestlers, with a third figure, who seems to be taking a flying leap over their heads, but who may be intended to be lying on the ground overcome, while the judge, with the prize-cup, or, perhaps, the oil for anointing, looks on in the corner. To the right are two figures, one of whom seems to be inviting the first, a youth, to enter a doorway to which he points; which I conjecture to be the introduction of a youth to the study of rhetoric or poetry. It is here the inscriptions begin. The action of the next two figures is indistinguishable. We next see a figure in long drapery, crowned with ivy or vine-leaves, his right hand extended, in his left a lyre. An orator, or poet, with a roll in his hand, follows next; and, after him, the same draped figure, nowplaying on the lyre. The next group is, unfortunately, much damaged, as its composition is remarkable. It contains eight figures, all crowned with ivy; the fourth blowing the double horn; before them goes a nude figure, bearing a square chest. Here there is a figure now headless, and again the musician playing on the lyre, surrounded by seven persons. A male figure, in a tragic masque, appears to be declaiming to a female also masqued, who is surrounded by seven other females, crowned with garlands. I could discover in these paintings no trace of Jewish origin; two of the figures still remaining, which Pacho has represented wearing mitres, are certainly tragic masques; the lofty hair on the foreheads of which may have deceived him in the obscurity. Though roughly executed, they are drawn with great breadth and freedom; in style they much resemble many of the Pompeian frescoes, to which time, or rather later, they may be assigned. On either side of the door, are an animal-fight and a hunt. On one, a bull attacked by a lion, while a tiger is preparing to spring upon his neck; above are stags, a gazelle, dogs, and a chacal. Spears are flying all about the picture. On the other side is a column supporting a vase, a man launching a greyhound, almost in the position of Gibson’s hunter, a stag, two hares, and some more dogs.
WALL PAINTINGS IN A ROCK TOMB IN THE NECROPOLIS AT CYRENE. No. 1.(Large-size)
WALL PAINTINGS IN A ROCK TOMB IN THE NECROPOLIS AT CYRENE. No. 1.(Large-size)
WALL PAINTINGS IN A ROCK TOMB IN THE NECROPOLIS AT CYRENE. No. 1.
(Large-size)
WALL PAINTINGS IN A ROCK TOMB IN THE NECROPOLIS AT CYRENE. No. 2.(Large-size)
WALL PAINTINGS IN A ROCK TOMB IN THE NECROPOLIS AT CYRENE. No. 2.(Large-size)
WALL PAINTINGS IN A ROCK TOMB IN THE NECROPOLIS AT CYRENE. No. 2.
(Large-size)
Further on in the same range, at a place where the old road, with the deep-worn ruts of the chariot wheels, is still visible, is a very large collection of sepulchral chambers, called by the Arabs Kenissich, or the Church. There are remains of a large forecourt of masonry, of which only parts of the sides are still standing; but though very spacious, exceeding in extent any other excavation in Cyrene, it contains neither inscriptions nor emblems. Nothing in it indicates that it was ever used either for the religious rites or the burial of Christians, as from its name some travellers have supposed. It must be remembered that names such as this have no origin in traditions of the country, as its present inhabitants ascribe all that they see to the Christians (the Roum); they have no idea that any race of men occupied the country before them. To this is to be ascribed their excessive jealousy of antiquarian travellers, whom they believe to come furnished with information which will enable them to remove the treasures left by their ancestors, according to Arab belief, in secret places. I should conjecture that this vast series of chambers must have been appropriated to some civic or religious corporation, as its extent is far too great to have been intended for a single family.
This line of sepulchres, with its terrace, connected by flights of steps, extends in unbroken succession forabout a mile and a half, till it reaches a beautifully-wooded hill, where the tombs become rarer. Amongst the immense heaps of stones fallen from the façades of the larger, are often seen fragments of marble, and excavations have uncovered many portrait-statues in every part of the Necropolis.
Turning back to the old theatre, there is found immediately beneath it the most splendid tomb which the ruins of Cyrene present, both from its gigantic dimensions and the excellent style of its architecture. It is entirely excavated, without any additions of masonry, presenting a large portico, supported by five square pillars, which forms a stately entrance to a very large chamber, succeeded by a smaller one. The centre pillars, with the rock which they supported, have fallen, and lie in one huge mass in front of the cave. It is now the habitation of a Bedawy, who one day very pressingly invited me to enter, to see his marble boxes, the fragments of two very elegantly-carved sarcophagi. Beneath this are the arches which I have already mentioned as belonging to a temple; and in the face of the hill, still further down, are some very large tombs, now devoid of all appearance of decoration.
In whatever direction one leaves the city, the tombs extend in long lines along the principal roads, they are found cut in the rocks of the most secluded valley,or built in groups on the summit of rising grounds. Of these the most interesting, beside the northern Necropolis, are those which flank the old road leading to Baria, and the long terraces on the western side of the Wady Bil Ghadir. I did not see the former till after I had been some time in Grennah, other objects having engaged all my attention; but, even when accustomed to the variety and vastness of its northern Necropolis, this struck me with astonishment. It was a lovely summer evening when I first came upon this long street of tombs, which is called by the Arabs the Market-place (El-suk), and passed for such with one of the earliest European travellers in this country—Lemaire. The long, deep shadows, with the glowing yellow of the sinking sun, concealed the ravages of time, and gave to the scene an air of solemn mystery which impressed the imagination and the eye. At every step some picturesque group of sarcophagi, or some large mausoleum, arrested the attention, and the sun had long set before I turned homewards. I often revisited this scene, and each time with renewed enjoyment. To reach it, one leaves the city by the gate near to what is supposed to have been the market-place of later times, when the traces of the old road soon show themselves. It is flanked on the left by a rock, artificially smoothed, and covered in a long row with niches square or oblong, and about one-third oftheir length in depth. Some have a square hole at the bottom, about three inches deep, which, though sometimes in the centre, is more often on one side. Such niches I have met with in other places, but here they are more numerous, and in a continuous line for some distance, interrupted once or twice by the door of a sepulchre. Their object it is difficult to determine; they could not have contained urns, for they are too small, as well as too exposed, being not more than three feet above the level of the road. They might have been regarded as receptacles for exvotos, had they been placed at a greater height. In this line of tombs are some remarkable structures, peculiar, I believe, to the Cyrenaica—circles of five or six feet high, surrounding a sarcophagus of the usual form. Most of them are in a very dilapidated condition, but there is one still nearly entire. It is formed of three layers of good masonry, making a square platform, on which the sarcophagus is placed, with a circle inscribed in the square of the base, formed by a ring of stones placed endwise in juxtaposition, no cement remaining between them; their dimensions are about five feet by three.
