Close to Tunis is the site of Carthage, the capital of the great
country of that name in North Africa.
There is very little to be seen of it to-day, for the city was
destroyed by its enemies, and the stones were taken to build the
present town of Tunis.
It was founded nearly 900 years before the time of Christ, and was for
hundreds of years a powerful and prosperous country till 146 years
before Christ, when it was conquered by the Romans, and the city was
given over to the flames.
The city was at that time twelve miles round, and was defended by huge
walls sixty feet high and thirty-three feet thick with rooms inside
them. In the lower storey were stables for horses and elephants (of
which there were 300), and the upper storey served as barracks for
over 20,000 soldiers, who formed the garrison for defence of the city.
But very few of these soldiers were Carthaginians. The Carthaginian
young men did not care about soldiering: they preferred to loaf about
and do nothing but watch public games, and foreigners or poor men were
hired to do the soldiering for the country.
The country was large and rich, and had many colonies oversea and
plenty of ships.
It looked as though no enemy could ever arise to come and attack her.
But what seemed so unlikely actually happened in the end.
The Romans had no great fleet to speak of, but they had a fine army,
and they meant business. They put their soldiers into crowded
transports, and sailed across the short distance of ocean that lay
between the two countries--not much farther than Hamburg in Germany is
from Hull in Yorkshire.
Thus the country which, like Germany, had a fine, well-trained army,
landed a force in Carthaginia, the country which, like Britain, had a
great fleet and great colonies, but only a small army, and it smashed
up the Carthaginians through their not Being Prepared for it.
Boar Hunting.
From Tunis one sees to the southward a mountain called Zaghouan.
Though forty miles away it was from here that the Carthaginians got
their water supply, and they conveyed it by a small canal, which they
built all the way to Carthage.
[Illustration: You can imagine the fun of having a lot of wildly
excited Arabs firing from the opposite side of the circle straight in
your direction, with the animal in between you.]
That canal still serves to bring the water into Tunis, though it is
now a good deal over two thousand years old!
I went to Zaghouan once to hunt wild boars. We got on that occasion a
hyena. It was an exciting time when our Arab beaters, working in a big
circle, gradually closed in on him from all sides.
It was exciting because every beater carried a gun, and every man
meant having a shot at that hyena.
You can imagine the fun of having a lot of wildly excited Arabs firing
from the opposite side of the circle straight in your direction at the
animal in between you!
Fortunately on this occasion the first few shots killed him, and there
were no other deaths to record.
The Arabs themselves see no special danger in it, because, they say,
the guns are all pointing downwards at the animal, and if the bullet
misses him it will only bury itself in the ground.
That is all very well, but it might as likely as not hit a stone and
glance up again and catch one in the eye or elsewhere that might be
unpleasant.
Personally, I did not hold with that kind of shooting, but the Arabs
seemed to enjoy it so much and were so cheery and jolly over it that
I, too, had to smile and look as if I liked it.
There is plenty of game near Tunis, and this day we saw two dead wild
boars being brought in.
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