LEAVE TEBOURSOUK — VALLEY OF LIONS — AIN TUNGA — TESTOUR.
We left Teboursouk at 6.30 A.M. on April 22. The road led at first
through a magnificent grove of olive-trees, which evidently constitute
the principal wealth of the country. Still, we saw but few young
ones, and I am tempted to believe that the system of taxing these
precious trees conduces to their destruction.
Each one, after the age of ten years, pays an annual tax of half
a piastre, or threepence, without reference to the amount of fruit
it bears, and as trees are rarely productive before fifteen years,
the owner of a new olive grove would have little or no return
for his money during this period, and a certainty of taxation
during the last five years of it. Under these circumstances it is
hardly surprising, that he does not feel called upon to make an
unremunerative investment of his money for the ultimate benefit
of his posterity; he cuts down unproductive trees for the sake of
their timber, but takes no steps to replace them. If some system
could be devised for taxing the produce instead of the tree itself,
the _déboisement_ of the country, which is going on at an alarming
rate, might to a certain extent be arrested.
About a mile beyond the town the road emerges into open ground, and
for a short distance follows the course of the Oued Khalad, which
is crossed and recrossed many times. The alternation of hill and
dale is most picturesque, and the great want in Tunisian landscape,
the absence of wood, is to some extent supplied by the unusually fine
tamarisks which fringe the river’s banks. The water was low during
our visit, but evidently the stream never becomes actually dry, as
it was full of little fish. Quantities of blue jays and blackbirds
added their share of attractions to the scene.
This is the _Oued el-Asood_, or valley of lions, of which Sir
Grenville Temple remarks: ‘As the surrounding country abounds
in lions it is not prudent to remain here after sunset. Sixteen of
these animals had been seen together here four evenings before.’
At seven and a half miles from Teboursouk is Ain Tunga, a delightful
roadside fountain, near which is a venerable old olive-tree affording
an impenetrable shade. We met here a party of the Oulad Ayar, who had
been to Tunis to sell their produce and were returning to their homes
in the neighbourhood of Mukther; they travelled like the patriarchs
of old with all their belongings about them, houses, wives, children,
cattle and sheep. They were busy washing their clothes at the spring,
an operation which did not tend to increase its purity. But questions
of cleanliness are the last that ever enter into the consideration of
modern Arabs; they think nothing of drinking the water of a source,
which they are in the very act of polluting, and it is no uncommon
thing to see what appears to be a clean bed of sand covered with
water, but if a little of the gravel is turned over, a layer of
black putrescent mud is seen to exist below it.
[Illustration: _Plate XXVI._
J. LEITCH &. Co. Sc.
THEATRE OF THIGNICA (AIN TUNGA)
FAC-SIMILE OF ROUGH INDIAN INK SKETCH BY BRUCE.
HENRY S. KING Co. LONDON.]
Here are the extensive ruins of the ancient Thignica. Bruce is
absolutely silent regarding his visit to this place; nevertheless
he has left five sheets of drawings illustrative of it:—
1. Perspective pencil sketch of temple; too faint for reproduction.
2. Very rough pencil sketch, with dimensions, of plan of temple,
details of base of order, echinus and fillet, and of a remarkably
fine soffit. On the back are careful sketches, in Indian ink and
pencil, of other details of the same building.
3. Careful sketches in Indian ink of details of cornice and soffit. On
the back is a drawing in pencil of capital of order.
4. Careful sketches in Indian ink of details of architecture.
5. Slight perspective sketch in Indian ink of other ruins at
Ain Tunga, including the theatre and arch, but not the Byzantine
fortress. (Plate XXVI.)
The last-mentioned is now the most conspicuous ruin in the
place. Bruce has left no sketch of it; indeed, throughout all his
wanderings he paid no attention whatever to buildings of this period,
which, though by no means uninteresting from an historical point of
view, are absolutely devoid of any architectural merit.
The exterior walls are in a very perfect condition, as are also
the towers at each angle, but the interior is so choked up with a
rank growth of weeds and scrub, that to examine it is almost an
impossibility. Numerous inscriptions are still to be seen here,
which have been given by Guérin; the most important one, in six
fragments, records the full name of the place, ‘Municipium Septimium
Aurelium Antoninianum . . . . Herculeum Frugiferum Thignica,’ and
commemorates the reconstruction of its market-place in the time of
Alexander Severus and of his mother Julia Mamæa, A.D. 222-235.[219]
The Corinthian temple must have been almost as fine as that of Dougga;
the portico is now entirely destroyed, and all that remains are the
angles of the cella. The masonry was of an unusually fine quality,
and the columns were magnificent monoliths. In Bruce’s time the
portico was still entire, with the exception of one angle of the
pediment. It was a tetrastyle closely resembling the Temple of
Jupiter and Minerva at Dougga, but even richer and more ornate in
some of its details; it has not the defect observable in the latter,
the want of antæ; pilasters being distinctly marked in the plan at
the end of the cella walls.
Bruce records on one of the sheets a fragment of inscription which has
been mentioned by subsequent travellers, and which still exists:—
. . . . MAXIM . . . . . . .
. . . . BLICA MVNIC. . . .
The dimensions marked on the plan are as follows:—
Feet. Inches.
Width of building 38 0
Depth of portico 25 0
„ „ cella 42 10
Diameter of column 3 1
Three other inscriptions were copied by Bruce; the first has
the remark attached to it, ‘This is now in the Bey’s garden,
Tuburbo.’
