CHAPTER IX.

A narrow escape · A suspiciously-faithful guard

Omar on theology

Future of Islam - Frost in the desert - A morning scene by our camp-fire - View of Ghardaïa - Street scene - The guest-house - Political system of the Beni M`zab— Unpaid officials — Zickar, or wedding-dance - A deserted city - The Wed M'zab - Gardens Commemoration of founders - A funeral feast-Largesse - Spiritlicence Maine liquor-law Value of coffee and tea- The lost found- Return of Achmed - My ratcatcher - Lizards and mice Jewish jewellers Markets - Manufactures Tannin- Dyes Caravans- M'zab toilet - Slavery.

I HAD a very narrow escape during our ride. Having seen traces of gazelle on the left, I had ridden off in pursuit, accompanied by our younger cavalier. Far out of sight of our caravan, we were riding on a plain in full stride, upon the track of the game, when I felt the pinge of a ball past my eyes, and with it heard the report of my companion's gun. Turning sharply round, I saw him in the act of taking down his piece from his shoulder, and, rushing upon him, asked what he meant. He coolly replied that he was firing at the gazelle, which, however, were ahead instead of abreast, and, on my remarking this, pretended he had done it in sport. Drawing my revolver, I begged him to give me the flint from his gun, as he was not fit to be trusted with it; and he reluctantly surrendered. I never was able to ascertain his object, or whether he really did intend to murder me, and then ride off with my double-barrel and revolver to his tribe, who were only two or three days to the south of us; but though I learnt a lesson of caution, and never again trusted myself with him alone, the man proved a faithful guard for weeks afterwards, and in times

of great danger willingly exposed himself when he might easily have avoided all risk. My belief now is, that it was an intentional act, but not premeditated, the sudden opportunity having proved too strong for his impulsive Arab nature; and that he sought by subsequent fidelity to efface the bad impression from my mind.

This circumstance had agitated me too much for early slumber, so, sitting over the embers at the tent door, I had a long conversation with Omar, in the still starlight night, on religion and politics. He made no secret of his sanguine hope that the French would never take Kabylie, and indignantly asked what business they had there, seeing that the Kabyles had done them no harm, were content to trade, and had never acknowledged the supremacy of the Dey of Algiers.

As for religion, he had been two years a servant in Italy, in the family of a Roman princess, and had seen enough of Romanism. He would as lief be a heathen, far sooner a Jew. He had been told, by an English gentleman with whom he had travelled, of our religion, which he knew was not idolatrous, and next best to his own. He bewailed the fact that Islam was growing weak, but it was not yet finished. If it had not been true, how could Providence have permitted it to gain back so much ground that once was Christian. Man had outgrown the mission of Jesus, and therefore it had been superseded by that of the Prophet, as in its time it had superseded Moses. For the rest, he was not a learned man, and believed what the Imaums taught him; for though the Arabs might lie, their wise men did not, and no Moslem could lie like a Frank.

He had met at Constantinople a Hindoo Mussulman, who had told him how the English reverenced the

Moslems-how they gave way to their faith, and preferred them above all others for officers and soldiers. Therefore there could not be much difference between us, or we should have destroyed their religion when we had the power.

He inveighed bitterly against the Beni M'zab, who he said were worse than the Jews, and were so detested that our kadi could not have made the pilgrimage to the holy places, except in the disguise of an Arab; for if any of the Khramsine were found at Mecca, they would be cut to pieces, and their bodies burnt-as they went only to mock at the shrine of the Prophet. Yet he could not tell me the points of difference. They were Khramsine, fifth sect, that was enough for him. Poor fellow! his moral sense was as perverted as his appetites were depraved, and nothing but Divine teaching could his heart to the true nature of sin.

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I had but short slumbers, for P., always the first to bed and first to rise, startled me long before daybreak by the application to my cheek of a piece of ice found in our basin outside the tent. It was the first frost we had encountered since Djelfa, and the last.

Dreary and bitter is an early morning rouse in the desert. We persevered, however, in the endurance of a cold sponge al fresco, after which we stood over a smouldering fire of weeds, to sip our coffee and smoke our pipes. Omar sat torpid on a canteen. All was silent and dark around us, save the glimmer of an Arab camp-fire not far off. At length the wail of a hyæna in the distance broke the stillness. Omar grunted out, "Dhebaâ,” and nodded again. By six o'clock the camp began to come to life. One mekhasni extended himself at Omar's tentdoor, yawned, stumbled to the fire, and roasted his shins. A camel-driver was unkennelled from among

the baggage. He rose, groaned, shook his burnous to ventilate the fleas, and his toilet was completed for the day. Gradually the other members of our caravan came and surrounded the fire. The second cavalier promenaded for a while on the chief guide's back, to cure him of lumbago, and the camels were laden before he had turned and aired his shirt and drawn on his long red boots. He then started before us, taking our letter to Ghardaïa, and vowing that we should fare as if we were the General himself. The kadi at Berryan had suggested to him, that, as we were not Frenchmen," we might be slighted with impunity, but our cavalier intended us to have the best of everything. He was a fine specimen of the proud, indolent, swaggering Bashi Bazouk.

Our day's ride was over rocks all but impassable for even Arab horses, but here and there were sandy valleys with some faint vestiges of leafless vegetation. P. shot a specimen of the almost unique bird, Dupont's lark, which we never saw but here; and while endeavouring to discover others, my little "Gazelle" became so unmanageable, that I was obliged to ride on far ahead, following some occasional camel-traces.

At the entrance of a savage gorge, like that of Petra, I halted and waited half an hour for the party, who were in some perturbation, as the cavalier declared he did not know the way. But fortunately some camels were in sight at a distance, and the Arab who was guarding the herd set us on the right track. We descended a ravineone mass of naked rock, rough stone, and coarse débris, from the neighbouring mountain, but without a scrap of earth or a vestige of the minutest vegetation; yet even here were some beetles, and we had a scramble after a solitary marmot, or gundi, which escaped into a fissure.

We had to lead our surefooted horses, and before sunset debouched from the gorge.

On a conical hill, encased by mountains savagely naked and rocky, the town of Ghardaïa rose to view, covering the slope and spreading at its foot, with its huge mosque

tower overshadowing all, and a smaller tower by its side, leaning like those of Bologna. The mud-plastered flat-roofed buildings started like terraces, tier over tier. Some were faced with arcades on their roofs-some few with pillared fronts. Crowning a taller hill, on the right, were the ruins and complete wall of an ancient town, called by the natives Baba Sâad; the earliest fortified position of the M'zab. On the left, the town of Mellika covered a small conical peak; and just to the south of it, on a similar elevation, loomed the town of Bounoura, each of them with their huge Semaâr tower starting up, and ruling over the city. Then the plain of the extinct