Fountains in the Sand

Fountains in the Sand

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Title: Fountains In The Sand Rambles Among The Oases Of Tunisia
Author: Norman Douglas
Release Date: May, 2005 [EBook #8185] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on June 27, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1
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[Illustration: Photo Portrait--Girl in Shawl]
FOUNTAINS IN THE SAND
RAMBLES AMONG THE OASES OF TUNISIA
By Norman Douglas
CONTENTS

CHAPTER
I. EN ROUTE
II. BY THE OUED BAIESH
III. THE TERMID
IV. STONES OF GAFSA
V. SIDI AHMED ZARROUNG
VI. AMUSEMENTS BY THE WAY
VII. AT THE CAFé
VIII. POST-PRANDIAL MEDITATIONS
IX. SOME OF OUR GUESTS
X. THE OASIS OF LEILA
XI. A HAVEN OF REFUGE
XII. THE MYSTERIOUS COUNT
XIII. TO METLAOUI
XIV. PHOSPHATES
XV. THE SELDJA GORGE
XVI. AT THE HEAD OF THE WATERS
XVII. ROMAN OLIVE-CULTURE
XVIII. THE WORK OF PHILIPPE THOMAS
XIX. OVER GUIFLA TO TOZEUR
XX. A WATERY LABYRINTH
XXI. OLD TISOUROS
XXII. THE DISMAL CHOTT
XXIII. THE GARDENS OF NEFTA
XXIV. NEFTA AND ITS FUTURE

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
GAFSA AND JEBEL ORBATA
ENTRANCE TO THE TERMID
AT THE TERMID
A STREET IN GAFSA
HADRIAN'S INSCRIPTION
THE LAST PALMS
CAFé BY THE MULBERRY-TREE
MY FRIEND SILENUS
NATIVES OF GAFSA
THE ROMAN WALL
OLIVES IN THE OASIS
TOZEUR AND ITS OASIS
THE WATERS OF TOZEUR
THE SHRINE ON THE CHOTT
MARABOUT IN THE NEFTA GARDENS
A BEGGAR

FOUNTAINS IN THE SAND

Chapter I
EN ROUTE
Likely enough, I would not have remained in Gafsa more than a couple of days. For it was my intention to go from England straight down to the oases of the Djerid, Tozeur and Nefta, a corner of Tunisia left unexplored during my last visit to that country--there, where the inland regions shelve down towards those mysterious depressions, the Chotts, dried-up oceans, they say, where in olden days the fleets of Atlantis rode at anchor....
But there fell into my hands, by the way, a volume that deals exclusively with Gafsa--Pierre Bordereau's "La Capsa ancienne: La Gafsa moderne"--and, glancing over its pages as the train wound southwards along sterile river-beds and across dusty highlands, I became interested in this place of Gafsa, which seems to have had such a long and eventful history. Even before arriving at the spot, I had come to the correct conclusion that it must be worth more than a two days' visit.
The book opens thus: _One must reach Gafsa by way of Sfax._ Undoubtedly, this was the right thing to do; all my fellow-travellers were agreed upon that point; leaving Sfax by a night train, you arrive at Gafsa in the early hours of the following morning.
One must reach Gafsa by way of Sfax....
But a fine spirit of northern independence prompted me to try an alternative route. The time-table marked a newly opened line of railway which runs directly inland from the port of Sousse; the distance to Gafsa seemed shorter; the country was no doubt new and interesting. There was the station of Feriana, for instance, celebrated for its Roman antiquities and well worth a visit; I looked at the map and saw a broad road connecting this place with Gafsa; visions of an evening ride across the desert arose before my delighted imagination; instead of passing the night in an uncomfortable train, I should be already ensconced at a luxurious table d'h?te, and so to bed.
The gods willed otherwise.
In pitch darkness, at the inhuman hour of 5.55 a.m., the train crept out of Sousse: sixteen miles an hour is its prescribed pace. The weather grew sensibly colder as we rose into the uplands, a stricken region, tree-less and water-less, with gaunt brown hills receding into the background; by midday, when Sbeitla was reached, it was blowing a hurricane. I had hoped to wander, for half an hour or so, among the ruins of this old city of Suffetula, but the cold, apart from their distance from the station, rendered this impossible; in order to reach the shed where luncheon was served, we were obliged to crawl backwards, crab-wise, to protect our faces from a storm