CHAPTER XXVI.

KOLEAH.-MARENGO.-TIPASA.-TOMBEAU DE LA CHRÉTIENNE.-CHERCHEL.

"There stands a structure of majestic frame."

Pope.

For this route a carriage is recommended, as the public vehicles are anything but good. They are nothing better than very rough and dirty omnibuses, filled with Arabs and Spaniards, the coupé, or that which is, by a stretch of politeness called such, being simply the boxseat of the vehicle beside the driver. This is available for two persons. The horses of the diligences are particularly good.

A diligence-omnibus runs twice a day, morning and afternoon, from Blidah to Koleah. Fare I fr.

The route is a very uninteresting one, being almost without a turn or a curve, from one town to the other across the plain of Metidja. The drive occupies about two hours.

Koleah may also be reached from Algiers by diligençe (twice a day) in about five hours. The road is by Staouëli (Chap. XXI.), beyond that, the pretty villages of Zeralda and Daouda are passed, the river Mazafran being crossed on a bridge of boats.

K

OLEAH lies on a wooded elevation some four hundred

and fifty feet above the sea, overlooking the vast plain of the Metidja. It has a population of nearly four thousand souls, but appears remarkably small, especially when it is considered that the houses are but of one story. They are built, for the most part, round courtyards, which are coveredin with vine-wreathed trellis-work. The town is still very

Arab in character, and European visitors are regarded even yet with a certain amount of curiosity and interest.

Hôtel de France, a thoroughly primitive little inn, uninviting on first entrance, will be found extremely clean and comfortable, and the cooking especially good. Dinner 3 fr. The landlord, himself the chef, will be seen in white jacket and cap, deep in the mysteries of the kitchen, and the pretty waitress and daughter of the house brings a message from "mon papa," as she hands one course, about the traveller's wishes as to the next. There are only three bedrooms in the inn, so it is as well to write beforehand to secure accommodation.

Koleah is regarded with great veneration by the Arabs, and is still known as the Holy City, from the fact of the celebrated marabout, Sidi Embarek, having lived and died here.

His passport to sanctity seems to have been a remarkable capacity for sleep. The legend related of him is, that, being as a youth, a farm servant to a certain Arab land-owner, he was accustomed to sleep through the whole day, his oxen miraculously performing their work without his superintendence. According to our notions, the oxen would seem to have been deserving of more veneration than their sleepyheaded attendant; but the matter did not appear in this light to Embarek's master. Having ascertained the truth of the report with his own eyes, he, instead of dismissing or chastising the careless servant, fell on his knees before him, acknowledged him as a saint, and when he died left him all his property.

Sidi Embarek kept up his reputation of prophet by performing, so it is said, many miracles during his life spent

at Koleah, and when he died, he was buried on the spot where he had lived.

The earthquake of 1825, which destroyed Blidah, also ruined Koleah, but spared, we are told, the koubba of the holy man; after which Mustapha Pasha (somewhat inconsequently) rebuilt it.

The French have held possession of Koleah ever since 1839.

The principal mosque, a handsome building, with a lofty and elegant minaret attached, is now used as a military hospital. The koubba of Sidi Embarek is close to it.

Here was also the burying-place of Abd-el-Kader's family.

The greatest attraction of Koleah is the "Jardin des Zouaves," a name given in honour of the soldiers who employed their leisure in laying it out. The garden is not only a collection of rare and beautiful plants and flowers, but, from the peculiar conformation of the ground, it is most picturesque. Among the perfume of aromatic shrubs, and the singing of thrushes and nightingales—for Algerian nightingales sing all day long-no pleasanter lounge for a sunny spring day can well be imagined, than a rustic bench in the Zouaves' Garden at Koleah.

From Koleah, carriage or horseback excursion to the Tombeau de la Chrétienne.

There is no public conveyance, but there is an omnibusdiligence twice a day, at 5 A.M. and at noon, to Marengo, where carriages may also be hired; and "Murray" suggests, that for persons who wish to visit this remarkable monument and to return to Algiers the same day, it would be best to take the 6 A.M. or 8 A.M. train from Algiers to

KOLEAH TO CHERCHEL.

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El-Affroun, having previously telegraphed to the maire of Marengo to send a carriage thence to meet the train.

The present writer strongly recommends instead, a night passed at the comfortable little Hôtel de France at Koleah, and a drive thence to the Tombeau.

The diligence from Koleah to Marengo (for Cherchel) passes the foot of the hill on which the Tombeau stands, but does not permit any near approach to the monument.

The road which runs all the way through the Metidja, just behind the Sahel, or range of shore-hills, is somewhat monotonous, the country being even yet in a great measure uncleared, the ground covered with a thick brushwood of palmetto, and overgrown with deadly asphodel-deadly in more ways than one, since the Arabs have learned the trick of making absinthe from it!

Here and there are woods of wild olives and oaks, and occasional patches of cultivation. Now and then, drearylooking European settlements are passed, chiefly inhabited by Spaniards; but these are comparatively few and far between, and the settlers have a somewhat famished and fever-stricken appearance. They seem to be for the most part employed in charcoal-burning.

This side of the Metidja had at one time almost as evil a reputation for unhealthiness as Bou-Farik, but great exertions have been made by the French to drain it, and no doubt, as the land is reclaimed and becomes inhabited, the same good results will follow. The Lake Halloula, which was formerly situated just below the hill on which is the Tombeau de la Chrétienne, was a fruitful source of fever, and the favourite haunt of the sportsman, as it abounded with wild duck and snipe.

This has now been drained at considerable loss of life to the convict-workmen who were engaged in the task, but the benefit of the change is already being felt.

Apart from the Tombeau, the only objects of interest on this route, are the collections of quaint and sometimes picturesque Arab gourbis, which are seen every now and then peeping out of the brushwood, and the quaint Arab figures which are met with on the road, tramping along with their huge shepherd's staves held at their backs, or jogging on their unhappy and heavily-laden donkeys, on which they perch in side-saddle fashion, their bare heels acting as spurs, their loose slippers depending in comical fashion from the toes.

Whatever may be the traditional love of the Arab for his horse, his kindly consideration certainly does not descend to the hard-working and sadly ill-treated ass or bouricot, as the animal is locally called.

But in truth, the Arab horses which are ordinarily met with at the markets and on the roads, do not seem to fare much better than the humbler beast of burden. They are all thin and jaded-looking creatures, ungroomed, and often covered with sores.

This part of the Metidja is the habitat of the notorious Hadjoutes, who proved so formidable to the early French settlers, and some of the farms on the route are still fortified.

THE TOMBEAU DE LA CHRÉTIENNE.-The name given to this monument by the natives, is Kober-Roumia, the tomb of the Christian woman, the various legends which group themselves about it, having evident reference to the Berber princess, Queen Kaïna, whose mythical exploits are still celebrated in Arab story; but it is proved to be of far