Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-04-23

ing days under the first stories of their
stoutly built houses, the signs of life
begin when the sun has sunk behind
the sand dunes. then the women are
heard in plaintive drootngs. as II a
universal nursery were at work with
children.
Almost daily the simeon makes life a
burden unless one is sheltered under
the ample palms or in the spacious
ground apartments OF the solemn
looking fortresses called houses. Were
the gardens on a level with the sur
face of The desert. they couldn't exist
an hour in a simeon which sweeps
everything as clean as the tangled
hotel sweepers. But let the simeon
whirl dust and heat with what fury 1t
lists, the voice of the ''mueZzen' six
times a day proves that the human
still exists and that is about the only
evidence that there is anything but a
vast circumference of almost evenly
built edifiees made to resist the desert
invader. both simeon and nomad.
The strange jewellers in this unin-
viting oasis are as extraordinary as
their surroundings. There are three
distinct groups, they can hardly be
called races: The descendants of the
earliest known habitants differentiat-
ed distinctively as Rhadamesians. who
are accorded a certain priority of rank.
arrogating to themselves nobiliary dis
tinctions: the "Atryas." a mingling of
negro freedmen from other parts: then
the descendants of the mobiles. by ne
| orr oil
have none of the physical traits of the
African. Their noses are aquiline.
their hair long, their lips normal, and
their feet well proportioned, evident
descendants. the anthropologists dis
Germ, of the ancient Lybians. A con-
siderable group of scientists who have
sojourned in the oasis testify. however,
that the earliest settlers of the oasis
were unquestionably the native blacl,
African and that the remnants of
their civilization attest superiority to
their successors. The Italians lool,
upon this as a very hopeful promise
for their future settlement and civili-
cation of the immense desert wastes
that have fallen TO them in occupying
Tripoli, since they propose to make
use of the myriads hitherto brought by
the caravans as slaves.
But the conquerors, like the French
in Algeria and Morocco, will be com
PEELED to turn the soldiers easernes
into schools to teach the men operat
ing in the country the innumerable
dialects spoken by the natives, for no
two groups speak the same lingo. Nor
will the work of assimilating' the
new masters prove easy, since the wo-
men are more Theoretically immured at
home than even in Turkey. One of the
secrets of the French facility in gain
ing the good will of conquered peoples
is the ready adaptablity of the good
humored little soldier in making up to
the women; he is always handy, al
ways serviceable. he can teach how to
cook edibles in Il fashion never
dreamed by the aboriginal, and thus
makes ii easy to indoctrinate the habit:
and even religion of the Christian States
But in Rhadames the Italian can hardly
count on this. for woman is under no cir
eumstances permitted to quit the house
save to go to the mosque twice a day
and then wrapped mp like a mummy
But though debarred the streets, thu
Rhadames dame has abundant opportuni
| ty to visit and gossip with her neigh
bors. for the interior of every hous
communicates by the gardens and bal
comics with every other house; thus tn
immured danes may circulate from en-,
| to end of the town without being seen b,
man, as the inner apartments of tn
houses are devoted exclusively to tn
women. On the other hand the work o