CAVE-DWELLERS OF TO-DAY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22991, 19 March 1938, Page 9 (Supplement)

CAVE-DWELLERS OF TO-DAY

A DISTINGUISHED German woman writer, Maxa Nordau, lately paid a visit to a very remarkable lorgotten people. They are the Jewish cave-dwellers of Matmata, who live in an underground city cut out from caves in tlio desert near Tunis. For centuries the little community has lived here, hardly ever visited by the outside world. They are the last of the Tunisian cave-dwellers. The entrances to their city are hardly noticeable. Hut they lead down into the earth through ho rings which illlgllt have been made by giant ants into a white town with streets, shops and little squares, a complete subterranean community. The soil is chalk, and therefore easily cut and bored. When a family

wishes to move into a jiew home it carves one out of the chalky rock. Furniture is cut from blocks of chalk into the shapes of beds, tables, benches and shelves. Kvcn cupboards are cut out of the chalk, all beautifully coloured and elaborately decorated. The people of Matmata live a primitive life, as their ancestors did before them. Nevertheless, they are still craftsmen, working as artists in metal and making carpets and fabrics of taste and quality for their own use. Living as they do beneath the earth, their skins are almost as white as the cliallc in which tliey live. Very rarely do they come outs into the sunlight, .save for an occasional excursion. A shy and silent people, particularly the women and children, they arc attractive to look at, grave and courteous in their manner.