Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/228

 merchants and guides who point out the fords over the river and assist the passage of tho caravans. Still lower down Mejez-el-Bab, also on the right bank, guards the entrance to the lower valley of the Mejerda; it takes its name of "Ford," or "Passage of the Gate," from a triumphal arch which formerly stood at the northern extremity of a Roman bridge, but of which nothing remains except a few blocks scattered over an old river bed. A modern bridge spans the new channel excavated by the Mejerda. The little villages of Teburba and Jedeïda, which next succeed along the banks of the river, already belong to the outskirts of Tunis, which their inhabitants, many of whom claim to be of Andalusian origin, supply with vegetables and fruit. They have both a bridge over the river, a railway

station, and a few small industrial establishments. Teburba is the modern form of the ancient Roman Tuburbo Minus, and here are still to be seen the remains of an amphitheatre whose arena is now overgrown with brushwood. But the town has changed its site, as the Roman colony stood farther west on the slopes o: a hill.

North of Jedeïda, the Mejerda, which winds through the lowlands and marshes, has no more towns upon its banks. The city of Utica, the elder sister of Carthage, which commands its mouth, is now indicated merely by a kubba, the "marabut" of Bu-Shater, a name meaning the "Father of Skill" or the "Wise Man,"