330 OBSERVANCE OF THE RAMADAN painful, on arriving at Milah, to see the gaunt wolfish faces of hungry growing boys, who had probably been out tending cattle for the whole day, or driving a mule for twenty or thirty miles, without a morsel of food or drop of water having entered their lips. Neither may they smoke, nor-which an Arab values even more-take a single pinch of snuff. The nearest approach to a gratification of sense which I saw, is the sticking of a wild flower in the nostril.* The face and hands may be washed in water, but none must be swallowed before sunset. After the commencement of the Ramadan, I never passed an Arab in the afternoon without his inquiring the hour of the day; which previously had not occurred even once; so painful is this regulation to those who cannot, as is the habit with the rich, pass the day sleeping in their houses. But like the judaical observance of the sabbath with some English sectaries, the rigour of their fast constitutes in the estimation of these poor people the test stantis aut cadentis disciplinæ. I have no doubt that * The owner of the lemon-grove which we visited at Milah had been very desirous to present us each with a lemon. Not having anything at hand which would have been suitable as a return for this compliment, we declined with thanks; but the kaid and the whole party were extremely importunate that we should take the fruit "to carry in our hands," if we did not wish to eat it. I could not understand this suggestion at the time; but afterwards, when I saw the sufferings of the common Arabs during the Ramadan, and the expedient noticed in the text, it occurred to me that the offer had been intended to diminish the presumed inconvenience of the next day's fast to us, and I felt vexed not to have been alive to a piece of delicate politeness. A CHIEF POINT OF RELIGION. 331 the murder of a whole family (if not tribesmen) would sit very lightly on the conscience of many an Arab, whose soul would be utterly crushed by the reflection that he had drunk a mouthful of water between sunrise and sunset during the Ramadan, even to save himself from death. 332 JOURNEY TO GUELMA. CHAPTER XII. I TOOK my final leave of Constantine, a locality unparalleled in the objects of interest it presents, with much regret, although I was about to visit a region which I particularly wished to see. My object was to strike the sea-coast again at Bona, the Hippo of St. Augustine, taking on my way the hot-springs of Hammam Meskoutin (the Enchanted Baths) and Guelma, the ancient Calama. I had brought letters to the chief of the Bureau Arabe at Constantine; but unfortunately at my first arrival I found this gentleman on the point of setting off on a promenade militaire with the general commanding the Constantine division. I was, however, promised the means of making the expedition; and the day before I finally set out, the officials at the bureau assured me that a spahi and two muleteers should be with me by half-past five in the morning. At a quarter before six, two Arabs of the kaidat of Guelma arrived with a mule and a horse for myself and my baggage, but without any escort. What occurred afterwards induces me to believe that BREEDING GROUNDS OF THE TRIBES. 333 the spahi who had been ordered to attend me had shrunk from the prospect of two long days' march during the Ramadan, and been wilfully unpunctual; but at the time, being anxious to escape as much of the heat of the day as possible, I assumed that the people at the Bureau had judged a military attendant unnecessary; and after making the Arab employé, who brought the muleteers and spoke French, repeat to them in Arabic the route which had been laid down for me, I set off cheerily, although alone, my late companion having returned to Philippeville on his way back to Algiers. The road we took for the first three or four miles coincided with that to Batna. It then turned off to the left, and ascended over hills of alluvium to the limestone plateau, gradually assuming an eastward direction. At first there was a good deal of cultivation by Arabs to be seen, the crops being exclusively cereals; but afterwards, when we were fairly on the limestone, these ceased and were succeeded by a sea of pasturage, covered as usual by the wild artichoke. But the herbage was most luxuriant, and the number of brood mares, which appeared here and there, showed that I had got into the breeding grounds of the tribes. We pushed on briskly, the two men being in good spirits at the thought of returning to their own tribe, and not yet exhausted by fasting and fatigue. They chanted alternately what I suppose were verses from the Koran, in which one of them was a great adept, but the other, who was the stouter fellow, and had withal the honester face, was frequently at fault, and obliged to stop in the middle of his strain. After about three hours' riding and fording a small stream, we passed two or three European farms, with a few fig and olive trees planted in the immediate neighbourhood of them. The owner of one of these met us, mounted on a fine Arab horse, with a gun on his shoulder, and he proved, contrary to my expectation, to be a Frenchman. Then we plunged into a fresh series of plains, here and there broken up in small plots for cereal cultivation by the Arabs, but for the most part covered with excellent pasture, and full of Arab douairs, with herds of sheep, goats, cattle, and camels. Several small parties of mounted Arabs also appeared from time to time in the distance. My men did not seem at all acquainted with the people in the douairs, in the immediate neighbourhood of several of which our track led us. They were extremely sulky, and rarely replied to my salutation, or made any attempt to restrain the savage onsets of their dogs, which were very troublesome. I had unfortunately no long whip, and to defend myself from the brutes was obliged to make the muleteers give me, from time to time, a few stones to hurl at them when they threatened to leap at my legs, which as they hung down instead of being tucked up after the fashion of the natives,—who sit |