The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1901-07-25

land like an English park, extending in
| land from the Mediterranean from fifty
to hundred miles. The High Plateau,
| extending from east to west, is formed
by vast, dreary plains, separated by
| parallel ranges of mountains. These
terraces increase in height as they re-
cede from the Tell, and again decrease
as they approach the Sahara, thus form
| ing a double series of gradients, the
| highest being perhaps four thousand
feet. Mountain spurs, crossing these
stages on the way to the sea- cut them
up into series of basins, each of which
| is generally occupied by a small salt
lake. Alterations of intense cold and
extreme heat prevail here. Instead of
seabreezes, only the hot blasts of the
desert blow over this inferno. There
are no trees, and no vegetation but
stunted scrub and weeds, on which the
sheep and camels browse, which form
the wealth of the wandering Arab. 1t
is said to be rich in minerals and valu-
able marbles, however, and in seasons
of unusual rains considerable alta is
grown for it's fibre. If my lot had to be
cast permanently in either place-which
Heaven forbid should infinitely pre-
fer the honest desert.
OF course we have not space in the
columns of The Republican Journal to
speak of half the excursions we have
actually made in Algeria, nor a hun
of the traveller. A little jaunt of last
week, which shows as well as any the
sharp contrasts of African scenery, led
us through Mansurah and Hannah
| Bou Ghara, along the Tafna river.
| Leaving Tlemcen by the Bou-Medina
gate we journeyed southwark a couple
of miles, to a mean little Arab village
with one tall minaret, snuggled close
up under hill which shelters it from
the dreaded sirocco. This is Ell Eubbad,
the once celebrated home of science and
religion in the golden days of long ago,
when Tlemcen was inhabited by war
riors and statesmen. Not a trace of
| its former glory remains; but little
| farther on we came to the ruined palace
of Abouel-H assam Ali, the BLACK Sui
TAM" whose name and ancestry is writ
| ten over the entrance-gate as "Our Lord
the Sultan Abdulla Ali, son of our Lord
the Sultan Abb Raced Gilman, son of
7 o,J+ ho Gull h; of
| Yacoob Abd-el- Hulk" His reign began
A. d. 1887, and continued eleven years,
but here it is inscribed over the door as
A. H. 739. On tablets at the main en-
trance to the mosque his name is also
written, "Our Lord the Sultan Abouel-
Hassan Abdulla Ah.'' This was his
favorite abode among scores of palaces,
as one may easily believe from the
traces of exquisite decorations, beauti-
full gardens, and the wide panorama of
plain and mountain to be viewed from
its terraces.
Close by is the Koubba (tomb) of Sidi
Bou-Medin, the patron Saint Of ITEM
cen. His correct name was Shaoib-ilon
Hoosain el-Andalousi Abou Median-
and no wonder his followers shortened
it for everyday use into Bou-Medin!
He was born in Seville nine or ten GEN.
turtles ago. Coming to Fee when a
young man, he devoted himself to the
ology, and after doing missionary work
all over Spain, Algeria and even in far
off Baghdad, he died near Tlemcen at a
ripe old age. To the Mohammedans his
tomb is the most sacred of shrines, and
therefore all foreign visitors should re-
member the injunction: "Take thy
shoes from off thy feet, for the place
wherein thou standest is holy ground"
TO be sure, it seems to us senseless
custom and so to them would be the
removal of mems hats in our sapctu-
aries. If we must invade the holy
places of other people, we should con-
form as far as possible to their ideas of
what is proper. 1t is not much to do to
slip off ones dusty boots at the outer
door of the courtyard; and one will
have his reward in the increased atten-
ton paid to him by the guardians of the
place. A short staircase descends into
an ante-chamber, lined with tombs; to
the right is the entrance to the sacred
Koubba, which contains two tombs-
that of the saint himself and of his
friend and disciple, Sidi Abd-es-Selam,
of Tunis. The roof and walls retain
all their fine old arabesque work, the
main feature of which. is the infinite
repetition of a cartouch containing the
inscription El-Mulk Lillahz'sThe king