Page:Algeria from Within.pdf/301

oasis. The view from his terrace is one of the most impressive in these parts. In the immediate foreground, the oasis, then a silver thread of water running down the river-bed; and away, away, the desert. But unlike most of the Saharan views the horizon is cut all of a sudden by a group of rugged hills standing up grim and bare. Again, looking to the northwest the scene is not at all expected, as one’s eyes rest on the great range of the Djebel Amour, deep blue against the brilliant sky.

Tadgemout is said to mean the "Crown of Death," and was the capital of a desert queen whose every punishment even for the smallest crime was death. It is a place which grows upon one, and one is loath to leave its lonely site.

The caïd himself is a charming person, far superior to most of his kind, both in intelligence and manners. This is partly due to his own efforts and also to the fact that during the war he was made prisoner and, being eventually exchanged as an invalid, spent a long time in Switzerland, where he attended lectures at Geneva University and came in contact with all kinds of people. He received us before his door and led us into the guest-house where one of those interminable repasts was prepared. We discussed all manners of extraordinary subjects, or rather I was subjected to a series of endless questions, as the caïd is of an inquisitive turn of mind. One remark is worthy of note as showing the curious working of an Oriental brain.

He suddenly said: "Why don’t Protestant clergymen wear vestments like the Catholics?"

I began with a dissertation on the Reformation, but he knew all about that.

After lunch he accompanied us on our journey. The road dipped down into a dried river-bed, where