450 ON THE LANGUAGE 



have a commercial compact with this government, and 

 main'ain an Afni?i or residtnt heie to take care of their inte- 

 rests. I am assured that these people speak a language to- 

 tally different from any other in use here. Their trade with 

 Algiers consists in dates, slaves, gohh ostrich featiiers, ^c. I 

 am not so credulous as to believe without good authority for 

 it, that they speak an original language; for 1 am informed 

 they inhabit an Oasis in the desert, only three days journey 

 from its northern border ; a position where it appears to me 

 they never could have maintained the independence necessa- 

 ry for the preservation of a language. 1 have taken mea- 

 sures, however, to obtain the best possible information on 

 this sulyect. 



5th May. I have just received some notions respecting 

 the Mozabis, which 1 avail myself of an opportunity for Gib- 

 raltar via Oran, to communicate. My information is derived 

 from a Jew wfio has commercial relations with these peo- 

 ple. I gave him a list of words, and he brougiit me their in- 

 terpretation, which F wrote down, as he spoke the words, as 

 nearly as I could express the sounds with our English alpha- 

 bet. 'I'his language, as you will remark, has an evident affi- 

 nity wifh the Shillah, the Showiah, and the Siwahan, and is 

 probably the Tuaryck. I wish I might be permitted to de- 

 nominate the main stock the " Libyan." They are all cer- 

 tainly kindred dialects, but at present 1 dare not hazard any 

 further speculation upon the subject. My Jew informs me 

 that " Mozabees" is the Arabic translation of the Hebrew term 

 " Beni Moab," or Children of Moab. They inhabit the de- 

 sert, forty days journey from Algiers, the precise direction 

 he could not inform me of They dwell in live large towns, 

 districts, 1 presume, as the same word in these languages is 

 used to signify a town or a district of country. They say 

 that they profess the Mohammedan faith, only from policy 

 when here. Their own religion, which they say is not Is- 

 lan)ism, they term the fifth of the world. They do not fre- 

 quent the mosques in Algiers ; they have a place of worship 

 of their own in a mill. They say their forms of prayer are 



