The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-06-11

' bc0Oui1S Watching IBcIt ! go
when we left the road and drove across
the plowed fields we passed through
a flock of fat-tailed sheep ana bldch
goats driven by natives.
Nearly all our way was over the
ruins Of Carthage, and we were now IN
what was almost THE heart Of the an
cient city. The ground was 50 cover
ed with marble and pottery that we
felt like getting out and looking for
relics, and, indeed, during the whole
day my eyes have been moving about
among the stones with the hope TO
find treasure. l have picked up many
beautiful pieces Of marble. have
Clawed out bits Of mosaic from the
stone floors, and have had opportunity
to purchase all sorts of coins and clay
lam ps, tom of the time Of the Romans
and some dating back 20 the days or
the P~hOeneCians.
We first visited the amphttheater
where the gladiatorial shows were
held. 1t lies near an Arab village and,
as | stood on il. | heard tho shrek
ing of a spanked baby filling the air
which once r~esounded with the cries
of the Christian martyrs. The am
~phitheater has been only partially ex-
cavated. The cages for the wild
beasts can be plainly seen and the
great vaults below in which the
martyrs waited. The arena was clip
teal in shape and its area is more than
an acre. l paced it from one end to
liz = hAld 49, NAithe y IL 49,
mate it IS about 800 feet long and 200
feet wide. This space now lies about
twenty-five feet under ground. It
contains marble columns broken and
battered. Some Of the seats and a few
of the arches are still to be seen.
This theater was described by an
Arab historian who was here about
500 years ago. He says that there
were five galleries and that the build
ing was the most beautiful of its kind
4 aJnC known Tn6oU 60 the SnpoD
and goats feeding on the edge Of what
must have been at one time the second
gallery, and donkey brayed while |
paced the arena.
The Great Cisterns of Carthage.
The oldest and best known of the
Carthaginian ruins are the great els
terms which We're built to supply the
city with water. There were two sets
Of them. one at each side Of the
town. They were Of vast dimensions
enormous barrel-shaped ~caverns, 443
feet long and more than 80 feet in
diameter. They were surmounted by
cupolas and were connected Nth pipes
for distributing the water. ne lar
gest Of taese eisterns are nex Arab
village, and they are now used as
sta bles and dwellings by the Arabs.
They number t~wenty-four and cover
MANY acres. / went down into some
of them. In one | found a tiny gray
donkey with a little Arab girl standing
DeS'Oe II ana IN anOIileT ana Ola men
with a flock of little chickens feed
ing about her. a part of one cistern
has been walled off as a hay NOV;
another is row an Arab house, and III
q third I saw q Redouin woman grind
ing meal upon two stone which rested
on the floor.
The dust of ages has half filed these
great cayerns and ii j make an eI-
cellent protection from the weather.
AS l made my notes within them I
hammedan tomb nearby. h cry
was. There is no God but God and
Mohammed is his prophet" AS l lis
tened l could not but think of the peO-
pie who drank from these cisterns
500 years before the Christian era,
and more than 1000 wears before Mo-
manned first saw the light of day in
the deserts of Arabia.
$500 Years Id ana still in Use.
Later in the cav 1 visited the cisterns
on the other side of the town. They
are $500 years old. but the French
have repaired them and they now sup
ply wat II to the villages and towns
about. The water comes from TuniS,
and it is pumped in by steam engines.
The ciStcrns are thirty feet deep, and
something like 500 feet long. The en-
gineer told me that he had about
5000, 600 gallons in them ct the time
of my visit.
These cisterns. as used by the Car
'tnaginianS. were first filed with rain
water. Later on they We're supplied
by an auueduct erected by
the Roman emperor Hadrian. This
brought the water from DOugEd, about
eighty miles away. 1t carried 5000
900 gallons a day. and the water pass
ed through underground canals and
over valleys on magnif1clent arches to
Carthage. The remains of his aque-
duct can be seen in many places, and
parts of it have been so restored that
it now supplies Tunis with water. h
work cost millions. and it was done by
a French engineer. Iron pipes have
been used instead of the arches, but
the old masonry still upholds much
of the works. The water supply is
much greater than it was in the days
of the Romans.
Amongst the Tonbs.
1 have spent considerable time
wandering through the old Carthagin-
ian cemeteries. Many tombs have
been excavated, and the dead of a doz-
en- generations have been taken from
their raves to be shown to us. the
heather tourists Of the present. Some
of the tombS We're far below ground.
and Others almost at the surface. From
one cemetery they have taken ESQ
epitaphs. and from another 500. in
Guiding the names of librarians,
tchoolmasters. doctors. soldiers.
nurses, dancers and slaves. Some of
the oldest tombs are triangular in
shape: others contained marble sar-
cOphagi, and in some were men and
women loaded with jewels.
During my visit to the museum
saw nanN little stone Jokes which Wera
found full of charred ashes and bones
They date back to the DAYS of Car
thage the Mighty. and are supposed
to have contained the ashes of child
rem who were sacrificed to Moloch
This brazen god was made red hot at
the times of sacrifice. and the child
rem were placed in his arms. 1t was
the custom to give him not only little
children. but also young men and
maidens. The victims were thrown
into his red-hot arms, and from
there they rolled down into the blaz-
ing furnace below.
The Gay Girls Of Old Carthage
The museum at Carthage is filled
With treasures which have been found
in the ruins. There are dice razorr