Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 22, September, 1878Various
Science
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 22, September, 1878
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals
The people are a mixture of French, Arabs and Jews. Of the first nothing
need be said: they are the same everywhere. The second are similar in
type to the Arabs and Moors of the capital; but the last, the Jews, do
not at all resemble the specimens of the favored race we have been
accustomed to meet with in Europe. They are mostly handsome, many of
them fair, the women being particularly gay and picturesque in costume,
wearing, when in gala-dress, bright-colored, gold-bespangled scarfs
hanging over their heads and shoulders. Altogether, we thought it the
brightest and most graceful female attire we had ever seen. But the most
charming of all are the children. We saw groups of a perfectly ideal
beauty playing upon the doorsteps and dust-heaps--little rosy-cheeked,
fair or auburn-haired things, a striking contrast to the sallow Arab
races. In thus seeing that fair and auburn hair is not at all uncommon
among the Jews of the East, we for the first time understood why the old
masters gave to Christ the complexion generally found in their
paintings. Certainly, the Jewish children of Constantine would make most
lovely studies for the genre painter, and we all regretted that we could
not carry away with us some enduring souvenir of that which had charmed
us so much.
But, however picturesque the country, and however interesting the town
and people, we cannot always linger here. Our destination is the desert.
Thus, therefore, after a few days spent in alternate wonder and
admiration, we once again set out on our southward course, resolved to
indemnify ourselves on our return journey by making a longer stay amidst
the beautiful and extremely singular scenery of the Roumel.
Our next resting-place was Batna, a small French town situated on the
elevated ground--nearly four thousand feet above the level of the
sea--between the Mediterranean and the Sahara. We had to make the
journey thither by diligence and by night, and we were surprised to find
how cold an African night can be even in April. There was a hard frost,
and just before entering Batna we passed under an aqueduct from which
hung down a fringe of enormous icicles. The following day, on the still
higher ground at the celebrated cedar forest, which forms an interesting
excursion from Batna, we found deep snow. During the day the sun shone
out bright and powerful, but the nights continued to hold the forest
frost-bound.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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