BANKS.

CONSULS, ETC.

45

"The best French club is the Cercle d'Alger, Rue de Palmyre. Strangers admitted on presentation by members. French billiard tables, reading and writing room, and good cuisine."-Murray's Guide.

Consuls.-English Consul-General, Lieutenant-Colonel P. L. Playfair. Office, Maison Limousin, Place Bresson; private residence at Mustapha Supérieur, near the Colonne Voirol. American Consul, Colonel Burgher, 4, Rue d'Isly. English Church at the Porte d'Isly.

English Library, 21, Rue d'Isly. Winter visitors are expected to contribute 10 fr. each towards its support. Presents of books gladly accepted.

English Doctor, Dr. Thompson, Rue Rovigo; fee 12 fr. 50 c.; most kind and attentive.

General Post-office, Boulevard de la République. Letters and newspapers from Europe arrive three times a week, and the post, or courrier, as it is called, leaves four times a week for Marseilles. Postage at the same rate as in France.

Telegraph Office in the same building.

There are several Newspapers published in Algiers :— Le Moniteur de l'Algérie, L'Akhbar, La Vigie Algérienne, Le Mobacher, with French and Arabic text, &c. Most of these, with one or two French newspapers, are taken in at the hotels.

The Bibliothèque, in the Rue de l'État-Major, is open daily to readers, who will gladly acknowledge the kindness and courtesy of the Curator, Monsieur MacCarthy-the wellknown Algerian scholar.

The Theatre is in the Place Bresson, where, during the winter season, operas are performed three times in the week, as well as on Sundays. The interior is tastefully decorated, the seats comfortable, and the performances far

from despicable. Evening dress not necessary.

Places can be secured at noon on the day of the performance. Private boxes, 20 and 16 fr.; orchestra and balcony stalls 4 fr. Ladies do not go into the orchestra stalls.

Baths. The best European baths are at 44, Rue Babel-Oued; the best Moorish at 2, Rue de l'État-Major, which are reserved for women from noon until 5 P.M.

The operations of a Turkish bath are sufficiently well known, and scarcely need describing. The bath is the rendezvous of all the Moorish ladies, who constantly spend whole days in these watery delights, while the night is employed in the same manner by the men.

The treatment, according to a French writer (Nodier), who minutely describes the process, seems to be a little rough, if one may judge by the following passage:

"The temperature of this room is so high, that after having been subjected but a few minutes to its enervating influence, one is glad to lie down, so incapable do the limbs feel of supporting the weight of the body. Then begins the long operation of pounding and rubbing, to the monotonous chant of verses from the Koran. This is not all. The patient, seized by active and well-practised hands, hears every bone in his body cracking; he is twisted and turned, rolled into a ball and rolled out again, as if he were a clown, and while one of the swarthy negro attendants pinches every vertebra of his spine, others take advantage of his nervous movements to pull his arms and legs in different directions, and make all his bones crack at once. At this moment he may esteem himself happy if the kindly caution of a friend have taught him the Arab word which signifies 'enough' (barca), and which speedily puts an end to these somewhat laborious gymnastics."

Negroes attend the bath for the men, and negresses for the women.

There are sea baths on the shore, which are much patronized in spring and summer.

BATHS.

CONVEYANCES.

47

CONVEYANCES.-There is a tramway, which will be found very convenient by travellers. The place of starting is the Place du Gouvernement, and the cars run in two opposite directions, to St. Eugène, and to Mustapha Inférieur, &c. The carriages are extremely clean and comfortable.

There are many omnibuses, or coricolos, as they are called here; but they are almost exclusively used by the Arabs, and cannot, on any account, be recommended to Europeans.

The only omnibus which is not patronized by the natives is that (a green one) which starts every hour from the corner of the Place du Gouvernement and Rue Cléopâtre, for Mustapha Supérieur, the English quarter. This is generally filled with English residents and visitors.

The omnibuses or diligences which run to more distant places are slightly superior to the town conveyances, but will not be found possible for ladies.

A drive of three hours or so is usually considered a half

day.

There is a tariff of fares to the different points; but it must be admitted it is seldom accepted without dispute. Any imposition, however, should be immediately referred to the Préfet, who has gained much credit by the regulations

which he has introduced with regard to conveyances, and the strictness with which he has enforced them. "Drive me to the Préfecture," will usually put an end to extortionate demands.

These fares include the return journey, but if the traveller alights, half a franc must be paid for every quarter of an hour the carriage is kept waiting.

After 11 p.m. the fares are increased by one-half.

Good private carriages can be hired at the livery stables from 20 fr. to 25 fr. a day, including driver. Saddle horses at 5 fr. a ride, or 150 fr. a month. Carriages by the month cost about 400 fr to 500 fr., including coachman, or with a single horse 300 fr.

Livery Stable Keepers.-J. Ducotterd, opposite the Hôtel des Postes, Rue de la Liberté. Charles Mame, a British subject, just behind the English Consulate. La Gier, behind the Telegraph Office, and others.

TH

CHAPTER IV.

THE NATIVE INHABITANTS OF ALGIERS.

"His tribe were God Almighty's gentlemen."

Dryden.

"Sufferance is the badge of all our tribes."

Merchant of Venice.

HAT which to an European untravelled in Eastern lands makes the chief novelty, and constitutes no small portion of the charm of Algiers, is the extraordinary variety of costume which meets him at every turn; the blaze of colour, the mingling of the grandly simple with the picturesque and grotesque-Eastern life and European civilization walking side by side.

He is at first somewhat bewildered by the new persons rather than the new things about him. He feels suddenly transported into a masquerade, and can scarcely persuade himself of his surroundings that they are "all real." He finds himself, at every moment, transgressing the rules of good manners, by staring his hardest at each strangely-clad figure he encounters.

As Arab, Moor, or Jew, each in his curious Eastern dress, passes by him, he is sent back in imagination a score or two of years to the days of his childhood, when he pored in delight over the pictured pages of the Thousand

E