gs, there still remains much more in Tunisia to remind one of
Morocco than in Algeria. What deeper distinctions there are result in
both countries from Turkish influence, and Turkish blood introduced in
the past, but even these do not go very deep. Beneath it all there are
the foundations of race and creed common to all, and the untouched
countryman of Tunisia is closely akin to his fellow of Morocco. Even
in the towns the underlying likeness is strong.

The old city of Tunis is wonderfully like that of Fez; the streets,
the shops, the paving, being identical; but in the former a
picturesque feature is sometimes introduced, stone columns forming
arcades in front of the shops, painted in spiral bands of green and
red, separated by a band of white. The various trades are grouped
there as further west, and the streets are named after them. The
Mellah, or Jewish Quarter, has lost its boundary, as at Tangier, and
the gates dividing the various wards have disappeared too. Hardly
anything remains of the city walls, new ones having arisen to enclose
the one European and two native suburbs. But under a modern arcade in
the main street, the Avenue de France, there is between the shops the
barred gate leading to a mosque behind, which does not look as if it
were often opened.

Tramways run round the line of the old walls, and it is strange to see
the natives jumping on and off without stopping the car, in the most
approved western style. There, as in the trains, European and African
sit side by side, though it is to be observed that as a rule, should
another seat be free, neither gets in where the other is. As for hopes
of encouraging any degree of amalgamation, these are vain indeed.
A mechanical mixture is all that can be hoped for: nothing more is
possible. A few French people have embraced Islam for worldly aims,
and it is popularly believed by the natives that in England thousands
are accepting Mohammed.

The mosques of Tunis are less numerous than those of Fez, but do
not differ greatly from them except in the inferior quality of the
tile-work, and in the greater use of stone for the arches and towers.
The latter are of the Moorish square shape, but some, if not all, are
ascended by steps, instead of by inclined planes. The mosques, with
the exception of that at Kairwan--the most holy, strange to say--are
as strictly forbidden to Europeans and Jews as in Morocco, and screens
are put up before the doors as in Tangier.

T