KABYLES OF NORTH AFRICA — LISSAUER. 537 



guage without amalgamating with it. It has been often observed in 

 historic time that the victorious immigrants adopted the language of 

 the conquered. Thus the Waragians adopted the Russian language, 

 the Normans first the French, then the English and Italian lan- 

 guages. The Longobards likewise adopted the Italian language, not- 

 withstanding they dominated these several countries as conquerors. 

 If all these were absorbed by the native peoples, it was due to the 

 relationship of race, which was not the case with the Kabyles. 



3. The third problem: Who, then, were the autochthons, can 

 accordingly be answered only by a conjecture. That they were 

 Hamites — that is, people of brown skin — is made probable by the 

 language, and in conjunction with it Hamy's observation, cited above, 

 that the corrugated pottery from the stone age in the Sahara exhibits 

 a decisive relationship with the industry of the Somalis, gains a 

 greater significance. 



4. Finally, the fourth problem: Whence comes the custom of the 

 megalithic tomb structures in north Africa, has already been an- 

 swered above. Bertrand and Broca think that with the immigration 

 of the blonds from northern Europe was also thence introduced the 

 custom of the megaliths. It has been stated above that only a crani- 

 ological investigation can decide whether the ancestors of the Kabyles 

 have used the dolmens, but not whether they introduced them. If it 

 is now considered that megaliths occur not only in Europe and in 

 north Africa and as far as Uganda, but also in Palestine, Syria, 

 India, and Japan, and that we do not know whence this custom 

 first started, we must herein agree with Montelius that the erection of 

 dolmens is a general phenomenon of civilization that makes its 

 appearance from Japan to Europe, but whether it spread from 

 Africa to Europe (Montelius) or the reverse (Bertrand and Broca) 

 can not at present be decided. Only when we shall have come to 

 know the period of the erection of the megaliths in the various 

 countries shall we be able to draw a safe conclusion as to the starting 

 point of this custom. But if it is considered that upon the highest 

 points of the Atlas, the Rif, the Jurjura, the Aures, where the blond 

 Kabyles are most numerous and purest, no dolmens whatever exist, 

 it seems improbable that the custom of dolmen tombs should have 

 been carried to north Africa by the blonds of northern Europe. 



If we would draw a picture of the various invasions which in the 

 course of time took place in north Africa it would be as follows: 



1. As autochthons we must assume an Hamitic people, related to 

 the Somalis, that lived there in the stone age and spoke Tamazirt. 



2. Then followed the invasion of the Kabyles from the Iberian 

 Peninsula who pushed the autochthons toward the south, erected 

 dolmens, and changed their language for the Tamazirt. 



