KABYLES OF NORTH AFRICA—LISSAUER. 529 
ple “a thorn in the eye of the Kabylia.” Modern cities are un- 
i known to the Kabyles, who live only in villages of varying size. 
The French started establishing cities in the neighborhood of the 
larger village settlements in* order to create appropriate residences 
for the military and civil officials, thus in Tizi-Ouzon, Fort National, 
Michelet and others. 
The Kabyle villages consist merely of low, stablelike huts, whose 
walls were originally constructed of poles of about the thickness of 
an arm, and rude branches of olive trees, eucalyptus, and ash were 
then intertwined with their ramage, plastered and made tight with 
clay, all being erected without any rule or system. The walls sup- 
port a slanting roof with coping made of branches and straw, with 
no outlet for the smoke (pl. 5, fig. 1). A wooden door opening into 
the dwelling does service likewise for window and chimney. These 
“brushwood huts” are low and small, about 3 meters in breadth and 
length and 2 to 2.5 meters high, and are commonly designated by the 
French as “gurbi,” while in Kabyle they are called “acham.” 
Tn the interior the floor of clay is without covering. More or less 
in the center is the fireplace, a small depression of about 0.5 meter 
in diameter, on whose edge lay three stones on which rest the pots 
for cooking. 
Within the hut, usually at the entrance, are stalls for the cattle 
(mule or sheep). At the opposite side of the room is a kind of clay 
bench, which serves as a sleeping place (in Kabyle, “tirarrard”) for 
the family, being covered for the night with any suitable material. 
Above the bed for the cattle agricultural implements and tools are 
stored, and on the other walls are places for holding household uten- 
sils, clothing, ornaments, and other objects. 
This primitive style of architecture has been steadily disappearing 
since the French occupation. But there are still many villages that 
consist only of such “ brushwood ” huts. The walls of the houses are 
now generally constructed of stones (pl. 5, fig. 2; pl. 6, fig. 1), the 
roof is covered with tiles, and in single rare cases supplied with a 
chimney. In the interior of the houses, however, the arrangement 
and furnishings have not changed. 
So also the barns for drying of hay and straw are still built like 
the old achams (pl. 6, fig. 2), only that they are round, the roof um- 
brella-shaped, and the walls not so carefully made tight as in the 
dwellings. 
The homes of the richest Kabyles, like those of the French, are now 
constructed in Moorish style, so that it may be expected that by 
another generation the primitive brush huts will entirely disappear. 
Coffee houses are very numerous and are built in the same manner 
as the private dwellings, only of larger size. 
38734°—sm 191]——34 
