BUT REALLY JUGGLERS.

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up a hideous howl. The old chief now advanced towards him, and seemed to soothe him by gestures like those which animal magnetizers are wont to employ to tranquillize their patients. He then brought him a kind of shovel used by the Arab smiths, of which the scoop had been made red hot. The young man took this with a howl, intended to evince satisfaction, licked it with his tongue, and placed it on his naked arms, which were streaming with perspiration from the exercise he had taken. He then stalked about the apartment, uttering the peculiar growl which is emitted by an angry camel. A leaf of the prickly pear was thrown to him, which he picked up in his mouth from the ground, and ate a portion of it. He then resumed his jumping by the side of the chafing-dish, and another performer got up and exhibited nearly the same feats.

This was a man almost as black as a negro, but with the European features and soft hair. After he had, however, exhibited his appetite for red hot iron and cactus leaves, he treated the company to a yet more disgusting display. Giving a rotatory motion to a long piece of iron, exactly like a spit, he proceeded apparently to force out one of his eyes with it. The real operation effected was the twisting of the eyelid round the point of the rod, by which means the former entirely disappeared, and the whole of the eye protruded as if it had been torn from its socket. This

was esteemed a master-stroke, and the chief made a special collection for the benefit of the performer. He afterwards inserted the same rod into his body at the navel and brought the point out just over the hip. Both these feats were accompanied by indications of great pain, the idea intended to be impressed upon the spectators being that the man was compelled thus to torture himself by the demon which possessed him. I observed him very closely, and saw that the latter trick had been effected by means of an artificial fistula made in the thick skin of the belly. After drawing the iron rod from his body, he returned to the side of the chafing-dish, and resumed his jumping, which displayed extraordinary agility, until at last he sunk with an appearance of perfect exhaustion upon a bench at the side of the room. This performer was the son of a man of some property, who was anxious to induce him to give up his vagabond life; but the excitement of it was too great an attraction to allow him to accede to his father's wishes.

Some of these Aïssaoua, in their fit of possession, eat serpents and scorpions alive; and the old chief told us that one of his party would soon come to Algiers who was a master of this accomplishment, which, like the eye trick, is far from general among the body; but he was not successful in inducing any European to pay him another visit.

In the interior of the country the faith in the

ARE STILL BELIEVED IN.

61

magical nature of the proceeding still continues firm. At Maskara I passed by the door of a hut, where an exorcism by some Aïssaoua was being carried on inside. Mingling with some Arabs that were standing and looking in, I saw a performer in the state of ecstatic excitement; but in two or three minutes my European dress caught his eye, and he suddenly stopped, put his hand to his head as if stunned, and staggering to a bench fainted, or affected to faint, away. By the manner of the Arabs, both within and without the cottage, I saw plainly that my presence was felt to have broken the spell in which the exorcist had been held, and consequently to have marred the success of the incantation. The whole proceeding was suspended; and observing the sullen side looks, with one eye halfclosed-a sure sign of Arab malice-which were directed upon me, I judged it prudent to walk slowly off, the more so as some of the party were Morocco Arabs, the most savage and unscrupulous of all the race. On passing near the house about an hour afterwards, I was glad to find, by the sounds which proceeded from it, that the operation had been resumed, and I took care not to endanger its success by a second intrusion.

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ASCENT OF THE SAHEL.

CHAPTER IV.

FROM Pointe Pescade a track ascends the hill, by which the pedestrian may get up to the plateau on the top of the Sahel, and after a few miles of walking, reach the village of Bouzarieh; and he may also do the same by ascending just beyond the village of St. Eugène; but the extremely broken character of the ground and the overgrowth of brushwood renders it very easy for him to miss his way, and he must remember that the chances are ten to one against his meeting with any one to put him right should he do so. A pocket-compass and a map,-of which last the best to be had are extremely bad,--are an absolute necessity; but even with these, and with a habit of finding his way about a strange country, the traveller must lay his account for a good deal of fatigue and some deviation from the nearest path. He will, however, be sure to find objects to interest him, although they all tell the same tale,-one of former prosperity that has vanished. Between St. Eugène and Bouzarieh I passed several ruins of old Moorish villas, and in two

RUINED MOORISH VILLAS.

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places came upon portions of the old Roman road, which probably conducted from Icosium to the settlement near Rous-el-Knathar. One of the ruined villas was so large that, at a distance, I thought it might be still occupied. Its scale corresponded with that of the country-house of an English gentleman with a fortune of £7,000 or £8,000 a-year. When I reached it, however, I found the roof gone, and the glazed tiles which had ornamented the interior torn up, except in one room most admirably placed for an exquisite. sea-view, which appeared to have been used as an oratory. Very near there was a small wood, and as my course led me round this, I happened to observe a narrow path conducting into it, frayed through trees which grew so thick as almost to conceal it. I followed it, and presently found myself in an open space containing a number of Moorish graves, and just by, overgrown with brushwood, a handsome tomb. The occupant of this was probably some former owner of the ruined mansion, in repute as a marabout. Even at the present time some persons remain who pay respect to his memory, possibly pauperized members of his own family, for ragged strips of clothing were hanging about the tomb, and hard by I found concealed a coarse kind of candlestick with remnants of wax sticking to it, which had obviously been employed very recently. About half-a-mile off I met a Moor who happened to speak French, and he told me