squalid reality. Strange was the contrast as I emerged on the bright neat camps of the French, with their crackling fires of palm-leaves. The next day, being Sunday, a grand mass was performed in the centre of the camp, in acknowledgment of the safe return of the expedition from Waregla. The curé called upon us early in the morning and invited us to see "la cérémonie," seeming somewhat hurt at our conscientious preference of a quiet service by ourselves, and our objection to make a show of a service we condemned. We walked into the camp in the afternoon. The chapel for the occasion was simply a partially enclosed space, elegantly fringed and decorated with palm-leaves, and carpets spread in front. After mass the general summoned all the Arab chiefs; and he had with him a vast following of all the aghas, marabouts, khalifats, and sheiks of the Eastern Sahara. A grand Moslem service was performed, at the conclusion of which General Desvaux, in full uniform, entered the mosque, and, mounting the pulpit, made a long harangue in Arabic. We did not hear the text, but the subject of his lay sermon was to point out the blessings of French rule and equal justice. "Who now fears for his head? Who now dreads a razzia on his camels? Who now quails before a more powerful neighbour? Who now dreads a stronger tribe? All is peace and security. Return thanks, therefore, to God and the Prophet, for the blessings which France has brought you, and which you dreamt not of before; and pray that they may be eternal;" and much more, in the style of Rabshakeh. Such a sermon, and such an oration, from the seat of the Tolba, was something new in Moslem ears, although it was followed by loud applause, possibly by com mand; but as to the facts, probably the general was. right. At all events he understands the Arabs, and has shown true tact in the Waregla business. He is well aware that an insurrection is on the point of breaking out; but he says nothing. French troops have never been seen there before. He collects the three flying columns of Batna, Bouçada, and Laghouat; hastily presses them on by different routes. They arrive, display their strength-no disaffection dare exhibit itself. Instead of making known his suspicions and reasons, he camps outside the city, forbids a single soldier to enter the walls, and gives a grand fête. The new year is celebrated. He has collected an imposing native retinue of all the Arab chiefs and their following clans, gathering as he went. A huge caldron is improvised, and fifty gallons of brandy poured together into the monster punch-bowl for the French soldiery. Horseraces for prizes of silver cups are ridden by the Arab chieftains (our host, Ali Bey, gaining the first cup). There are foot-races and rifle-matches for the others, and a grand Arab fantasia winds up such a day as Waregla had never seen. Thus he showed his effective strength, yet cautiously avoided increasing the disaffection of the citizens, or betraying suspicion; and French power and French gaiety having been together exhibited, and disaffection nipped in the bud or overawed, he peacefully returns with a scientific report on the feasibility of artesian wells; our friends the Chaamba having got wind of him, and retreated far south into the Grand Desert. We went to dine with Commandant Seroka, and found him and his guests seated on the ground in front of a camp fire, before which a leg of mutton and a brace of ducks were amicably roasting on the same spit. The chaplain, St. Martin our future escort, and two other officers completed the party. An Arab sheik, a noble-looking man, decorated with the Legion of Honour, entered after dinner, and was received with patronizing politeness; smoked a cigar, drank coffee and a taste of brandy afterwards, in compliment to his hosts a picture of the falling race, as he crouched in a retired corner of the tent! On being asked if he did not dislike liquors, he replied ambiguously that wine was best for the Frenchman, water for the Arab. The next morning St. Martin, an energetic, vivacious young Frenchman, with a fine open countenance, appeared in our quarters like a hurricane, having driven Omar, whom he found lounging in the souk, before him to the kasbah, where, in our presence, he finally exploded upon that exemplary domestic, threatening him with military prison and "coups de bâton," "si tu ne marches pas droit." We had been recounting our grievances on the previous evening. Omar, silenced by the storm, subsequently vented his spleen upon me, promising me that, once out of the military territory, and within the reach of civil law courts, he would harass us to death unless he got a handsome douceur. In the course of the day I was delighted to find in the souk a beautiful little fennek, and, purchasing him for a franc, of a boy, he was transferred to the cage of the defunct dabb, in the hope he might survive and enjoy a better fate. Though full-grown, he was not larger than a kitten, and a perfect miniature of a fox, but with enormous pointed ears, and a very bushy tail two inches longer than his body. He was of a pale isabel colour above, and white below and on the limbs. He had all the habits and movements of a fox, and barked in a diminutive whisper when any stranger approached. He appeared to be a smaller and differently shaped animal from the Abyssinian Fenneccus brucei of authors, and I suspect him to be a new species. We found barley no longer in the quotations of the market; the army had taken all; and after several hours' vain search we obtained at length, through the general's kind intercession, permission to purchase from the commissariat; St. Martin having promised to provide other stores, and to let us have camels at the government price from the corvée. Omar, of course, had done nothing; but we were now under military law, and could retire for the night secure of our convoy on the morrow. CHAPTER XX. Strange medley Sand St. Martin's brigade - The return convoy. storm First bivouac - A forced sale - Drunken troopers missing -The Curé of Batna - Tamerna and its artesian well-St. Martin's mode of supplying the commissariat Tribute-money-A postcourier in the desert El Baadj - Solitary caravanserai — The Sheik's entertainment - Judge of assize-Cases civil and criminal - Prompt decisions and speedy justice - First glimpse of the Atlas Oumach Mons Aurasius Approach to Biskra Captain Pigalle's mansion - Return to civilization. - WE were early astir on the morning of January 14, but the delays were many, and it was past eight o'clock before we rode in advance of our camels to overtake the convoy, which had long since started. A motley collection in sooth was St. Martin's brigade— about eighty men in all, and more than double that number of quadrupeds, being all those unfit for the expedition to Souf, which was to start to-day. There were the sick, wayworn, and footsore on asses, in full accoutrements; a spahi mounted guard of twenty men; chasseurs d'Afrique; three drunken troopers; Arab sheiks with trained falcons picturesquely perched on their head or shoulders, eleven in all; greyhounds in clothing; camels laden with miscellanies and curiosities sent home by officers on expedition; a pair of curious Waregla goats, a consignment for the Jardin des Plantes; barking curs; lines of bât mules; led troop-horses with sore backs; spare chargers sent home by officers; and, hovering all round, a cloud of Arab retainers whom I have not enumerated in my estimate. |