The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-06-20

and chattering that is decidedly "of tn
 earth earthly" and bright eyes, Yer,
 much alive with Mother Eyes curios
 ty, peer from under wooden haiks a the stranger.
 | Speaking % Arab ceremonials, you
 may see some of them to-day, rn
 changed since Ali Baba's time, even il Algiers, within sight of Protestant ant
 Catholic churches. The most fanatic rites are performed by votaries of the Sidi Mohammedan bin Aissa confrater- nity, and one of their fetes is wortf
 seeing once, if one has strong nerves
 It begins with the wild beating o1
 drums and tambours, until a crowd is | collected. Then out of some dark doorway an Assaoui, supposed to be in | spired, rushes with a yell into the
 ring formed by spectators, where he ex.
 eeutes a frantic dance, swaying his
 body backwards and forwards and con-
 torting himself with fearful violence
 He is presently joined by others, all
 yelling, gesticulating and comforting until they fall exhausted to the ground | The Mohaddam (head of the order)
 collects enough coin from the crowd to purchase a reviving beverage which
 he administers to the prostrate devo- | tees; and soon they resume their cheerful performances, soaring their | bodies with red-hot irons, forcing out l their own eyes with spikes, eating live scorpions and serpents, chewing brok-
 en glass, doing any devilish deed their fanatical mania may suggest. It is bnt,. 1o1 gious" exaltation renders them insen- sible to pain, but what the after effect of blass and scorpion diet may be cannot say
 Other sacrifcial rites are celebrated
 on the seashore every Wednesday
 morning, which anybody may witness
 who gets up early enough. The per-
 formers are not of the ancient and
 honorable Aissaoui, but low-class na-
 tives who desire to get rid of their va-
 rious diseases. To this end they
 slaughter a fowl or lamb and after
 certain incantation and burning of in-
 cense they smear themselves with it's
 blood. If the dying creature struggles
 in the water, it is looked upon as a
 good omen and the faith-cure Is almost
 complete. This has nothing to do with
 true Mohammedan worship, but per sons of different races, Moors, Arabs and Jews included; share the supersti- tion It is a very ancient ceremony, and as early as 1903 it was minutely described in book by Pere Dan, the French author-priest The negroes in Algiers have also their peculiar fetes and sacrifices, some of which are as disgusting as they are curious. Chief among them is the feast of Mouled en- Nibbi, in honor of the Prophets's birth day, which occurs on the 18th day of the month Rabia el-owel.
 Bou-Zarea is delightfully."- situated on a mountain of the same name. mora than thousand feet above the sea. There are two villages-the European and the native-nearly mile apart. Midway between rises vast building, for many years a Turkish lunatic asy- lum, but now occupied by the French IIcole Normal. Nowadays the native village is mostly devoted to Koubbas, (shrines of the saints) each set in an enclosure or dwarf palms and pricklv pear. From this point. which the trav- eler should make his base of operations for at least week, several excursions of great interest may be made, One of them leads via the faubourg Bab-el- | Oued to the celebrated French observa- tory, which is a credit to it's builders and said to be more favorably situated than any other in the world with but | two exceptions. Visitors are always i cordially welcomed by the director | Near it is another of Algiers worthy | Hospice des Vieillards in | which several hundred old men and | women find an asylum. The institu- ion is kept by the Petites Soeurs des | pauvres GLittle Sisters of the Poor), | md is entirely supported by voluntary | 
 Another excursion, which may be | made on foot, if one is a "eood walker" eads to the village of Birkhadem, "- The Well of the Slave"--so called from | picturesque Moorish fountain in the less than three miles rom BouZarea. In the fort above the hamlet is a military penal establish nent Near 1t is an orphanage for | ,irls; and all around are relics of an ,lder ilization-inegalithic monu- nents. still entire, and large tubular tones, resting on four upright stones. )f course they are the tombs of some orgetten people. and the pottery and bronze ornaments which have been aken out of them, now adorn rooms of he Societe de Climatalogic in Algiers
 It is fifteen miles from Bon-Zarea to "a Trappe de Stacueli and necessitates m early start, with luncheon carried long, as there is neither bite nor sup o be had until the return About six y years ago the Trappists monks ob- aimed permission from the French overnment to build monastery here nd were granted twenty-five hundred cres of the surrounding land, which 1as then almost a wilderness, but has cen transformed by their untiring in ustry into a wonderfully luxurious ineyard and orchard. Their system f irrigating is worth studying, and hey have two mills for grinding corn, ne water which drives them being rought by an acqueduct thirty feet igh. The monastery itself built on le spot where the battle of Staouel | as fought between the Turks and I rench, in the summer of 1S70--is a 2 reat rectangular building, with the sual court yard, surrounded by clois- ITS. There is chapel at one end, and 1e walls of the whole structure are