THE RUINS AGAIN.
Great Extent of the Ancient City.--Marsa, on the
Sea-shore.--Carthaginian Catacombs near Camatte.--Quail
Shooting.--Trait of Honesty in the Arabs.--The Arab
Character.--Anecdotes concerning them.
The second time I went to the ruins I went, like Scipio, to weep, not
over Carthage, but the loss of my breakfast; and the more so that
it was to have been a very good one--a regular pic-nic, or _fete
champetre_--under olive-trees, or orange-trees, or palms, shaded
from the scorching rays of Phoebus. Champagne, Burgundy (my
favourite wine), were to crown the repast. Nor was the food to be
only corporal, but eke mental, as the great explorer--the great
excavator--was to be there, to have explained that this was a
theatre, that an aqueduct; the god to whom this temple or that
altar was dedicated; and how many four-in-hands, driven by fast
young Phoenician guardsmen, would have been able to pass each other
down that "_via longa_." How many stones made up that house; and that
this was a bath, and not a harem; and that a certain statue of some
celebrity--whose name I had never heard, and never shall--was, by
some, supposed to lie 100 feet under this marble pillar, though,
according to others, he might be 102 feet deep interred--for all of
which, I daresay, I should have been the wiser and the better; but I
was sufficiently mundane to regret my _dejeuner_ the most. The fact
is, A----, whose back was not sufficiently recovered to accompany me
riding, and the American Consul and Davies, had gone with the edibles
and beverages in a carriage, and were to have met me at the temple
of some god. But, unfortunately, I mistook the deity's name, and
afterwards found that their shrine lay ten miles off from the one I
worshipped at. This will give one a good idea of the vastness of
the ancient city, and struck me more than all the lectures and
description in the world. Where people were crowded like bees, as
in our London, buying and selling, and riding and driving, some 2,000
years past--occupied then, as now, in all the frivolities of this
empty world--to find a complete solitude--a desert nearly--where
wander the jackal and hyena! A very clever people, no doubt, these
same Phoenicians were, to judge by their edifices; yet they had not
discovered the theory of water finding its own level, as the
peculiar construction of an aqueduct proves, the remains of which
still exist, and which was to convey water some forty miles from the
interior. There was a Roman city built over the Punic one, and the
latter alone, of course, interests, as the former is seen any day, at
Pompeii, in better perfection. Besides Angelo and myself, there was
not a human being in view--yes, there are three Arab youths
reclining behind that ruin of a wall, motionless as statues; I thought
they were statues at first. Two have long flint guns, perhaps to
keep crows off the corn, or shoot quails; or, perhaps, to shoot me
if they can; for I have a fine gold chain, not to mention a ring,
which would maintain them till they died of old age--which could
keep them in ease and elegance for a couple of years, at the least.
You have yet to learn, if you know it not, that ten Arabs, fine
men though they be, with such rusty weapons as yours, are barely a
match for one European with an arm such as mine. But, my poor boys,
there is no chance for you. I have, you see, a revolver with six
barrels. When you see that, your brow droops as much as your eyes
sparkled when you saw the chain. It is fancy, on my part, most
probably; so, off my horse, and off with my clothes. The sun was
scorching, and I took a delicious swim in the sea, and then rode on to
Marsa, where is a ruin (everything is in ruins here) of modern
date--the late Bey's palace--a most superb edifice. I said a ruin,
yet it is scarcely a ruin, though fast becoming so. Marsa is a sort
of watering-place for the Christians of Tunis during the heat of
summer. A----'s description of the part he visited I will give: "I
went with Davies and the Yankee Consul to see the catacombs of
Carthage, near Camatte, which completely undermined a large mountain
by the sea coast. They contain rows of niches for the coffins, and
each chamber communicates with others. They hold some twenty coffins
each. Some skeletons have been found, and nails; the former crumbled
to pieces immediately, on being exposed to the air. These catacombs
are now inhabited by hyenas and jackals, and had a strong odour of
those animals." It is supposed they extend for miles, but the impurity
of the atmosphere precludes entrance to any distance.