At the end of this street of tombs, turning to the left, and riding between low hills, where excavations and remains of buildings are rare, one comes to a quarter of the Necropolis unique in itsensemble, butnot in its individual parts. I have already mentioned the sarcophagi hewn out from the solid rock, which are found so frequently mixed with tombs of other forms; here they occur in large groups, rising one above the other, on the tops of the low hills out of which they are cut. The four sides of some of these sarcophagi stand clear of the rock, which is levelled all round; in others, only three sides or two are thus freed; many are in connected groups, three or four in a line, with no other external separation than a small space between their lids, and a narrow watercourse, to drain off the rains falling from their sloping roofs.
Continuing to make a wide circuit of the city, one comes upon the ruins of two forts, in one of which is a large cistern; thence, keeping to the left, the monuments are more scattered, but they assume larger proportions, and date, probably, from the times of the greatest prosperity. Some are circular towers on a square base, like the tomb of Cecilia Metella, near Rome; others have the form of a double cube, with roofs sloping at the sides, and terminated at the ends with triangular frontons. A partition, running the length of the building, generally separates these into two chambers, having a further division in height, so as to form two stories. The greater number of tombs in this direction present vestiges of former enrichmentwith statues or marble, and their sides are invariably decorated with flat pilasters. Most of these monuments are erected over excavated caves, which gives the idea of their being connected; the monument may have been added to the original cave-tomb, or the former destined for the master, and the latter for his slaves or freedmen. No part of the ruins of Cyrene offers so good a chance of profitable excavations as the tombs in this direction, but I am not sanguine in the hopes of the discovery of any objects in the highest style of art. Not a trace of an inscription is to be found on any of these monuments.
TOMBS OVER EXCAVATED CAVES.(Large-size)
TOMBS OVER EXCAVATED CAVES.(Large-size)
TOMBS OVER EXCAVATED CAVES.
(Large-size)
In the western valley, Wady Bil Ghadir, some of the finest tombs are found, on the side of the hill opposite to that one on which the older part of the town lay. This part is very attractive by its bold and picturesque scenery. Here is a deep ravine, forming an impregnable defence to this side of the town, the rocks on either hand towering almost perpendicularly above the narrow bed of the streamlet formed by its three fountains. Towards the higher point on one side is a small grove of most venerable cypresses (the remains, perhaps, of that planted by Battus), which crown the rock, and overshadow the tombs on the terraces below. The fig-tree, the olive, and the myrtle (here a tree twenty feet high), surround the tombs with luxuriant thickets, out of which streamletsissue, whose course far beneath is marked by thick bushes of oleanders crowned with their rosy flowers, and brambles covered at the same time with their pale blossoms, and with ripening fruit. Some of the tombs in this valley are the most elegant in their proportions, and the most carefully executed of any I have met with in this country; two or three still exhibit the polychromatic decoration of their architecture, and in a few are inscriptions, giving, indeed, only the names of the tenants without either title or date; but even these are interesting, when among them one finds a Jason, an Aristotle, and a Themistocles. The interesting pictures in fresco, representing a black female slave, which decorated the exterior of a tomb high up in one of the branches of this ravine, have been removed by M. Bourville, lately consular agent for France in Benghazi, and I hope that the intrinsic merit of the paintings, of which the engravings certainly make it difficult to judge, is such that their removal may add to our knowledge of ancient art. If not superior to those in the tomb I have described in the Northern Necropolis, their acquisition will add little to the treasures of the Louvre; their absence here is a disappointment to the lover of art. Two of the fountains show the remains of ancient sanctuaries near them, and inscriptions have been found connecting their erection with the name ofa pious matron. Many statues have been dug up on the sides of the hill, the best of which have been removed by their discoverers; those that remain exhibit the worst taste in design, and the clumsiest execution; their style is that of the statues produced in the masons’ yards at Leghorn, and intended, I believe, by the artists and the purchasers, whoever they may be, as ornaments for gardens.
Charming Scenery. — Arab Summer Dwellings. — Ruins of Apollonia. — Ancient Granaries. — Chapels over Saints’ Tombs. — Abd-el-Kader’s Warriors. — Temple of Bacchus.
TheWady Bil Ghadir, the Valley of Verdure, was one of the many beautiful ravines in this country which particularly attracted my admiration; it was one of my favourite haunts; and often did I climb its sides—occasionally at the risk of my neck—or saunter more safely in the perpetual shade of its stream-course. In the neighbourhood of Grennah, the hills abound with beautiful scenes, and these I gradually discovered in my rides; some of them exceeded in richness of vegetation, and equalled in grandeur, anything that is to be found in the Appenines. About a mile from the town on the south, one comes upon extensive remains of a fortress situated on the edge of one of these ravines, the Wady Leboaitha, which runs nearly due east; the valley is filled withtombs, and frequented by countless flights of wood-pigeons. Following the ravine, and turning to the left, we enter the Wady Shelaleh, which presents a scene beyond my powers of description. The olive is here contrasted with the fig, the tall cypress and the dark juniper with the arbutus and myrtle, and the pleasant breeze, which always blows through the valley, is laden with balmy perfumes. In the midst of this wonderful richness of nature appear the gray rocks, hollowed into large and inaccessible caverns, or gently receding in wooded slopes, and sometimes rising perpendicularly, and meeting so as to leave but a narrow passage between them.
Between the range of hills on which Cyrene was built, and the rising ground which so abruptly descends to the sea-shore, the broad plain, which from above seems a flat expanse, is found to be deeply indented with many wood-clad hollows. On their borders, ruined buildings or crumbling tombs contrast with the wooden hut of the present occupant of the soil—the monumental industry of fallen civilisation with the slothful hut of victorious barbarism.
