JERBA  , an

island off the coast of North Africa in the Gulf of Gabes, forming part of the regency of Tunisia . It is separated from the mainland by two narrow straits, and save for these channels blocks the entrance to a large bight identified with the Lake Triton of the Romans . The western strait, opening into the Gulf of Gabes, is a mile and a half broad; the eastern strait is wider, but at low water it is possible to cross to the mainland by the Tarik-el-Jemil (road of the camel) . The island is irregular in outline, its greatest length and breadth being some 20 m., and its area 425 sq. m . It contains neither rivers nor springs, but is supplied with water by wells and cisterns . It is flat and well wooded with date palms and olive trees . Pop . 35,000 to 40,000, the bulk of the inhabitants being Berbers . Though many of them have adopted Arabic a Berber idiom is commonly spoken . An affinity exists between the Berbers of Jerba and the Beni Mzab . About 3000 Jews live apart in villages of their own, and some 400 Europeans, chiefly Maltese and Greeks, are settled in the island . Jerba has a considerable reputation for the manufacture of the woollen tissues interwoven with silk which are known as burnous stuffs; a market for the sale of sponges is held from November till March; and there is a considerable export trade in olives, dates, figs and other fruits .

The

capital, trading centre and usual landing-place are at Haumt-es-Suk (market quarter) on the north side of the island (pop . 2500) . Here are a medieval fort, built by the Spaniards in 1284, and a modern fort, garrisoned by the French . Gallala, to the south; is noted for the manufacture of a kind of white pottery, much prized . At El Kantara (the bridge) on the eastern strait, and formerly connected with the mainland by, a causeway, are extensive ruins of a Roman city—probably those of Meninx, once a flourishing seaport . Jerba is the Lotophagitis or Lotus-eaters' Island of the Greek and Roman geographers, and is also identified with the Brachion of Scylax . The modern name appears as early as the 4th century in Sextus Aurelius Victor . In the middle ages the possession of Jerba was contested by the Normans of Sicily, the Spaniards and the Turks, the Turks proving victorious . In i 56o after the destruction of the Spanish 'fleet off the coast of the island by Piali Pasha and the corsair Dragut the Spanish garrison at Haumt-es-Suk was exterminated, and a pyramid, 10 ft. broad at the base and 20 ft. high, was built of their skulls and other bones . In 1848 this pyramid was pulled down at the instance of the Christian community, and the bones were buried in the Catholic cemetery . In general, from the Arab invasion in the 7th century Jerba shared the fortunes of Tunisia . See H .

Barth, Wanderungen durch die Kiistenl. des Mittelmeeres (Berlin, 1849) ; and H. von Maltzan, Reise in Tunis and Tripolis (Leipzig, 1870) .