ZAOUIA OF SIDI ABD-ER-RAHMAN.

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but they were not in a position to enforce their decision, and Ahmed, in his stronghold of Constantine, set them and their decrees at defiance.

The first expedition made by the French against Constantine was in the year 1836 under Marshal Clauzel. At this time the French policy was to reduce as much as possible the army of Algiers, and the whole force at the Marshal's command was limited to seventeen thousand men, though he asked for double the number. In November 1836, he somewhat rashly undertook an expedition against the tyrant of Constantine, with a force of only seven thousand French soldiers and twelve hundred Turcos. The results were, a signal defeat, the loss by cold and exhaustion of a great portion of his troops, and the recall and disgrace of the Marshal.

In the year following, a more successful expedition was organized by Count Damrémont, who succeeded Clauzel in command. Damrémont himself was killed at the siege of Constantine, but after a stubborn resistance of seven days. the town was taken, Ahmed, however, escaping with some of his adherents to the mountains of Kabylia. From these fastnesses he carried on a desultory warfare with the French for a period of eleven years, but at length, after repeated disasters, he surrendered himself in the year 1848, and passed the remaining two years of his life as a prisoner on parole at Algiers.

In the cemetery is a carouba-tree, the leaves of which are supposed to possess a peculiar virtue in curing fever.

From the Zaouia of Sidi Abd-er-Rahman a steep path leads directly up to the Kasba, and a more circuitous route (a carriage road) to the same point, past the new fortress of the civil prison.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE JEWISH QUARTER.-THE SYNAGOGUE.-THE CATHEDRAL.-THE GOVERNOR'S PALACE.-THE ARCHBISHOP'S PALACE. THE BIBLIOTHÈQUE.—

THE COURTS OF LAW.

"These for devotion, and for pleasure those."

Sir R. Blackmore.

HE quarter of Algiers most favoured by the Jews, who

TH

form so large a proportion of the native population, is that part of the city of which the Rue de la Lyre and the Rue Randon are the great arteries, lying between the French and the Arab towns, and possessing to some extent the characteristics of both. But though this district may be called the head-quarters of the Jewish community, they by no means confine themselves to it, as a walk through any part of the city one Saturday will evidence. On this day it will be found that two-thirds at least of the shops are closed, while some streets present almost the appearance of an English Sunday, so that the traveller is betrayed into stopping short, and asking himself, "Have I by any possibility mistaken the day?" Three holy-days are observed in the week in Algiers-Friday by the Mahomedans, Saturday by the Jews, and Sunday by the Europeans; but the Jewish Sabbath leaves its impress on the town more

JEWISH QUARTER.

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decidedly as a day of rest than either of the others. A French Sunday has always about it an air rather of bustle than of repose; and the Mahomedans, though they are bidden to attend public worship on their Sabbath, are not enjoined, scarcely recommended to cease from labour. Indeed, they are warned by the Prophet from converting their day of prayer, or "assembly" as they call it, into a day of mere idleness and pleasure-seeking, "as do the Jews and Christians their Sabbaths." As a rule therefore, few Moorish shops are shut on Fridays, the vendor very often leaving all his wares exposed and unattended, while he goes to the mosque to perform his devotions. But the Saturday is rigidly observed by the Jews here as elsewhere-a remarkable trait of character in a people so addicted to the love of money-making.

A walk is strongly recommended through the Jewish quarter on Saturday afternoon, from the time when the service at the synagogue is over, about one P.M., until sunset. The whole Jewish population seem to spend these hours of enforced idleness-every kind of occupation being prohibited them except talking—in the streets, or at the open windows and doors of their houses.

Attired in their quaint, but on these occasions, gorgeous dress, the Jewish matrons—their jaws bound up as though prepared for the coffin, their heads tightly tied up in black silk bags, and their whole persons resplendent with gold embroidery and jewels-group themselves about the corners of the streets, or at their open doorways, and indulge in the feminine delight of a good gossip; the men in their rich Eastern dress-handsome fellows for the most part-lounge idly up and down the pavements, longing doubtless, for the

chibouck which the Sabbath denies them; the children walk demurely about, in twos and threes, the boys small imitations of their fathers, the little girls in long silk skirts reaching to the ground and large muslin aprons, like miniature mediaval relics, all with flashing black eyes and rich complexions not unheightened by art; while here and there a glowing face at an open lattice, reminds the beholder irresistibly of the Hebrew queen-coquette, who sought to win the favour of her conqueror.

Indeed, the whole life of Algiers is wonderfully suggestive of Scripture scenes and characters. And with regard to the Jews especially, one seems to realize their Eastern origin, to understand their character and history, all the more clearly, by seeing them thus among semi-barbaric surroundings and in their Oriental dress. With the picturesqueness they acquire a dignity which is certainly wanting to them elsewhere. They seem scarcely the same people, whose mauvais goût too often offends both eye and ear in our modern civilized Europe. The synagogue in Place Randon, to be reached by Rue Porte Neuve and streets diverging from the Rue de la Lyre, is a very handsome building after the Moorish style. The interior, which is square with a great dome, is ornamented with horse-shoe arches and a good deal of rich carved work. It is said to accommodate three hundred persons, exclusive of the galleries, which, as usual in Jewish places of worship, are reserved to the women.

When the synagogue is open (on Saturdays) no objection is made to strangers entering.

The site of the synagogue, formerly Impasse Orali, is one of the most curious instances of the way in which the

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THE CATHEDRAL,

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Arabic names have been mangled. It was originally known as the street of Ben-Gaour-Ali-the son of the infidel Ali. This name was, contrary to custom, retained by the French until 1835, when an order was issued to the inhabitants of Algiers, to restore the names on their houses which had from any cause, of whitewashing or otherwise, become obliterated. In this restoration it happened that Ben-Gaour-Ali, deprived of the first four letters of his name by an artist, who was either not very intelligent, or else possibly an enemy to long words, became Aourali, and was later on, reduced to Orali.

Descending again by the steps in front of the synagogue, and passing through the beautiful Impasse of St. Vincent de Paul to the left, we reach the side entrance of the cathedral church of St. Phillipe, the front of which is in the Place Malakoff. When the French took possession of Algiers, they found in this spot, a handsome though modern mosque, erected in 1794 on the site of a more ancient one, by Pasha Hassan, and usually known by his name.

Very shortly after the conquest, this mosque was converted into a church, the altar being placed so as to cover the ancient mimbar, and the texts of the Koran enjoining constancy in prayer and faith in God, left undisturbed on the vault of the cupola. Since then, the building has little by little, undergone so many alterations, and been the victim of so many improvements, that scarcely a trace of the original structure remains.

The exterior, which is a kind of compromise between Moorish and Christian architecture, is neither beautiful nor well-proportioned.

The façade, which is a perfect square, is surmounted by