August29.—It was a bright cool morning when I started to visit Marsa Souya, the old Apollonia. The road follows the line of the cemetery until it reaches the hill whose secular cypresses I have so often admired; hence it descends into the plain, taking nearlya north-east direction. At an hour from Grennah I came upon excavations which must have formed part of the dependencies of a country-house. In a good-sized cave, into which one descends by three steps, is seen a large circular basin hollowed in the rock, four feet in diameter, and standing about ten inches above the floor. In its centre is a square hole, as if for fixing an upright beam. One side of the cave is occupied by a long stone bench, in which is hollowed out a larger mortar, having a slit down the outer side. There can be no reasonable doubt that this was an oil press. The country still abounds with fine old olive trees, but its inhabitants have forgotten their use; when the fruit is ripe, they assemble their sheep and cattle round the trees and shake and beat the branches, while the animals greedily devour the precious produce as it falls to the ground. The plain is in this direction covered with the olive mixed with the caroub, now loaded with its long dark pods. When left thus to the hand of nature, the caroub becomes an immense bush, pushing out suckers all round the parent trunk, which in size is hardly to be distinguished among them. The Bedawin have taken possession of many of the largest of these trees, and make them their summer residence, clearing out the centre and filling up the lower parts with walls of dry branches, above which the dark-green foliage rises with strange effect to the eye, butaffording a most grateful shade from the sun. In such a bower I found four men seated round a rude forge repairing broken muskets; while in others women were employed in household cares, such as the grinding of flour, or the weaving of the coarse hair-cloth of which the winter tents are made. From here we turned to seek a pass through the hills, and as the old road has now become, if not impracticable, at least most difficult for horses, we took a path a little to the left, passing over ground covered with old junipers; the twisted and contorted ash-gray trunks of these trees, and their small tufts of hoary green, for they have no other vegetation when very old, give the forest an appearance of decrepitude. The trees look like little old men bent, and bowed, and bald. From this the descent to the coast, even by the better road we had followed, is very precipitous. The supply of water had been forgotten, and a leather bag of milk, offered by a goatherd whom we met, was most welcome. Having at last, after much slipping and stumbling, reached the point where the pass emerges from the hills, we found ourselves in a fertile plain, which it took nearly an hour to traverse before reaching the sea. The water is bad and scarce, and this plain is, therefore, only inhabited in the winter, when it is sown with wheat and barley, and as soon as these crops are cut, the Arabs, with their tents, remove to a station in the hills. The inhabitantswere long since in the summer retreat, but we found two men threshing corn by the antique process of treading, which, as all readers of books of travels know, is still practised in parts of Egypt and Syria. I do not remember to have seen the process described as I found it practised here, and there may be others who may think it as curious as it seemed to me. Four oxen abreast are fastened together by the horns, their heads close to each other; a fifth is in like way fastened to the inner one of these four, but the rope which secures his horns is tied round the middle of the belly of a sixth, whose head is in the same way fastened to him. This last pair, when driven, form as it were a revolving pivot, round which the four others move. One man drives them, and another is employed in heaping fresh corn upon the floor, and removing the straw which, by this process, is broken into small lengths, while the grain is, after all, but imperfectly separated from it. Riding on through the plain, we found it, though cultivated, extensively covered with the beautiful evergreen shrub, called in Italy, and here by the Arabs,Baturne; it yields a medicinal berry. We now reached a group of low rocks hollowed out into many sepulchral caves. The soil has a reddish tint (whose reflection is heating to the eyes), which with a bright sun made the ride a hot one. On the sea-shore, just without the town, and opposite to arocky island covered with excavations and ruins, we found a well of very brackish water, which is the only one in this neighbourhood; the town had been formerly supplied by the water of a fountain nearly three miles off, conveyed to it by an aqueduct, portions of whose ruins we had passed. This want of water renders a stay here very inconvenient, and prevented me following my original intention of spending some days in this place. The city was built on a semicircular line of rocks close to the shore, and buildings are still visible beneath the waters which have here encroached upon the old boundaries, probably by subsidence of the land. The fortifications on the land side are well preserved, and remarkable for a large round tower still almost entire, which rises at the south-west corner; it is connected with some large buildings in this part of the city, apparently of a castle; towers flank the wall at irregular distances, and the position of one gate is well marked, though now blocked up by fallen ruins. Clambering over the wall one gains the interior of the city, which is crowded with heaps of ruins, and presents the same confusion as a child’s castle of wooden bricks when the last story has rendered it top-heavy and the whole falls upon itself. Some arches rise above the soil, and in a few places pieces of wall; the ground is thickly strewed with large heaps of stone, columns of white marble and cipollino,whose capitals are in general of indifferent workmanship. The sites of ten large churches, each with an apse, are easily traced; and the columns and cones of the capitals, adorned with the hall and cross, seem to indicate the fifth century as their date. The difficulty of excavating would be extreme, on account of the size of the heaps of stone which cover the ground, and the weight of the masses; but this circumstance, rendering it almost impossible for the Arabs to make any researches among the ruins, may probably have secured for the first person who is able to undertake the costly task, a rich harvest of early Christian antiquities. The theatre, outside the town, is more perfectly preserved than anything within it; nearly one-half of the seats remain, but the proscenium has long since fallen into the sea, whose encroaching waters now fill the orchestra.
Returning by the same road I turned to the right, about an hour and a half from Grennah, to see the great caves called Maghyenat by the Arabs, and which are, in fact, supposed to have served as magazines for the merchandise coming from Apollonia to Cyrene. They are situated at the foot of a hill, which is covered with ruins, including those of a temple; everything seems to indicate that in this spot a considerable town must have once existed, though the imperfect notices of the ancient geography of this country which havereached us, do not mention a town or village in this place. The caves are very extensive, supported by rude columns, irregularly disposed. One has a square fore-court cut in the rock, and seems to have been adorned with a façade; another has a broad flight of steps leading down to the interior, which is covered with an archway in masonry. There are three of these caves, from 100 to 120 feet square, and they show nothing that could lead to the conjecture that they were ever intended for sepulture; while their situation, as well as the name they have preserved to the present day, render the supposition that they served as magazines highly probable. I found one filled with hay and grain, and another was occupied as the habitation of several families. Turning homewards from this place, and crossing a deep ravine, we reached a very large natural circus at the foot of the hills, from above which flowed an abundant stream. The elliptical form was so perfectly defined that it was long before I could persuade myself that it had not been used as a circus in ancient times; but, though there are remains of building about the fountain, the remainder showed no appreciable marks of cutting away of the rock to form seats, or of the addition of masonry to complete the circuit. Another hour brought us, with the setting sun, back to the tents.
Tuesday, September7.—This morning I rode tothe sea-shore, taking a north-west direction, to visit some ruins, which an Arab had assured me existed there. I was in hope of finding some remains of Phycus, which must have existed in this direction, or of the Garden of the Hesperides, which Scylax and other old authorities place in its neighbourhood. The country as far as the hills differed in no respect from that I had already seen—exhibiting a plain partly of rich soil, partly of rock, and cut up with deep ravines. We rode down the Wady El Agâra, and reaching the hills, found, at a distance of two hours from Cyrene, ruins, apparently of a stronghold, on which is now built a marābut, called Sidi Kelileh. It is remarkable that so many of these chapels, raised over the graves of reputed saints, should be met with in all Moslem countries, and that even the tomb of the Prophet should be a mosque; for this mode of honouring the dead is the object of a special prohibition, uttered, one would think, in too solemn a moment to be lightly transgressed. In El Tabaray’s account of the Prophet’s death, he relates, on the authority of a tradition derived from Aïsha, his favourite wife, that on the day when he died, as he lay covered with a black cloak, his face to the wall, almost his last words were, “May God be unpropitious to those who make the tombs of his prophets places of prayer.” I know not how the difficulty is got over; perhaps, such tombs (being insidethe chapels, or inclosed in railings, so that prayers are not saiduponthem) are not supposed to come within the meaning of the prohibition; in all Moslem countries many such chapels are found, and in no country more frequently than in this, where ignorant fanaticism still exists in a degree unequalled in the other Turkish provinces I have visited.
