BARBARY

Hokitika Guardian, 11 February 1922, Page 4

BARBARY

In “Barbary” Mr A. MaeCullum Scott describes a land which has historical associations such as few parts of Africa possess. Barhary—“the land of the Barbarians” —is the old name given for the tract between the Atlas Mountains and the Mediterranean, embracing Morocco, Algeria, and Tunis. Many are the conquerors it has known. Here came from Syria, according to one theory, the Dolmen-Builders, a race who, far back in the mists of antiquity, discovered the secret of smelting copper and tin together, and founded the Age of Bronze. Weapons made of this wonderful new substance were harder and sharper than any yet known, and gave the Dolmen-Builders an advantage over all other races comj parable to that which firearms gave j the European over the savage. They i were mighty travellers. They went he-. . yond the Pillars of Hercules and reacliI ed England where they reared the inasj sivo circle of Stonehenge. They penc- ■ trated to Norway and Poland, where their traces are still to he found. They j passed and by and by came the PlioeniI eians, who made Carthage the emI porium of the world. Carthage falls j before the rising might of Rome, and • for live centuries Barhary was Roman. • The standardised Roman civilisation, | the Roman arts and sciences, the Roman Church, were supreme. Then, almost at a blow, they were obliterated by the Mohammedan invasion. Through the centuries of darkness the harbours of the coast of Barbary were the m > of the swarms of Corsairs who terrorised the Mediterranean, until at last almost in our own times, France essayed the task of reclaiming this lost province of Europe. In the back country there are inhospitable mountains and deserts, hut the littoral of Barhary is very beautiful, well watered, and fertile, a veritable garden. Indeed, Djerba, an island near Carthage has been identified with the Island of the Lotos Eaters where UlySses’ storm-tossed mariners tasted tho date the sweet fruit that grows in abundance without any labour of man ; revelled in the delights of a sunny land, in which it was always afternoon, and in which life passed like a dream ; and, like Bligh’s crew at Tahiti, although with dess success, wished to desert. The earth is a treasurehouse for the archeologist; there are places where, as the cultivator digs his field, every spadeful brings up a score of manifestations of human workmanship. Mr Scott is particularly interested in the remains of the Roman occupation. According to her wont, Rome built great roads, aqueducts, and ! stately cities. Mr Scott suggests that few modern European cities could, in point of splendour and luxury, equal those of Roman Barhary. Here was Caeserea, the Athens of the west; here was Tipasa, a jewel by the sea; here was Hippo, the seat of St Augustine and Thysdrusj whose marble amphitheatre had seating accommodation for sixty thousand people; here were a score of other cities, and no less magnificent. Who hears of these now? Where are they? Some have utterly disappeared. Some of the Berbers have removed stone by stone and brick by brick to provide material for their own buildings. There is literally nothing left. Some are buried and are gradually being disinterred by excavators who are continually making new finds. Take, for example, tho site of ancient Carthage. Its double harbour and its geographical position in relation to I Sicily and Italy gave it unique com- | mcroial and strategical advantages, and I from time immemorial it has been built j upon. When Cato’s stern decree I “Carthago deleiula cst” had been earI ried into effect, for a generation the | place remained bare, an abomination of | desolation. Then a new Carthage j arose, richer and more sumptuous .than | the old, in the fullnes of time herself j to he buried by the loam. The excava- | tions have laid hare the remains of the Roman Carthage; they have not found the Punic Carthage, because Cato’s orders were faithfully obeyed. But deep down in the earth they have found a still more ancient Carthage, which goes back three thousand years. Further work may reveal still earlier foundations. Traces ol the Roman occupation are to be found everywhere, deep in the desert, away up in the wild mountain passes. In 1850 the French general St Armand, with his troops, penetrated Khanga Tigaminiu, one of the most inaccessible defiles of the Anres. ‘Convinced that he was the first general to lead an army through that defile, lie proceeded to look for a suitable rock on which to cut at] inscription celebrating the event. T'> his amazement he found that lie had been anticipated, for there, on the rock he had selected, in the bold lettering of the masters of the world, still fresh after 1700 years, was a record which told that in the time of Antonine, the ! Sixth Legion had been employed here 1 in opening up a military road, j Barhary brought Mr Scott one or two | disillusionments. The desert was not ! quite what he .had expected it to he j 1 from the descriptions in Mr Robert Hichens’ “Garden of Allah.” He suggests that the heroine’s impressions may have been coloured by the fact that she wgs in love. Again, he had heard much of thp dancing of ffip Quled Nidfs flie members of tjie tribe of dancers, ft jy.as, fie fiad been fold, sensuously seductiy.e, yoh]pfii,ous, typnotic; it stirred ft l ? blood uni] stinnj-. • fated the passions. In poiiit of fact lie found it extremely s\x\l r fV sjr.eff.s were determined looking facies of paid- , die age, enveloped from neck to j ankle in voluminous apparel. The ] leader of the troupe piusf, have weighed fifteen stone. Bpt he was conscious of the spell of Africa, and wonders whether France will surope

f In “Barbary” Mr A. MaeCullum i Scott describes a land which has hist torical associations such as few parts i of Africa possess. Barbary—“the land ■j of the Barbarians”—is the old name

makes little impressions on Africa. The Roman rule of five centuries was but an episode which left no mark. Africa lias a way of asserting herself. He notes that the French colonial of the third genera I ion is practically ftjn African. “To conquer is one thing; to assimilate is quite another. Ihc assimilator may he assimilated. The struggle is not merely a physical one, but a spiritual one. Western i'.uiopc was saved from being Byzantinised bp being cut off from Asia and Africa. In spite of our great possessinos in Asia and Africa the salt estranging sea has saved us so far. But jtrauce lies only a few hours from the New ]' raiicje which she is endeavouring to create in Africa. Her success has been marvellous. Africa has responded to the stimulus of stronger will and character. But—we have yet to see whether there will be any reflex aetjon,”