The Coolidge examiner., 1937-09-23

Visitors from Other Londs
Find Tunis Very Attractive

fingers a sequined gown, draped
from hanger shaped like the head
and shoulders of a bobbed-haired
blonde.
Machine-made silks hang side by
side with a tapestry, hand-woven
by some Zlass tribeswoman genera
tions ago. and passed down from
mother to daughter until hunger
turned an heirloom into a curio.
Cafe habitues, formerly enter
tained by lively hips and shrill
voices. now solemnly listen to the
metallic falsettos of loud-speaker
like a fytrap, or a "phono" horn
shaped like morning glory.
Above the screeching of orange
sellers, klaxons. and street car
wheels in the Place Bah Souika.
camellia-white domes rise like bub-
bles.
Through mere alley cluttered by
the barrows of vegetable merchants
and baskets of those who sell spin
ach, ground henna, or red pimiento
dust, you return to the Place Hal
faouine. There, during Ramadan,
Moslems fast and sleep by day and
gorge themselves by night. glimps-
ing naughty puppet shows or play
ing dominoes.
Such pleasures palling. you ride
out to the Bardo museum, once the
secluded women's quarters of the
palace of the Beys.
Where the Bey's womenfolk
lived like birds in a gilded cage"
visitors marvel at the unique treas
ures of this collection of Punic, Ro-
man. Christian, and Arab art.
This priceless hoard of historic
loot would disconcert a modern
archeologist. for scant records were
made of the exact places and con-
ditions where the relics Of long
gone centuries were brought TO
light. But there they are, in breath
taking quantity and excellence.
Crops and thistles now grow on
sites whence these ancient stones
came and companion pieces of these
matchless mosaics, here polished
and protected, now crumble under
careless feet at Dougga, Thuburbo
Majus, Bulla Regia, and Sbeitla.
Sponge Diver Found Yulla's Loot.
Petrified footprints made by
Rome's seven-league boots in Tu-
nisian sands have here been mar
shaled in a setting of rare charm.
Surely not even the chosen ladies of
the Bey ever graced these halls as
do the gods and goddesses in mar
BILE and bronze.
Thirty years ago a sponge diver
off Mahdia came gasping to the sur
face, his eyes dilated with fear. In
the shadowy depths he had suddenly
met face to face with mysterious
monster. His sceptical comrades,
forewarned, dove down. Ignorant
though they were, they came up
swearing secrecy. For the mon
ster" was part of the ancient booty
which Sulla shipped home from the
sack of Athens. Wrecked off NAH
dia, this hand-picked art collection
never reached pre-Christian Rome.
One bronze figure at LIE Bardo is
a replica of PraXiteles' Eros, and
this love is truly blind, for the eye
pits lack pupils. The original, known
and described by Callistratus, is
lost. And this glorious figure, res
cued from the sea 20 centuries after
its shipwreck, dominates a series of
halls in which Sulla's shipload of
loot is now displayed.
Sharp sand proved kinder to the
Pentelic marble than the surging
sea. A smooth hip, which rested
for 1000 years on bed of sand,
still has a glasslike polish. But
where the water, like an acid, pitted
the smooth skin, no semblance of
the original lines remains. The
chaste curve from shoulder to
breast, over which some Greek
sculptor labored with love, gave
way to pock-marked decomposi-
ton.
The bronzes suffered less. Dane
ing dwarfs still are grotesquely
amusing, and a virile figure with
stormy hair reaches out to grapple
an adversary with the lifelikeness
of a slow-motion movie.
In what was the Bey's banquet
hall, a colossal head of Jupiter, it.
self as tall as a woman, looks down
on Neptune'S cortege.
A mosaic showing the CyclopS
working under the direction Of Vul-
can makes Polyphemus seem like
a modern, pictured on a poster
twice life size.