From Sidi Kelileh we reached the summit of the range in an hour, and saw the sea at a gun-shot from the base of the thickly-wooded hill. Far to the right, the promontory of Nanstathmus, and about half-way between, on the shore, the ruins of Apollonia; to the left, the mountain gradually closing upon the sea, which, a little further on, washes its base; but there is no promontory here visible, nor had any of the natives ever heard of Ras-sem or Razat. The only indication which I could find of a promontory was at a point called El Bilanîch, where the shore makes a very slight bend outwards, and above it the hills rise lofty, and very thickly wooded. A little to the right of the place where I descended we found a spring of sweet water, the only one on this coast—perhaps therefore the same at which the companions of Ulysses landed, when driven by stress of weather from off Cape Malia to the country of the Lotophagi. On the sea-shore, to the left, are the ruins of a strong tower, built of squared stones without cement, called by the Arabs Arbîah,which seems to have served only as a fortalice, for there are no remains to indicate here the site of a town. Further on to the west is a curious shallow quarry cut in steps, from which the stones for the tower seem to have been extracted; and a little further on, a modern Arab khan, called Furtâs, in the walls of which ancient materials are built. Thence I rode on to Bilanîeh, where I found some excavations and levelled places on the rock, which may mark the site of Phycus. The sea-line from here turning slightly west by south-west, there seems no other place which will answer to the description of Phycus. I now climbed the hill above El Bilanîeh, and not finding the Garden of the Hesperides, whose golden fruit would have been most grateful, I rested for a couple of hours under a stunted ilex. The face of the hill was very steep, and the horses had hard work among the smooth rocks in some places, but it only took half an hour to reach the summit, from which the table-land at once extends. Two hours and a quarter west by north-west of Grennah, we came upon considerable ruins, consisting of a large open reservoir; a small building with a well-preserved apse; and a larger one, probably of Arab construction, as it contained several pointed arches as well as one round arch. My guide called this place Shuni. Eastward we met with numerous remains of building and tombs, presenting nothingremarkable; their frequency, however indicates the populous condition of the country in former times, of which another proof presented itself on our road homewards in a large and deep cistern, excavated in the rock, to receive the rain-waters. After my Arabs had drunk of its very muddy water, we rode onwards, crossing the Wady Mala’ab, pursued on our very horses by the fierce barking of the dogs of an Algerian donâr, which had been for many months pitched in the plain below Grennah. Its inhabitants were as fine specimens of uncivil fanatics as one need wish to meet; they did not even deign to call off their dogs when the Christian stranger passed their circular encampment. Their chief is somewhat more politic; he frequently visited my tents, said that the English were good men, who beat the French, and then begged a supply of shot or writing-paper. He and his companions had long fought under Abd-el-Kader, and quitted their country rather than submit to infidel domination.
To conclude my account of the more remarkable excursions around Grennah, I shall here in a few words speak of the vast conduit which exists at a place now called Saf-saf. It lies to the south-east of Grennah, at a distance of an hour and three-quarters, and is remarkable not only for its magnificent structure, which resembles in size the Cloaca Maxima ofRome (though of a much later date), but also for the inscriptions, or rather quarry-marks, which are found on the stones of which the noble arch is built. These are very curious, containing not only Greek characters, like those in the reservoir at Cyrene (which this conduit seems to have been destined to supply), but also other characters, resembling those of the Tawaricks, or the Thugga inscription. The following I copied, and I believe it is a tolerably complete list of all that exist in this place: Α,[Symbol], Δ∇, ΤΡΟ,[Symbol], Π,[Symbols],[Symbols], Κ[+][Symbol], Ω,[Symbol],[Symbol],[+], ×,[Symbol],[Symbol], the last six being apparently Libyan characters—a circumstance not to be wondered at, if we consider that the aboriginal population of the country would probably furnish a large contingent to the labouring classes. At one end the walls are covered with Arabic inscriptions, recording the visits of various Beys of Benghazi and other personages—a mark of interest rarely met with in the East. The winter rains were still collected in this reservoir; and when I was there at the end of summer, notwithstanding the drought of the last years, there was still a small supply of water remaining in one part of the vast archway.
The walls of the town are still to be traced, and the ground-plans of several buildings; but none are of any importance, excepting a small temple, with fluted pilasters, only wanting the roof and fronton, which,with the entablature, lie on the ground before it. It is mentioned by Della Cella as a temple of Bacchus, with a frieze of vine-leaves and grapes, but of these I could distinguish no trace, and I am inclined to think that the lichens with which it is overgrown may have, at a distance, deceived him. The line of tombs extends the whole way from Cyrene to Jafsuf, and a large conduit covered with heavy stones runs along the side of the road.
Grennah, a Charming Retreat. — Pleasant Camping-ground. — Rencontre with an Arab Saint. — The Son of a Rich Prince. — Striking Cures.
Afterspending six weeks in Grennah, I struck my tent most unwillingly, and made preparations to continue my journey eastwards. It was too late in the autumn longer to sojourn here, as I wished to see the other remains of antiquity which exist in this country. The rains set in usually about the middle of November, and then come down with a violence which no tent can resist. But I cannot quit my pleasant quarters near the fountain without a few words in praise of a country where I have found both recreation and health. I have already told what abundant materials of interest it offers to the antiquarian. The sportsman will find ample employment among the red-legged partridges, quails, and kata’ah, a sort of yellow grouse, and a little further south, he will meet with the gazelle and the houbāra, or bustard; while the lover of a luxuriousclimate, decked with all the beauties of nature, will sympathise in the story of the Odyssey, and easily picture to himself the difficulty with which the Ithacan tore away his companions from the land of the Lotophagi. A more delightful residence for the summer months cannot be imagined. The nights and mornings are always cool. In the daytime the thermometer ranges from 75° to 98°, the highest I have seen it; but there blows all day a cool breeze from the sea, which renders the heat insensible in the tent, and quite endurable on horseback. The means of comfortable existence are by no means wanting. A sheep costs from 4s. 6d. to 6s., and will keep good for four days; vegetables and fruit can be obtained from Derna, where the grape, the banana, the pear, and the water-melon, are abundant; potatoes, bamias, tomatoes, cucumbers, and many other vegetables, may also be had there. Vegetables are likewise cultivated in this neighbourhood, in the little gardens of the Bedawin; and the milk of their cows affords the richest cream I ever tasted, though the pale butter which is made from it is not very good. A man must, therefore, be very hard to please, as far as the substantial necessaries of life are concerned, if he be not satisfied with such fare as this country affords; of course, wine, beer, biscuits, cheese, and such other superfluities, must be obtained from Malta. There is also to be hadhere a substitute for the Swiss “cure de raisins,” in the camel’s-milk, which, from experience, I can recommend as singularly efficacious. When drunk fresh, it is hardly to be distinguished from the milk of the cow, though richer; but in cooling it acquires a most disagreeable salt-taste. Warm or cold, it is equally efficacious, and might fairly take its place among the remedies prescribed by the faculty. If nowhere else in Europe, it might probably be obtained in Pisa, from the farm of the Grand Duke.
