w
lighted pipes, and execute other salamandrine feats. After witnessing
this spectacle of degradation for some time, we retired, somewhat
disgusted at the buffooneries perpetrated in this country, as
elsewhere, in the name of religion.

CHAPTER VII.

BONA AND ITS VICINITY.

Passage to Bona.--State of Affairs on Board.--Bona.--The Lake
Metitza.--Ain Mokra.--Wild Duck Shooting on the Lake.

We bade adieu to B----, who had given us letters of recommendation to
the Admiral, for a first-class cabin to Bona--a thing difficult to
achieve on board the steamers here, as civilians are only allowed
second-class accommodation, the state cabin being reserved for the use
of naval and military officers, as the steamers on this line rank as
men of war. The boat was much crowded with soldiers, sailors, and
Arabs, and we had to share a most miserable berth with eight other
occupants. We had arrived too late to procure cabin places, and were
obliged to dine in an unsavoury den, reeking with pestilential odours.
Most of the Frenchmen grumbled loudly at the miserable accommodation
afforded in return for their money. Steaming along past a fine coast,
we reached Dellis about eight o'clock. I got Angelo to bring me my
sheepskin and cloak, and preferred sleeping on deck to passing the
night in a locality which, for the horrors it contained, might have
figured as a scene in Dante's "Inferno."

The gentle music of the sailors, swabbing the deck, awoke me next
morning. I found we were off Bougie, a most beautifully-situated
place, entirely surrounded by snow-covered mountains. Here are
distinctly to be seen the ruins of the old wall supposed to have been
built by the Vandals. A rather tedious day on board, but the
occupation of watching the coast, which is very fine, varied the
monotony of the voyage. We passed Djigelli at about twelve, and
Philippeville at nine in the evening, when I retired to rest, and, the
Fates be thanked, it was in a fresh cabin.

There was a Jewess on board, a rather pretty personage, who slept in
the same cabin with six men, most of them French officers, with a
coolness that astonished me. Her husband was in the berth opposite
her; she did not appear to feel the discomforts of her position, but
chatted away gaily in Arabic and French throughout the whole passage.
I don't think she quitted her berth once.

At half-past six on Saturday, the 25th of March, came Angelo to
announce to me that we were off B