The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-05-14

-1AAA OdLEl5 ana VGlCh prod
ably referred to the hot sulphur
springs outside the city.
With the French Soldiers.
Biskra is under military govern
IHent. Il is the chief station OF the
eastern Sahara, and IL is called the
IeTrltoire de Commandment. One
sees French soldiers every where. and
there are French officers At the ho-
tets and N the streets. They are fine
looking fellows and far different
from our ordinary idea Of the French
army. They are straight, broad
shouldered, bronzed-faced men who
have seen fighting with these tribes
Of the desert, and show II. some OF
the offcers nave the appearance Of
dudes, and they are noted for their
p~oifteness. but no one dares 10 pre-
sumo upon their weakness.
The territory OF Biskra Is about as
large as tho state OF Ohio, and II has
q population Of less tina one hundred
thousand, all told. The natives live
IN z number Of GASES scattered here
and there over the desert. Biskra it.
self IS commanded by a major. as
sisted by a captain, three leutenants
and a military Interpreter In tho
other oases there are captains, lieut.
enants and interpreters. The town
has electric lights. and it has schools
Tor both French and Arabs. It has a
negro quarter as well.
The French city is made up Of
1at-roosed white houses OF one or two
stories. Many Of the roofs have walls
about them. and the women and
children play on the roofs in the
evening, and the people often sleep
there at night.
l wish I could take a walk with
you through one OF these Sahara
towns. even in French BisEra the
scenes would seem strange There
are floors who sit right out in the
streets, OF upon the sidewalks. upon
mats which they nave laid down for
the purpose, and play d~orninoes.
They have little tables about as high
as q foot-stool, and thus sitting, with
their bare feet under them. they will
nov the blocks for an hour or more
without saying a word. Many Of the
players are gray-beared and gray
headed, but age doeS not seem to effect
their love for the game.
Some Bible Characters.
Everywhere / go here I meet the
write these notes / can see in one
group an old Abraham with the aged
Sarah beside him and his buxom
Hagar behind. That little baby IN
Hagar's arms might have been young
~Isrnael, and | observe that Abraham
looks upon him with love. At the
same time Sarah seems to be jealous,
and gIares at both baby and mother
out Of the tail of her eye.
That Moor coming down the street
might be Joseph, the friend of King
Pharaoh. Observe his costly raiment
Of fine silk and wool; he walks with
a strut and IS evidently a man of au-
thority.
on that donkey trotting towards Us
is an old man whom one might easily
imagine to be Balaam, and 10, the
donkey stops and opens his mouth
and prays. His message, however. we
do not understand, for he has not the
power of speech as had the ass of the
Scriptures. And SO | might go on,
finding a character at every step
which would correspond to one in the
Bible. This is the S~inon-pure orient,
where the natives are about the same
scene today as they We're three or four
or more thousand years since. Ihey
are all Alohammedans and believe
only in Allah and the prophet.
How the Oasis is Watered.
But let us go out to the oasis and
visit the people who live under the
palm trees. We drive along the Rue
Bertha by walls of yellow mud in
closing date trees which rise hign
above them and are loaded with ripe
yellow fruit. The walls are as high
a. my head, and on their top dried
thorn bushes have been set in while
the mud was still wet, protecting the
fruit like so much broken glass.
Inc gates 10 liiESe sd1a1IS a l "
doors of palm wood, and the only
other openings are through drains
seen here and there where the water
flows in or out. This oasis is fed by
springs from the River Biskra, which
is dry the greater part OF the year.
Wells have tapped the springs, and
there is a flow of several thousand
gallons q minute. The water IS some
what alkaline, but it puts the sugar
into the dates and the sin Is so hot
that 3ae fruit is delicious. According to
the 4rabs, to make good dates the
head of the tree must be in the purn-
ing sun the greater part of the year.
The thermometer here even in mid
winter never falls below sixty, and the
climate seems just right, although il
is not so at kantara,, which IS thlrty
or forty miles farther north. Blskra
is annually producing something IKE
5000, 900 pounds of dates, enough to
furnish a handful to every boy in the
United States and leave some to spare
As we ride on into the oasis we
can see men picking the dates, or
rather cutting them off. They are IN
enormous punches, and a good tree
viii produce on the average about 10
pounds annually. The fruit is not good
until it is dead ripe. | bit into some
green dates today and they puckered
my mouth like unfrosted persimmons-
In Old Bisl>ra.
/ nave already written OF the GASES
of Figuig and Tarla. Biskra is some
what the same. It's area about that
of an Ohio township, and 1t is alto
gether about six miles in length. 1t is
divided up into lite fields or garden
patches, each of which is surrounded
by these mud walls Of sund dried brick.
There are no payements. The streets
are dirt roads, With here and there
a wid irrigation stream running
through and with bridges of palm
wood crossing it at intervals of every
few feet.
There are villages scattered through
out the oasis. Each OF these is enter
ed by a low gate made of mud Dicks
and palms and this gate Is always
closed at night. The houses are mostly
mean mud huts With flat roofs, There
is some rain here. and the water runs
from the root through pipes which
extend out into the street, giving one
a douche on the turban or down the
neck of ones gown.
I understand that the water supply
is comparatively scanty: that water
rights are sold in perpetuity and that
there are also leases at so much per
year, and even at so much per hour
Not long ago one paid $500 for a per-