The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-12
By Frank G. Carpenter
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I with all sorts of tropical and temperate i fruit trees and shrubs. There are green hedges fifteen feet high, as carefully l trimmed as those in the botanical gardens of Algiers, or in that of Buitenzorg, Java. About twenty Arab gardeners are always 1 busy keeping the plantation in order. and the leaves are not allowed to lie on i the paths or walks. Here and there | through the gardens are houses of Arab architecture, the homes of the owner. and in one place there is a great circle cut out under the trees where dances may be held in the open.
 sid Okba and His Oasis. I
 Have you ever heard of sidi okba?
 He was famous Arab general, who conquered the whole of north Africa from the Nile to the Atlantic about 1900 odd years ago. All whom he conquered he converted by telling them that they must die if they did not espouse the Moham-' deman relgion and it is said that when he reached the western ocean he rode into 1t exclaiming that if it were not for this barrier he would make every people of the lands beyond worship Allah or die. This man was one of the great Molammedan heroes. The people look upon him as a saint, and they have named towns, oases and other places after him. One of the most important of these is Sid Okba,
 
 heart of the desert. In it is the shrine of the saint, and the mosque containing it is said to be the oldest Mohammedan building in Africa. The town Is the re- ligious capital of this part of the world, so holy that the people make pilgrimagee to it as they do to Kairouan, in Tunisia, and to Mecca and Medina, in Arabia.
 rode across the desert this afternoon and visited it. The way is over a coun- try covered with scanty vegetation of thorny scrub, through sandy and stony wastes, and by the oases of Filiach and Chetma. Sidi Okba itself has 66000 palm trees, and the town has several thousand people. The plantations are surrounded by mud walls like those of Bisllra, but the houses are better and some of the streets are so wide that one can drive through them. On our way there we passed some caravans of eamels and donkeys. We saw many tent villages and great flocks of black goats watched by shepherds.
 Business of an Oasis.
 Entering the gate we rode between the mud walls to the public square, which is surrounded by petty stores or bazars. Every store is a box-lize room no wider than the door which leads into it, and so , low that the merchants can hardly stand upright within it. The stores are lighted from the front, and the customers stand in the street as they bargain.
 There was considerable industry going on Here men were weaving there they were making blows and farther on sad- dies. In the street of the tailors l saw several men using American sewing ma chimes, but nowhere did 1 see any Ameri- can goods On the sides of the streets were mud lodges built out from the mud walls. These ledges were filled with white-gowned men chatting or sleeping. Some were reeing cotton and some sew ing. At night the ledges are filled with sleepers.
 Many of these poorer Arabs have no homes They eat at the cafes and sleep in the streets. This is especially so in | the cities The men always sleep with their heads covered, and, in fact, with every bit of bare skin hidden. One req son for this is on account of the flies. They fairly swarm in all the oases, malI- ing one pray for the Caliph Adalmelic, the father of flies, to breathe upon them and drive them away. This old calph had | breath so fatal to flies that every one l dropped dead that flew over his mouth. | During my stay I visited the famous l mosque It is an ordinary building with perhaps half dozen rooms, including the | place of worship. It was filled with Mo- l hammedans when I entered it this after noon. and I heard the Mohammedan youths singing out verses from the Koran in the school rooms on each side. l spent a while watching the men at their pray ers and althought I was known to be | Christian l was not molested.