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    26 ALGIERS—FIRST. IMPRESSIONS.

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    + They Another If Any Die; Quarter Enter...

    manufacture of paper , ropes , and carpet webbing—and carrying _, them on donkeys to the townand also by herding goats and cattle .

    , The cactus here grows most luxuriantly , and is sometimes fifteen feet in heightwith a woody stem , measuring above a foot round ;

    this is the prickl , y pear , and the fruit is much eaten by everybody ; the leaves when clecayed have a very * strong tough fibre , which , as it

    remains undeeayed all the winter , might be I should think usefully employed in paper or rope manufacture . The flower of the prickly

    pear is golden yellow , and now in November the fruit remains on the tree .

    The view from this village is very extensive ; we can see the whole extent of the Metidja , which is sixty miles long a , nd between twelve

    and twenty miles wide , and far beyond , both to the east and west , reaches of plain extend about a hundred miles towards Morocco and

    a hundred miles towards Tunis ; On returning home we meet a party of Negroes , whose joyous

    voices are heard long before they come in sight ; they are singing , laughingand dancing along the roadshowing their white teeth ,

    and fling , ing their arms up in the air as , they exchange witticisms . If it were not for their burnouses red and whiteand their white _>

    linen head-coverings , I could fancy them a party of Negroes in the southern states of America ; I have heard them there singing , in just

    the same tone of voice , accompanied by the same grotesque dance . It is curious to see this race in America preserving its great

    characteristic of childish merriment under all circumstances of slavery and transplantation . Here the Negroes have been free since 1848 ,

    and are a very happy and prosperous part of the community . They are still very ignorant , and though some avail themselves of the

    advantages offered them in the Arab schools established by the French Governmentthe greater part do not know how to read or

    , write Arabic , though many can speak French fluently , and "understand enough of Italian and Spanish to communicate with the

    colonists . They are often engaged in trade , but their most general occupation is that of whitewashing houses ; the women sell fruit and a

    particular kind of cake liked by the Arabs ; they may be seen squatting at the entrance of the townsome thirty or forty of them ;

    , all robed alike in their blue cotton , paik . When in 184-8 the French Republic freed the Negroes , they were

    guilty of no excesses but that of dancing and singing for three days and three nihtsafter which they either returned to their masters

    and bargained g for , wages in their old places , or started on their own account in small street traffics . The . old masters , Moors and Turks ,

    have left marks on the slaves which to this day are visible in many instances as deep scars on the faces and hands of the Negroes ,

    probably the masters expected some day or other to be able to claim their property , and so marked it to know it again when the time

    should come .

    There is during the month of November hardly a day when . ramr

    26 Algiers—First. Impressions.

    26 _ALGIERS—FIRST . IMPRESSIONS .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Sept. 1, 1860, page 26, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01091860/page/26/