To the traveller who has tarried in Egypt till the spring—who is tired of Syria, and unwilling to go to Europe, a more delightful retreat for summer cannot be suggested. The air is far purer than in any part of Italy, the scenery more beautiful and more varied, and fever and dysentery are unknown. From early spring to the middle of October, no rain ever falls, though the sky after the middle of August is almost always cloudy; a heavy night-dew supplies the moisture which, at this season, covers the hills with a fresh coat of verdure. The distance from Alexandria to Derna is not great, and there is constant communication by sea between the two places. I should recommend for encampment one of the terraces in the eastern part of the Wady Bil Ghadir, a little beyond the first fountain, in descending the Wady from the south, rather than the fountain by which I pitched my tents. Thereis here a triangular patch of ground, beneath a lofty rock, which shelters it from the mid-day and evening sun; trees rise on every side, and there is a break in the hills, giving a lovely peep of the sea. The ground is dry gravel; along the edge of the terrace runs a streamlet of water from the fountain; and, near at hand, are some caves, which, if cleaned out, would make commodious store-rooms, or would serve other useful purposes. It is not, like the fountain, a place of resort for the camels, oxen, goats, sheep, and Bedawin, in the neighbourhood; and is free, therefore, from the dirt and insects they leave behind them. Where I was, the wind is sometimes disagreeable, raising clouds of dust which filled the tent; the other spot is more sheltered, and even in high wind, is secure from dust. If the traveller is accompanied by such a guide as Mohammed, who spent all his time in buying beeves, let him be prepared to have a hundred objections raised to the situation, as this place is not convenient for such purchases—“experto crede.”
From the disagreeable experience I have had of the servants of this country, I should advise travellers to bring with them all the servants they may require, even to a groom, either Maltese, or what is better still, Egyptians. Their ignorance of the roads is of little consequence, as few of the Benghazi people are acquainted with them; for guides it is better to trust thecamel-drivers: by doing so the travellers will have servants who know their duty, and who, having no private interests to serve in the country, fear not to displease the people; Mohammed, serving his own, utterly neglected my interests. Egyptian servants would not be more expensive than Benghazini, and they have none of that overweening Moslem pride, which makes the latter regard a Christian as something infinitely beneath them.
There is one nuisance in Cyrene, too characteristic of the country not to be mentioned. A small community of Derwishes, or Marābuts, as they are called here, has established itself lately in one of the largest tombs not far from the fountain. They belong to an order recently founded by a reputed saint, called the Sheikh Es-Senousy, and their president in Grennah is a fanatic of the first water, who will not defile his eyes by even looking at a Christian. He busily employed himself after my arrival here, in impressing upon my servants the degradation of serving me. The consequence was, that they all grew so uncivil—I must except the cook—that I was at last obliged to change them. The groom—an eater of pork and drinker of wine in the town—here missed none of the five prayers; and, between the devotion of my servants and their visitors, the encampment resounded all day long with “Allah akbar!” I was glad to see somuch religion among my people; but I could have wished it productive of a little more civility.
Not content with giving such good lessons to the servants, his saintship was, it seems, seriously annoyed by my presence here; and particularly at my having once or twice passed before the cave which he inhabits. He sent some of his people here, to say that, if I or my Christian servant again passed before his door, he would fire upon us; but Mohammed, who received the message, knew me too well to deliver it. By chance, that same afternoon, whilst I was engaged below, among some of the other tombs, my servant took this path, little suspecting that he should thereby incur the holy man’s displeasure. Two Arabs, armed with large stones, came to oblige him to turn back; but he, luckily, had his gun in his hand, and they consequently retreated. Next morning, I sent to Abou Bekr, to complain of the insult offered to me, assuring him that not a day should pass thenceforward without my taking the tabooed road. It was too delicate a matter, it seems, for him to deal with directly, the church assuming here, as elsewhere, a separate jurisdiction; he, therefore, sent one of his sons to the superior of the chief convent, with letters to request the punishment of the offenders. Meantime, I kept my word, and, in going out in the evening, I took this road; when I found an assemblage of some thirty Arabs, of all ages, preparedto bar my passage. As I advanced quietly, they drew on one side, but as I passed them, one small stone was thrown at, but missed me; on which I turned, and, going straight among them, desired to know the name of the fellow who had thrown the stone. This information, naturally enough, I could not obtain from them; but I had seen the man who threw the stone, remarking that he was more than ordinarily ugly; I, therefore, threatened that I would have both him and them punished.
The next day the offenders were brought before the great Sheikh’s secretary—a man, I discovered, of good sense and manners—who condemned them, with their superior, to fifty strokes a-piece of his three-tailed courbaj—a punishment which was immediately administered, and will not, I hope, be soon forgotten. It was really necessary to enforce such punishment, however painful to one’s own feelings; for lenity to these people, whose chief intelligence lies in the soles of their feet, would only have emboldened them to more serious attacks. The next day, Hamed, son of Abou Bekr, arrived to enforce their superior’s orders on the Derwishes; and he then came to pay me a visit, to make his father’s excuses for not having returned mine; his soldiers, he said, were busy collecting the miri, so that he could not assemble a sufficient escort to enable him to come with safety.This excuse, though strange, was perfectly true, for, in fact, this Arab Sheikh and Bey could not venture beyond the walls of his castle, even to his hareem, at the distance of a bow-shot, without a guard. His visit, including the dinner, did not occupy more than four hours, a very reasonable visitation from an Arab. He seemed not wanting in intelligence; and yet he could not, or would not, tell me the number of men under his father’s jurisdiction, nor even the number of tribes. Indeed, he appeared to have doubts as to the exact number of his ten brothers: first, he said they were nine; then, on counting them all over on his fingers, eleven, but he included himself. This son of a prince of great comparative wealth—Abou Bekr being worth at least some 5000l. a year—the possessor of wives, and herds, and flocks, wore a shirt as filthy as the Catholic Isabella’s, a cotton skull-cap to match, a burneau far from clean, and a pair of slippers as shabby and worn as the meanest Bedawy’s. At the end of the visit, he told me he was badly off for soap, as his appearance too plainly testified, and asked for a square, which, with not a little grumbling, my servant gave him. Poor fellow! he has an abscess in the side, which threatens him with consumption, unless the favourite remedy for all inward complaints in this country—burning with a hot iron—should effect a cure. He promised to consult a medical man who is at Derna atpresent; but I know that he will not do so, for fear of having to pay for a consultation or the medicines. The Arabs are fond enough of taking medicine when they can procure it gratis, but to pay for it seems against their creed. When the purse-strings are to be drawn, then they say, as he did, “Allah houa es-shafry”—“God is the curer,” to which I answered him, by completing the sentence, as it is inscribed over the pharmacy of the Benfratelli in Rome, “Nos remedium, Deus salutem.”
