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Show fcj the Lsnd m IcmMjots i 7 M T Is not so many years ago that tourists did not , Arid much inducement to 4'v'r' make a prolonged stay in 3Jf. the French Protectorate fc'rf of Tunisia, the new fang- i itS 'e name fr tnat ancient V promontory of North Af- jwjj rica, which once knew tne glory of Carthage and of Rome, its chief city now being "Tunis the White," so white that it is called "The Burnous of the Prophet;" for a new Carthage, another Gibraltar, was in process of formation at Bizerta, on the very site of an ancient Phoenician colony, where Agathocles built a harbor twenty-two ceuturies before the French, Beizlng Tunis with a high hand, set to work to transform It into a great naval na-val station. Strangers and in those pre-Edwardian days English strangers especially were not welcome at Bizerta; Bi-zerta; but the old order has changed, giving place to new. Much that was picturesque, at Bizerta, Bi-zerta, at Tunis, and elsewhere, has been wiped out; towns have been girded gird-ed with neat French streets and wide boulevards wherever the Frenchman goes he paves and plants a boulevard the land has been covered with a network of railways. The same energy en-ergy and skill that have made Algiers and its charming suburb of Mustapha a favorite winter resort of Europeans have been displayed at Tunis. The Protectorate is last taking its place as one of the winter haunts of those for-tunates for-tunates who can fly southward with the swallows. Having caught the last glimpse of Notre Dame de la Garde at Marseilles and bid farewell to Europe, the steamer steam-er takes these lucky mortals straight across the Mediterranean to the Algerian Al-gerian port of Bone and thence in two easterly loops along the coast of Bizerta Bi-zerta and Goletta. Housed at Tunis or Marsa, and having performed the first duty a visit to the site of Carthage Carth-age they can turn their attention to a series of wonderful excursions, each one of which will be a fresh revelation of that eternal subject befitting an Eternal City the power and might of the Roman empire. The winter resident resi-dent will realize in North Africa better bet-ter than anywhere else, and in Tunisia better than any' where else in North Africa, that the Mediterranean was a Roman lake, and if he is a widely read and widely traveled man he will agree, on - the whole, with the opinion expressed ex-pressed in the guide book that "no country in the world, with the exception excep-tion of Italy, is more remarkable for its memorable events and movements than Tunisia," and that "of all the periods pe-riods of Tunisian history the Roman occupation was the one which has left its greatest mark In the country." There is no more impressive Roman mark than the Roman aqueduct. Italy, Spain, Southern France, and Northern Africa are stamped with this symbol of power and civilization the long line of gigantic arches running straight across country, bringing from far-off springs, over valley and plain, the cool mountain Btream into the heart of the parched city. The aqueduct aque-duct and the bath were the first "installations" "in-stallations" of a conquering Roman army after the Roman road and the Roman camp had done their work. So it was in Tunisia. The first thing the traveler sees is the great aqueduct aque-duct which, by underground canals or I - ,'i,- ? . ; " '-: S "V- . , ' I I " x i ! ( ' 'h-' -: - r A VWy j Kr LS M JikL - 1 uplifted on hundreds of magnificent arches, delivered six million gallons of water a day from the rocky heights of Zaghouan, far away in the south, into in-to Roman Carthage. The Vandal and the Spaniard helped to destroy this great work,' but there indestructible as Rome itself still stand hundreds of its arches crossing the Valley of the Melian. At the first sight of them one word rises to the lips "Rome!" The line of the great aqueduct points in the direction of the charming charm-ing little town of Zaghouan, about forty miles from Tunis, the starting place of the aqueduct, "a pleasant spot, embossed in orange and fig trees, a wilderness of cactus, myrtle, rose laurel, and arbutus, with a tall palm here and there lifting its head into the clear sky." Zoghouan no boasts its "Hotel de France," and is becoming a favorite resort of winter visitors from all parts of Europe, bidding fair to be, on a smaller scale, for Tunis what Biskra is for Algiers. The chief charm of Zaghouan lies In Its Nymphaeum, a Roman semicircular semicir-cular colonnade and water temple, which once held the statue of the protecting pro-tecting divinity of the spring. The Nymphaeum, the spring head of the water supply of Carthage, Is one of the most beautiful of the Roman remains re-mains of Tunisia, as charming in architectural ar-chitectural design as it is in its conception. con-ception. What more fitting than a sacred sa-cred shrine at the fountain and origan of so beneficient a work? Towering Tower-ing above the desolate dwelling of the water nymph is the vast peak of Ras-el-Kasa. It takes four hours to ascend as-cend its 4,000 feet of height, but when you stand on the summit you can see more than a half of the whole territory terri-tory of Tunisia. ( Once settled in winter quarters in Tunis, the visitor has a bewildering choice of excursions. One of the most enjoyable is that by steamer southward, south-ward, along the coast of the Gulf of Syrtis, touching at Susa, where one can land and take the rail to the Holy City of Kerouan. After Susa, the - ruins of Thapsus are passed, where Julius Caesar smashed the power ot x. the Pompeian party; then the steamer steam-er calls in at Mahedia, where Hannibal took ship after his flight from Carthago, Carth-ago, now a pretty little town with modern' Improvements and the Inevitable In-evitable "Hotel de France." Thence to Sfax, a much bombarded town, which put up a fair fight against the French in 1881; and so to Gabes, a place of Greeks and Jews, surrounded by oases and villages of Arab tent-dwellers. tent-dwellers. Gabes is an oasis of gar- dens and date palms, entwined by clinging vines. One can wander at will among orange, citron, almoud, fig, and pomegranate trees, amid which run gurgling little waterways. From Gabes the southward journey can be continued to Djerba the island of the Lotus-Eaters of whom Homer sang in " that "Romance of the Youth of the f" World," the Odyssey: i Now whosoever did eat the honey- Ft ; sweet fruit of the Lotus had no more II' wish to bring tidings, nor to come J" back, but there he chose to abide with the lotus-eating men, ever feeding on the lotus and forgetful of his homeward home-ward way." t What was it, this lotus fruit, the fruit of forgetfulness? Commentators have covered reams of paper with theory the-ory and conjecture. But this is what Sir Lambert Playfair says: "It seems unnecessary to go out of one's way to -search for the Homeric food. The Island Is-land Is covered with it. No greater blessing was ever bestowed by Providence Prov-idence on man, and no other fruit is so all-sufficient for human sustenance as the honey-sweet lotus of the ancients an-cients the date of the modern Arab." Djerba is fertile and beautiful; the inhabitants in-habitants are gentle and quiet; and growing on the island are one millions three hundred thousand date palms. I Let the winter resident or the casual tourist beware, therefore, how he lands I" on the Isle of the Lotus-Eaters lest he l forget the homeward way! |