My third visit was to shoot quails on ground where, centuries ago,
Hannibal had passed at the head of his bronzed legions, amid admiring
groups of citizens, the bands playing, perhaps, "_Partant pour
l'Italie_." The migration of quails takes place at this season, and,
with a good retrieving spaniel, hundreds may be shot. But they lie
very close, and require a dog to put them up. They are by no means
easy to shoot, and require snipe shot. They lie in the young corn,
which is very thick and thriving here as on the field of Waterloo. As
I had put up No. 6 shot by mistake, and had no spaniel, I bagged but
few comparatively, some twenty. A great number of these quails are
sent alive to England, and on board the Italian steamer from Sicily
there were about twenty large cages, containing about fifty live
quails each, which they told me were going to Britain; they had been
caught like larks by the net.
By the way, I had here a proof of Arab honesty, refreshing as an
oasis in the desert. Riding back through a village to Goutelle (where
I was staying, previously to embarking for Malta), I dropped my
powder-flask, unawares to myself. I had not passed two minutes when
I heard a loud halloo, and turning, perceived an Arab running at full
speed to me with my powder-flask. Now, powder is what Arabs prize
more than gold even, precious stones, or tobacco, yet they might
easily have taken this without my knowing anything. On my offering
him coin worth about sixpence, the Arab, in broken _lingua Franca_,
made me comprehend he preferred a few charges of powder, which I
immediately gave, and which he carefully wrapped up in some old
paper. I record this, because at Tunis and elsewhere, we hear of
nothing but Arab dishonesty and thieving propensities. Is it true,
and this exception a proof of the rule? or are all these stories
false? It is hard to say.
They are a curious race, apparently a mass of contradictions. One
thing is certain; you must not treat them in the _du haut en bas_
style. They are very proud, and naturally regard every Christian _ipso
facto_ as individually inferior to the Mussulman, more specially in
the far interior, where Christians have not as yet penetrated. A----
and his party had started for Kef, _malgre_ my dissuasions. The fact
of a man going to explore Punic ruins with one going to discover
Mauritanian lions, was, to my mind, like mixing oil and vinegar, or
fire and water, or eating meat with your knife, or soup with a fork,
or taking two helpings of soup, or anything else incongruous. D----
was to be their interpreter. The Arabs there told them that a lion
can carry away a camel on his back, but not lift a sheep. This they
firmly believe. The reason assigned is, that in former times (when
animals spoke), the lion said, "I will carry off this sheep, with or
without the consent of Allah;" and Allah said to the lion, "You shall
not;" and from that time the monarch has never been able to lift a
sheep. At one time the man and the lion were great friends, and the
lion did not know he was stronger than the man. One day, as they were
out walking together, a thorn ran into the lion's foot; he limped, and
stopped to pull it out, when the man, in derision, said, "What! so
strong a creature hurt with a thorn?" Then the lion in anger ran the
thorn into the man's eye, who cried out with pain. This proved to the
lion the man's inferiority, and ever after they were declared enemies.
At a place called Tibursok, where A----'s party passed on their road
to Keff, not a Christian, or even a Jew, were to be seen, consequently
the Arabs were very intolerant. D---- walked into this town alone, in
front of the party, and, speaking Arabic well, questioned one of the
Arabs about some ruin, when another came up and said, "Why do you
attend to that dog of a Christian?" D---- took no notice, when the
other shouted out, "Cursed be your father, your mother, and all the
members of your house." D---- then collared him; the Arab inquired,
"What for?" "Because you cursed my relatives," said D----, seeing the
rest of the party with the Bey's escort coming up, "and now, just
show me the Caid's residence, and I will have you bastinadoed."
However, as some of the other Arabs crowded round and begged for
mercy, D---- thought it better to let him off.