ALLIUI UL
QVE MVNICIPIVM AELIVM AVR
ET QVE EGRILLIO PLARIANO LEG . PR
* * * * *
CAERERI AVG SACR
FABIVS CAECILIVS
PRAETEXTATVS F . I . P
CVR . REIP . POSVIT
* * * * *
VALENTI[220]
There exist also several other remains of less interest: a small and
plainly constructed arch and theatre of rubble masonry, a Christian
basilica, besides traces of various other buildings scattered about,
which are figured in Plate XXVI.
About four miles further on we came to Testour. Shortly before
reaching the town we crossed the Oued Siliana, close to its junction
with the Medjerda, at a spot which had once been spanned by a
Roman bridge. The ruins of this were perceptible on either side;
it was entire during the visit of Sir Grenville Temple in 1832,
and he mentions having crossed over it.[221] Beyond we enter the
valley of the Medjerda, whose course, as far as we could see it,
was marked by orchards and fields of corn, more like a bit of English
scenery than is usually met with in Africa.
The modern city is built on the site of the ancient Bisica Lucana,
a city unknown to history, but which may probably be the Visica
mentioned in Morcelli’s ‘Africa Christiana.’[222]
Shaw records an inscription found here, bearing the ancient name of
the place, COL. BISICA LVCANA,[223] which he probably copied from
Peyssonnel, who says that it existed in the market-place.[224]
There are still many inscriptions scattered about; the most
interesting are two milliary columns, erected during the reign of
Aurelius; one is in the house of a ropemaker, and the other in the
vestibule of the Djamäa el-Kebir. The former indicates a distance
of LXIX and the latter LXXI miles from Carthage. They have been
given by various travellers.[225]
I am not aware whether anything of unusual importance was going
on at the capital during the time that we were travelling in the
interior, but we found, almost invariably, that the head man was
absent at Tunis, and it was his Khalifa, or representative, who
received us. Here the Khalifa also was away, and there was no one in
his place to offer us hospitality; we were not at all sorry to be
thrown on our own resources, as supplies were readily obtainable,
and we were permitted to purchase them in the open market and to
lodge our animals in the public fonduk. The notables of the village
received us on our entry, and informed us that the shop of the barber
had been cleared out for our reception. They made many excuses for
the poorness of the accommodation; every other place, they assured
us, was swarming with fleas, and this was the only comparatively
clean place in Testour. It might have been so we did not try any
other; but we would gladly have compounded for any number of fleas,
if thereby we could have secured exemption from the attacks of
more voracious insects. To add to our other miseries, it commenced
to rain hard almost immediately after our arrival, and continued
without intermission all night; so there we lay in a miserable cell,
10 feet square, without even attempting to sleep, making periodical
attacks upon the enemy, and oppressed with a horrid dread that after
so much rain we should find the Medjerda too full to be fordable in
the morning.
Testour is a squalid village, whose sole merit is to have wide
and airy streets. The houses are built of a poor sort of rubble,
consisting of half-burnt bricks and small stones, and roofed with
tiles, only too ready to lend themselves to the prevailing inclination
of the place to fall into ruin. Still it is not quite without remains
of former grandeur; the minaret of the great mosque, though in a very
dilapidated condition, is a good specimen of Moorish architecture,
and has been tastefully decorated with coloured tiles. This was
probably the work of the Andalusian Moors, by whom the village was
peopled, on their expulsion from Spain.
Pelissier describes it as badly built, with a population of two
or three thousand inhabitants.[226] Guérin says that it was in
decadence during his visit, and contained two thousand souls,
including a few hundred Jews.[227] Things have gone badly with it
since then, as the population cannot now be more than one thousand,
and the Jews are to be counted by the score instead of the hundred.
It is situated in an exceptionally favourable position, on the right
bank of the Medjerda, almost dipping into the stream, and on the
great highway between Tunis and Keff, and so on into Algeria. Its
soil is extremely fertile, and its orchards, which fringe both banks
of the river, supply all Tunis with fruit.
If, therefore, we have a right to expect anything like a prosperous
village in the whole country, Testour is the place where it ought to
exist. Long years of misgovernment, of rapacity in high quarters, of
brigandage encouraged for private ends, and of Mohammedan intolerance
for everything like progress and civilisation, have produced their
natural results. No nation can remain stationary; if it does not
progress, it must rapidly retrograde; and nowhere is the contrast
between ancient magnificence and present decadence more plainly
visible than in the Regency of Tunis.
It was very pleasant here to witness the treatment of a poor
half-witted fellow, evidently the village imbecile. Instead of being
pursued with hoots and jeers, or at best regarded with indifference or
contempt, as might possibly happen in a Christian country, everyone
had a kind word to say to him, most of the elderly men stopped
and kissed him tenderly on the cheek, and all seemed thoroughly to
understand, that exceptional kindness was due to one, whom God had
seen fit to deprive of His most precious gift.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 219: Guérin, ii. p. 151.]
[Footnote 220: There are several other inscriptions given, but as
they are copied in Guérin and other authors, I omit them.]
[Footnote 221: Temple, _Excurs. in Med._ ii. p. 63.]
[Footnote 222: Morcelli, i. p. 357.]
[Footnote 223: Shaw, i. p. 169.]
[Footnote 224: Peyss., ap. Dureau de la Malle, i. p 139.]
[Footnote 225: Guérin, ii. p. 160.]
[Footnote 226: Peliss., p. 25.]
[Footnote 227: Guérin, ii. p. 159.]