The people of the country, when seriously ill, will go long distances to obtain advice from a European doctor; but rather than pay for the medicine he orders, they will hand over more than its price to one of their Fikkehs for an amulet or an incantation. These are the learned men generally employed as tutors, or schoolmasters, or readers of the Koran. They ascribe all illnesses to Satanic influence; and their exorcisms are directed to drive the Devil out of the patient. I am somewhat incredulous as to this origin of disease; but I confess that the cures they sometimes perform are astonishing. When called to a sick person, they generally begin by telling his friends that he has so many devils; then, after a time, they will say only so many remain; and, finally, after further exorcisms, not unaccompanied by an increased honorary (no pay, no pater-noster), they sometimesreally succeed in effecting a perfect cure. Even Jews and Christians resort to them; and I heard a well-authenticated instance from a medical man, who had himself visited the patient, of a rheumatic fever cured in this way. On this occasion the invalid was confined to bed, unable to move, and his Fikkeh assured him he was held down by many devils. He, therefore, after some prayers, belaboured them soundly with a courbaj, to make them depart. The strokes intended for the devils, naturally enough, made the patient also smart; and the pain of the flogging exceeding, I suppose, that of the rheumatism, the sick man at last started up to escape it, and the devils were declared to be expelled; but next day they returned, when the Fikkeh was again summoned, his remedy was again applied with undiminished energy, and the man was really cured. Poor old Keate would have been as great a Fikkeh in the East as he was in the West. Whilst I was in Benghazi, a Jewish girl who had been mad for a long time, was restored to her senses by one of these men; but on this occasion only prayers and fumigations were used. I have not seen any of these cures performed; but relying fully on the sources from which I obtained my information, have no doubt of their truth; admitting certain of the strange mental phenomena produced by so-called animal magnetism, I do not see, indeed, why I need disbelieve them.Whilst on the subject of wonders, I may mention, that discoverers of stolen property are not less frequently met with here than in Egypt; and that they often succeed in indicating either the thief, or the place where the missing goods are concealed, but never both, though more frequently the latter than the former, which indicates pretty clearly that their knowledge is to be attributed to the fears of the culprit.
An Arab “Vendetta.” — Coquetry at the Wells. — A Bridal Procession. — The Okbah Pass.
September 12th.—It was late in the day before the camels which I had engaged to take my luggage to Derna were ready, and much time was lost, even after a start was made, before they were fairly in march. This is almost always the case the first day of a journey with new camels, as their owners are never content with the distribution of the luggage, each seeking to lighten his own load at the expense of his fellows.
The road for an hour and a half follows the direction of Safsaf, and then turning to the right proceeds over an undulating country, from which, occasionally, ravines run down to the lower ground, and in these the cedar or cypress trees afford a welcome shade. I have already spoken of these trees, the universal ornament of this country; but I must not omit to mentionthat they are of a peculiar species. The wood is of a pale yellowish colour, like that of the cypress, and has the same perfume; but the tree itself assumes an infinity of shapes, and in this respect is certainly the most beautiful that I have ever seen. It rarely grows in the straight spiral form of the common cypress; more frequently its branches stretch out at right angles to the trunk, like the cedar of Lebanon, and sometimes it assumes a parasol form, like the stone pine; but whatever its form, it always throws a deep broad shade. At two hours and three-quarters from Grennah are the ruins of a square fortalice; these, and large heaps of squared stones in the neighbourhood, marking the site of other buildings, seem to show that it was a place of some size. Beneath the ruin is a well, called Labrak, in a wide grassy plain, where some twenty years ago a bloody battle was fought, which resulted in the establishment of my friend Abou Bekr’s power, and in the total overthrow of the tribe of Beni Hadhra, seven hundred of whom are said to be buried in this spot. The remainder, with their chief, a cousin-german of the conqueror, fled to Egypt, where they obtained a settlement in the Fazoum; but they are ready to return the instant a chance of obtaining revenge presents itself. This may not be distant, as the Bey has a feud with another branch of his family, which feud the government of Benghazi is endeavouring to put anend to, but with small hopes of success, his enemies having sworn, “by the divorce,” to destroy Abou Bekr or leave the country. The continuance of his rule hardly seems desirable, as both he and his son are accused of the wildest excesses and basest meannesses of which Arabs can be guilty, in addition to systematic oppression of the people. Our excellent Vice-Consul in Derna told me that, a few days before my arrival, one of the sons of my host of Cariab came to beg a little sugar of him. He was then living in the Bazaar, and came to the Consul’s residence outside the town, hoping thus to save himself the few piastres, with which he could have bought what he wanted. These men will ask for or take, according to circumstances, whatever they see, were it only a scrap of cotton enough to make a skull-cap.
An hour and a quarter from Labrak lies Gabiout Younes, marked by large ruins, among which are many arches; a large building which, from its style, I thought Byzantine; and another, certainly Saracenic, approached by a lofty arched gateway. This building is composed of vaulted chambers, and was the first specimen of Saracenic architecture I had met with, but it is entirely destitute of other decoration than the beautiful light arch of the gateway. Here, as in every spot where ancient buildings are found, are large reservoirs. Only three-quarters of an hour further on are the moreextensive ruins called by the Arabs Tirt (like dirt), in the maps Tereth, containing four castle-like buildings and many tombs. Two old reservoirs serve as a Zavia, or habitation of Derwishes, of the same order as my friends of Grennah, and I found here the largest encampment of Bedawy (of the ’Ailet Ghaith) which I have yet seen. They suffered me to wander about the ruins without molestation, but showed no signs of friendliness—thanks, doubtless, to the instructions of the Derwishes, who have been of late years very active in these countries in spreading a feeling of hostility to Christians. Northwards from the ruins extends a plain called Haou el Zouz. From here, continuing nearly eastwards, in two hours and a quarter we passed the ruins of Lamloudeh, formerly Limnis, covering a large space of ground, but, as usual in this country, without a trace of inscriptions. There is a tolerably preserved castle, which seems to have received at a period long subsequent to its erection an additional fortification in a sloping embankment, some eight feet high, of small unsquared stones piled against the walls. Here, and at Tirt, I remarked large numbers of round and oval flat stones hollowed on one side to a depth of about six inches, with a square hole in the centre. Excepting one which lies flat and, I think, in its original position, all the others are sticking upright in the ground. They are more like mill-stones than anythingelse; but, besides some of them being oval, their size is so large, varying from forty-five to sixty inches in diameter, and their number is so great, that I can hardly think this their original destination. There is to be seen in Rome a stone called the “Bocca della verità” which has nearly the same form as these; it was the mouth of a sewer, according to the general account, and perhaps these stones may have served as the covers of cisterns; but I found none connected with any existing excavation. The ruins are built on the side of a hill and contain many arches, all bearing the impress of the Roman period. Beneath the town lay four very large reservoirs connected with each other, partly cut in the rock, partly built. A little to the east is a subterraneous passage, now very much choked up, which the Arabs pretend communicates with the citadel, and near it are many broken sarcophagi and cave tombs, as far as I was able to see, all devoid of ornament.
