No. XIV. 



On the Language^ Manners, and Customs of the Berbers, or 

 Brebers, of Jifrica. Commnnicated by Willia^n Shaler, 

 Consul of the United States at Mgiers, in a Series of Letters 

 to Peter S. Du Poficeau, and by the latter to the Society. — 

 Read at different times. 



I. 



Letter from Peter S. Du Ponceau to the President of the So- 

 ciety. 



Philadelpliia, 15tli September, 1823. 



Dear Sir, 



I have the pleasure of enclosing to you a communi- 

 cation which 1 have received from William Shaler, Esq. 

 Consul of the United States at Algiers, on the subject of the 

 Berbers of Africa, and particularly of tlieir language. I beg 

 you will be so good as to lay it before the Society at their 

 next meeting. 



The Berbers, as is well known, are a white race of men, 

 who inhabit the chain of Mount Atlas, and extend to the bor- 

 ders of the Desert of Sahara. To the north of tliem are the 

 Bedouin Arabs, and still farther north are the Moors, whose 

 dominions line the south western coast of tiie Mediterra- 



