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The duties of the "Bey of the Camp" is to visit with a "flying-camp," for the purpose of collecting tribute, the two circuits or divisions of the Regency. I now introduce to the reader the narrative of a Tour to the Jereed, extracted from the notebooks of the tourists, together with various observations of my own interspersed, and some additional account of Toser, Nefta, and Ghafsa.
The poorest people have only the jereed and sandals. Both men and women have a singular custom of stuffing their nostrils with a twisted leaf of onions or clover, which has a very disgusting appearance. The men, not using oil, are much cleaner than the women, but the whole race of them, high and low, apparently clean, are otherwise stocked with vermin, and they make no secret of it.
The impression of Toser made upon our tourists agrees with that of the traveller, Desfontaines, who writes of it in 1784: "The Bey pitched his tent on the right side of the city, if such can be called a mass of mud-houses." The description corresponds also with that of Dr. Shaw, who says that "the villages of the Jereed are built of mud-walls and rafters of palm-trees."
Our tourists brought home a variety of curious Jereed things: small date-baskets full of dates, woollen articles, skins of all sorts, and a few live animals. Sidi Mohammed also made them many handsome presents. Some deer, Jereed goats, an ostrich, &c., were sent to Mr. R. after his return, and both Captain B. and Mr.
Instead of the camels of the "Bey of the Camp" carrying water from Tunis to the Jereed, the railway would take from Zazwan, the best and most delicious water in the Regency, to the dry deserts of the Jereed, with the greatest facility. As to railways paying in this country, the resources of Tunis, if developed, could pay anything.
He adds: "It is all over of a lark-colour, excepting the breast, which is somewhat lighter, and shineth like that of a pigeon. The boo-habeeba has a note infinitely preferable to that of the canary, or nightingale." He says that all attempts to preserve them alive out of the districts of the Jereed have failed. R. has brought several home from that country, which were alive whilst I was in Tunis.
Tour in the Jereed of Captain Balfour and Mr. Reade. Sidi Mohammed. Plain of Manouba. Tunis. Tfeefleeah. The Bastinado. Turkish Infantry. Kairwan. Sidi Amour Abeda. Saints. A French Spy Administration of Justice. The Bey's presents. The Hobara. Ghafsa. Hot streams containing Fish. Snakes. Incantation. Moorish Village. The tourists were Captain Balfour, of the 88th Regiment, and Mr.
Saw no other amusements during the âyed, except here and there drafts, played in the primitive way of making small holes in the sand for the squares. He is now living tranquilly in the Jereed. The French made a demand to the Bey of Tunis to have him given up, but it seems His Highness had courage enough to resist it, alleging that he was a political refugee.
Round the neck, a tight flat collar of beads, arranged in fancy patterns, is worn with coral necklaces, and sometimes a broad gold plate immediately in front. A large blue shirt is generally worn, the collar and breast ornamented with needle-work. The women also wear white shirts, and striped silk ones called shami, which are brought from Egypt; a jereed and red slippers complete their dress.
Shaw observes generally of Jereed: "This part of the country, and indeed the whole tract of land which lies between the Atlantic and Egypt, is by most of the modern geographers, called Biledulgerid, a name which they seem to have borrowed from Bloid-el-Jeridde, of the Arabians, who merely signify the dry country; though, if we except the Jeridde, a small portion of it which is situate on this side of Lesser Syrtis, and belongs to the Tunisians, all the rest of it is known by no other general name than the Sahara or Sahra, among those Arabs, at least, whom I have conversed with."
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