From Lamloudeh the road passes through a beautiful wood of arbutus, over long low hills, which, leaving Zimah to the right, gradually descend into a plain, watered by two fountains, which is called the Kubbeh. The stream issues in considerable volume from the rock, in front of which still stands a portico (El Kubbeh) supported by five (formerly eight) square pillars. In front the ground is covered withremains of buildings apparently connected with the fountain, and the rocks behind contain a great many large tombs, as well as a flight of steps leading to the ground above. Round the fountain I found large flocks of sheep and goats, with their shepherds, who were busy drawing water, with which they filled troughs formed of stones taken from the old buildings; women also, who, with their donkeys, had come for the supply of water required for their households. Here I seated myself on the top of the portico, in the shade of the rock, against which it is built, waiting for my camels to come up, and found amusement enough in watching the coquetries of the ladies and the awkward gallantries of the men. The well is still, as in the days of Rebecca, the place for flirtations. The filling two skins and tying them on the donkey were so adroitly managed, that, with many words and much laughter, the men seeming to aid, but really impeding the operation, at least two hours were consumed at the well. The Bedawin, as I have already said, are very sparing in their use of water, their bread even being generally made with milk, so that the visits to the wells, often at a great distance, are only made once in three or four days. Whilst I sat on the Kubbeh, a wedding party conducting a bride to her husband came in sight, and for two hours I had the amusement of watching them, as it is a point of honour to consumethe whole day on the road from the bride’s house to her husband’s tent; and as this was at no great distance, and the Kubbeh a sort of public place, it took the party two hours to go over a space which I rode along in five minutes. The bride was invisible, shut up in an arched box called a carmout, placed on a camel, the centre part or arch covered with black hair-cloth, the ends with white cotton, the housings of the camel being also of a dark colour. The cortège consisted of six horsemen (among whom were neither her father nor her husband), several men, and eight or ten women on foot. At every hundred paces the procession stopped, the women raised the wild cry of rejoicing called Zaghazhit, and some of the men performed a sort of awkward dance in front of the camel, which ended with a discharge of guns. Whilst in sight they once varied the entertainment with a mimic fight, when there was much waste of powder, and once, on a level piece of ground, the horsemen gave chase to each other, the only graceful feature in their sports. Then, with a fresh burst of the Zaghazhit from the ladies, the procession moved on. From what I hear of the fair sex in this country, they do not seem to have much degenerated from the reputation which Herodotus has given to their predecessors the Gindanes. Of course I am unwilling to believe all the scandaloustales which were told me, but the existence of such stories seems to prove that irregularities, unknown or carefully concealed in other Mussulman countries, here excite little attention. Divorces are frequent, but they arise most frequently from the caprice of the men, and, far from being considered disgraceful to the lady, many persons prefer those who have already made the happiness of second husbands to inexperienced maidens, as their successive dowers, paid in full at each divorce, frequently make them, for the country, wealthy. The usualcorbeilgiven to a bride consists of four rotoli of silver, half a rotolus of gold, and some pieces of stuff for dresses. Only a part of the metal is in general paid down, the remainder a debt due, in case of divorce, to the lady, or, in case of her death, to her heirs, that is, her children, or, if she have left none, to her family.
To the north of El-Kubbeh, not in the direct road to Derna, lies Messakit, where are some curious caves, one of them containing rudely-carved emblems, of Christian origin. A gently-undulating plain leads eastward to Beit Thamr, near which are many excavations, one of them evidently part of a country house, where the apparatus for pressing oil is still to be seen, hewn in the living rock. This is one of the places where bees are reared in great numbers, for the sakeprincipally of their wax. Our English bees would, perhaps, rebel, if one attempted to house them in the long wooden boxes, which here supply the place of the elegant and commodious habitations they are accustomed to; but their fellows of the Cyrenaica, though less pampered, produce larger supplies of wax, and the honey almost vies in flavour with that of Hymettus. After passing Beit Thamr, the road enters a valley, called Brouk, filled with small streams, the last which are met with till close upon Derna. Above, on the heights, are ruins of a castle, and along the valley many excavations, one of which, containing a fountain, has a number of niches, as if for votive offerings or statues. Here the road begins to ascend through a beautiful wooded country, affording cover to numbers of the red-legged partridge, of which we started whole coveys at every turn. The grave of a Marābut, called Sidi Yadem, on the top of this ridge, was our sleeping place. From this point to the summit of the steep descent which leads to the coast, is a journey of four hours and a half, over rising grounds, affording, in the breaks of the hills, occasional glimpses of the sea; and on the heights are many remains of ruined fortalices. The descent, called the Okbah, though certainly steep, is not the fearful pass which it has been described; and in all this journey I never had occasion, from thebadness of the road, to dismount from horseback. In the last years, I believe something has been done to improve this piece of road, which may be considered good by any one who is acquainted with the passes of the Lebanon.
Improvidence of the Arabs. — Derna, its lively appearance. — Ruined Battery. — Curious Bargain.
Fromthe summit of the Okbah one looks down upon a long line of coast, the view extending to the promontory Ras el Hilal (Nausthasmus) on the left, and eastward to the Ras el Tin. The hills which run along the sea-line to the right are barren sandstone; the coast, a line of low rocks; and from this point Derna is only just visible, as a dark spot on the sea-shore in the midst of glaring sands. It took an hour to descend from this height to the more level ground; and the intense heat reflected from the sandy soil, where not a shrub affords the slightest shade, made this the least pleasant three hours’ ride I had yet had in this country. Neither well nor fountain is met with in this day’s march till about an hour from Derna, where a brackish spring issues from the rock, and flows directly into the sea, in a situation where it is difficultto find it. At length, after ascending a low hill of sand, which had hitherto bounded the view ahead, the green gardens of Derna relieve the eye, lying between the foot of bare rocky hills and the sea. Here I was most kindly received by the English Vice-Consul, Mr. Aquilina, whose ready hospitality I with difficulty declined, being unwilling to inflict the presence of strange servants on his establishment. Through his kindness I was soon put in possession of a garden, where I pitched my tent under the shade of its palms and fig-trees. Though we had not before met, I was already indebted to this gentleman for many of the attentions shown me while at Grennah; and during my stay here I derived from him much valuable information—the result of his thirteen years’ residence among them—regarding the people of the country and their governors.
