dusk, full light until the last minute of day, when night comes suddenly as though the day had swooned! A sun always calm and devouring, sometimes a sudden expansion of light and heat, a burning wind which for the moment gives a menacing aspect to the landscape, but, as a rule, a radiant immobility, a dead impassiveness in the heaven which reflects itself upon the earth, and upon the faces of its inhabitants! The heat of the sun at noon on the walls and on the pavement is terrible; the dogs utter little cries of pain as their feet touch it; all the shops and houses are shut, the end of the street towards the west is wrapped in flame-colour. Gradually as the shadows lengthen doors open, great figures pale and sad, clad in white, appear with lowered heads, and range themselves along the shady wall. They begin the day on the left side of the street, they end it on the right. This is the only difference they know between morning and evening. A desert town is, in fact, a spot amid arid wastes, where Providence has by exception put water, where human industry has made shade, where women group themselves about the fountain, where the men lie sleeping all the day under the shadow of the wall-this is the whole life."-Un Été dans le Sahara.

Yet the history of the siege of El-Aghouat, surely proclaims that beneath this impassible exterior, fire smoulders, and that once roused from his habitual lethargy, the inhabitant of the sun-scorched land, has scarcely less of courage, energy, or endurance, than the children of northern skies and temperate zones.

Only he must be roused-and there is an old French proverb which always seems peculiarly applicable to the Arab race, N'éveillez pas le chat qui dort.

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 diligence (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.

OLEAH lies on a wooded elevation some four hundred

K sea,

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.

441

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.