The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1914-02-16

j. Scott Fraser, in T. P.'s Weekly:
At Biskra we are translated back to
the life Of Biblical times, to the Gene
sis, the beginning Of things. One has
only to see the long. strings of camels
arriving laden with their freight OF
dates N produce from the regions
south Of the Sahara; the Arab shep-
herds as they keep watch over their
focks Of sheep and herds Of goats; the
bedoin ONE as they sit at the door
of their low black tents, weaving and
spinning, to realize it. Here before our
eyes are the forms Of Esau and Jacob,
Rebecca and Leah.
Biskra is pre-eminently p~atriarchial
in its life and customs. It is situated
amidst an unreasonable waste OF
sand, forty miles south of the palm
village of FL k~antara-"the gateway
to the desert The first view Of 1t,
some twenty miles distant, resembles
q loW-lying purple cloud on the rim Of
the horizon. After twenty hours on
~tinuous rail journey from Algiers, it
is a welcome and refreshing sight to
the ordinary traveller, but how glad
some to the wandering nomads, after
the slow and tedious camel march OF
many days, across the hot and parch-
ed desert. that first glimpse of distant
Biskra with its belt Of palms, its cool
ing shade n its running streams
The Arabs call it la Refine des III
bans" 1t Is one Of the most beauti-
full regions in the whole of the great
Sahara, set as a gem-an emerald-on
the bosom Of the brown desert.
Biskra is a port, so to speak, in the
Sahara sea, at which of cam
els-"ships Of the DESERT as they have
aptly been described-are daily arriv-
ing with rich loads Of produce for con
veyance to the various coast towns OF
Algiers and Tunisia. 1t has a varied
meet there. Bedouins. Arabs, Sudanese,
Kabyles, Israelites, Moors and Euro
pean and American visitors.
1t is on market days that n ap-
preciates the cosmopolitan character
Of it's floating population. In the
market place, which occupies a cover
ed space with archades surrounding
it, are gathered together crowds OF
native buyers and sellers actively bar
gaining and bartering. Here are tall
dark Arabs in their sno white fiow-
ing burnouses and turbans Of camel
hair the living pictures Of the Caliph
Harun-al-Raschid. Bedouins in their
jellabs. negroes of the Sudan. officers
and soldiers Of the French and native
army in their bright blue and red uni
forms; and forming a striking back
ground to it all, the vivid colors Of
fruits and green vegetables, laid out
in piles on the ground, native pottery
and leather work and bright fabrics
arranged on the numerous stalls.
Adjoining the market place is the
street of the dancing women OF the
Ouled Nail tribe, whose performance
is n Of the most remarkable and at
tractive features Of the life of Biskra.
Each evening after dinner the Eng
iisll and American visitors attend the
Cafe Mature, where the dancing is
held. 1t is a plain room with q sand
ed floor and simple wooden seats.
These dances form the wild ex-
element of the monotonous desert
life. The Ouled Nail women come
from a distant part of the Sahara,
and at Biskra they dance for their
livelihood until they have made suffi-
cient money to return to their desert
homes and marry some camel-owner
Of their tribe.
Some Of these women are young and
Of exceeding beauty. They wear cos
tunes Of many colors n decorate
themselves with barbaric jewelry--sil-
YER earrings and bangles and anklets,
and an ornament peculiar to their
tribe made Of numerous gold coins. the
gifts of their patrons. which they wear
on their bosoms. They are gay, light
hearted, vivacious women, and dur
ing the day are to be seen idly sitting
on the balconies or the fiat roofs of
their houses, or arrayed in all their
finery, ~promenading in groups about
the street, smoking cigarettes and
laughing and testing with the Arabs
and native soldiers.
On the occasion we visited the Cafe
Mature the principal dancer wa a girl
OF not more than is years of age, tall
and 1.-the OF figure. She had the choc-
|olata complexion Of the south, dark,
I1ustrous eyes, sensitive lips, a low
forehead and q face OF bewitching
beauty. Her cheeks and chin were
tattoed. She wore large circlets of
silver suspended from her ears, broad,