Leo Africanus, in the sixth book of his “Description of Africa,” gives an account of the poverty of the inhabitants of Barca, and tells how they were in the habit of bartering their children for corn with the merchants of Sicily. The spontaneous fertility and pastoral wealth of the country, as I saw it, seemed to contradict this account, though the general fidelity of the author inclined me to place almost implicit belief in him. In Derna I afterwards learned, that his description, instead of exceeding, falls far short ofthe truth during the seasons when the country is desolated by one of those blights which occur at uncertain periods. The Arabs of Gebel-el-Achdar are among the least provident people in the world; and when a reverse befalls them, are one and all, the poor and the wealthy, reduced to the greatest straits. When the crops are abundant, everything becomes dear, labour can be obtained on no terms, the Arab refuses to sell either his cattle or flocks, he buys slaves and horses at any price, and setting his cap on one side, spends all his time in riding and gormandising. But sometimes a flight of locusts descends upon the country, and in a few hours every blade of corn or grass, and every leaf, have disappeared; or successive years of drought wither up the crops, and then, no provender remaining for the cattle, the wells are exhausted, and pestilence, which spares neither man nor beast, follows hard upon the scarcity and the drought. Then, though too late, the Arab is as anxious to sell all he has at any price he can obtain, as he was before hard in his dealings and careless of reasonable gain. He eats the corn reserved for seed, and when the rains at length descend to fecundate the country, the fields remain unsown. Such a visitation came upon them some eight years ago. Their cattle, the great wealth of the country, died for want of food; the next year there was no grain for sowing, and then the miserywas so terrible that it would require the pen of a Defoe to describe it. The strongest guard was insufficient to insure the safety of the traveller in such a season; misery rendered the people desperate, so that it seemed easier to them to die in combat than by the slow agony of want. Parents sold their children literally for a few measures of barley: a very pretty girl was offered to one of my acquaintance for two dollars; and I know some persons who, through pure compassion, bought children at this price. The dying were devoured even before life was extinct; and in the ravings of hunger, as eye-witnesses have related to me, the poor wretches would gnaw the thighs and arms of those who, more reduced than themselves, were too weak to defend themselves. Thousands emigrated into Egypt, and hundreds of them died of exhaustion on the road thither.
We read in antiquity, even in the flourishing days of the empire, of terrible famines in this country; but these, doubtless, were alleviated by the resources of the other provinces. Though again subject to an extensive empire, the country can now look for no such assistance when these disasters fall upon it. The duty of the provinces is, to send yearly subsidies to the capital; that of the Government is, to send rapacious satraps to enrich themselves by the spoils of the people, and to stifle their complaints.
The town of Derna is composed of four villages—Upper and Lower Derna, and Upper and Lower Bou Mansour, the former separated from the two latter villages by a broad, stony wady, which in winter forms the bed of one of the two streams whose abundant waters, diverted by a former governor into many channels, flow through all the streets, and are at regular periods distributed to the different gardens in which the houses of the town are situated. These many streams of water, and the gardens from which rise thousands of splendid palms, rich in the bright green of the banana and the reddening leaf of the vine, give this place a strong resemblance to some of the villages on the outskirts of Damascus, a resemblance which is still further increased by the arid barrenness of the hills above and of the surrounding country. Unfortunately this luxuriant vegetation, as too often happens in these lands, is accompanied by periodical fevers, dysentery, and ophthalmia, which the sea-breezes seem to have no effect in preventing. An old castle, now in ruins, which once commanded the town from the hill above, and the lanes which lead to it, overarched, as they are, with verdure, through which the rays of the sun pierce in chequered patches, form a most picturesque scene. The whole town has an air of prosperity far surpassing that of Benghazi, though its population, about 4500 souls, is smaller, andits trade is comparatively insignificant. It consists principally in exports of wax, great quantities of which are produced in the neighbouring country, occasional cargoes of cattle for Malta, and sheep, which are yearly sent in vast flocks by land a journey of thirty-five days to Alexandria. Antiquarian remains are few, Darnis having been a place of not the slightest importance until about the fourth century: they consist of some traces of the ancient port at the western extremity of the town, a Roman gateway, and some excavations in the hills.
Derna has no harbour. From September to January its roadstead is sufficiently secure, but after this month no ship can anchor there in safety, as it is entirely exposed to the north and east winds, which then blow with great fury. There is, to the east of the town, a point where the shore makes a bend, on which may be seen a ruined battery, with half a dozen dismounted guns; it serves as a monument to record the fact that this place was held by the Americans, for a short period, about thirty years ago.[3]Probably the difficultyof making a harbour (they had planned an excavated basin in the wady which separates Derna from Bou Mansour), as well as the traditional policy of their country, always opposed to distant settlements, decided them to abandon the place.
I spent a very pleasant fortnight in Derna, encampedwithin reach of the sea-spray when the winds blew strong; but before I left I began to experience that feeling of discomfort which malaria is apt to give when it does not produce fever; and, notwithstanding the beauty of the place, and the attentions of Mr. Aquilina and his family, I was glad to find myself once more on the heights of the Okbah.
October1.—I returned to Ain-esh-Shehad nearly by the same route which I had followed in coming to Derna, and there I spent ten days in revisiting some of the most beautiful spots in its neighbourhood, and in the enjoyment of the pure light air of its hills. I had left a part of my baggage in the charge of one of the Arabs of the place; and though the eatables must have been tempting, I had not to complain of any great indiscretion in his visits to my sacks. Though my neighbours were fanatical, I had, on the whole, no reason to be dissatisfied with them; with the exception of the Marābut and his pupils, they gave me very little trouble, and their thefts were confined to articles of trifling value. I had got rid of my friend Mohammed at Derna, with the servants, children, and horses which he had quartered upon me, so that there was no longer a daily fair held round my tents; and thus the last days I spent at Grennah were among the most agreeable of my residence there.
The advancing autumn, the threatening cloudswhich now overshadowed the sky, and the increasing cold of the nights, warned me not to prolong my stay; and with regret I tore myself from a place where I had spent two quiet months so pleasantly, and, as far as health at least was concerned, so profitably. I find among my notes of these last days mention made of a curious bargain, which was struck in my presence; it was the sale of half a mare. The price of the entire animal was fixed at a certain sum, half of which was paid down by the purchaser, who took possession of the mare, which he was bound to keep in good condition. The foals were to be joint property, and the original proprietor could at any time have the use of the mare, or, by repaying the purchase-money, again become her sole proprietor. This is a common transaction; and as a fourth, or even a smaller fraction of a mare may be thus sold, some have many masters, and serious quarrels often arise from such joint possession.
It was not without many a long look that I rode away from the fountain towards the western gate of the town and the street of Tombs, which I have described as the old road to Barca. I was now on my return to Benghazi, not by the road I had taken in July, but with the intention, after visiting Nurdj, of following the coast by Dolmeita and Tokra.