Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/233

 SOCIAIi AND POLITICAL CONDITION OF TUNIS. 189 Ehumiria. On the slope of Fernana, a place much frequontc<l on market days, stands a splendid cork-tree, an isolated giant, whose broad spreading branches cover a circumference of 3JJ3 feet. This trysting-place of the surrounding trilKJs, under whose shade the delegates of the Khurairs formerly assembled to discuss questions of peace or war, is the last survivor of a vanished forest. Ain-Drahnm, capital of this district, derives its chief imj)ortance from the presence of the French garrison troops. But even were the soldiers withdrawn, it may still survive as a convenient market town for the tribes of north-western Tunisia. Near this spot stands the famous shrine of Sidi Abdallah Ben-Jemal, which continues to be visited by thousands of Khumirs on the feast-day of the patron saint. Social and Political Coxdition of Tunis. Tunisia is at present in a state of transition between two irreconcilable political and social systems. Although officially a Mohammedan power, it is in reality a province of the French colonial empire, and those who are called the masters of the country are really subjects, upon whom the burden of subjection weighs most heavih Decrees are still dated according to the Mussulman era, and are preceded by antiquated Oriental formulas ; but a new era has dawned upon the country, and the vital force and power come now from the West. Everything changes visibly under foreign influence : the populations, the appearance of the towns and country, the roads, trade, and the industries are all being rapidly modified. The tide of immigration is almost entirely composed of Mediterranean peoples, because those Frenchmen themselves who emigrate to this regency belong mostly to the watershed of this inland sea. Italians were by far the most numerous of all foreigners before the French occupation, and since then they have retained, and even increased, their numerical superiority, thanks to the proximity of their country, and to the advantages which long-established currents of trade give to new-comers. In 1885 these Italian immigrants were numbered at about twelve thousand. The ranks of those engaged on the public works, agriculture, and the smaller industries are of necessity recruited from amongst these Italian proletariats. The French immigrants look for better- paid occupations, which are much more difficult to obtain. The Maltese, however, who are relatively very numerous, soon break up into two distinct nationalities. Nearly all their poor are devout Catholics, zealously obeying the orders of the French primate of Tunisia, whilst the middle class Maltese, who habitually speak Italian, are naturally connected with Italy in customs and political sympathy. It cannot be disguised that very hostile feelings are harboured towards each other by the local French and Italian colonies. The latter have not yet resigned themselves to the present state of affairs ; they look upon themselves as the natural inheritors of the land, because of its geographical situation, and of the interests which they have here created for themselves, and feel aggrieved that it has been wrested from them by the French. Even in Tunis itself, the struggle for supremacy between these two foreign elements has assumed the character of national animosity. Two railways, the Italian line from Goletta, and