201 



ALGERIE, L'. 



ALGERIE, L'. 



of January and February are generally very fine. In April the fields 

 are clothed in their brightest verdure. From July to September 

 the surface of the country is burnt by the rays of the sun ; the 

 oleander alone remains green. Near the coast however the sea-breeze 

 cools the air during the day, and heavy dews full at night. The 

 atmosphere is very pure and bright, but is considered unfavourable to 

 persous whose sight is weak. Ophthalmia is a common disease, as well 

 as cutaneous disorders, and even elephantiasis, owing principally to the 

 want of cleanliness in the country people. No bad fevers or other 

 endemic diseases are prevalent. 



The fertility for which this country was renowned in ancient times 

 still continues : in the valleys that are watered by streams, vegetation 

 is extremely luxuriant. The mould is of a very dark colour ; in some 

 places it is reddish, and impregnated with nitre or salt, but generally 

 the soil is much less sandy than in Tunis or Marocco. The country 

 is also more hilly, the springs are more frequent, and the dews more 

 abundant than in the adjoining states. The hills are covered with 

 fruit-trees of every kind, and the fruit is generally exquisite. The 

 olive, the vine, the fig, and orange trees abound. A species of the 

 lotus is found here, the fruit of which is eaten. The palm is indige- 

 nous, but the dates come from the south side of the Atlas. Few 

 timber-trees are to be seen except elms and a species of oak, the 

 Querciu ballots, which bears a very nutritive kind of acorn. The 

 mountains near Bujeiah used to supply the ship-builders of Algiers with 

 timber. There are many species of the cypress and chestnut-trees. 

 There are also very extensive plantations of neari or white roses ; 

 these flowers are much larger than those of Europe, and yield the 

 essence known by the name of attar of roses. The sugar-cane grows 

 iu this country ; a species of it called Soleyman rises to a great height, 

 and give* more sugar than any other species known. Some cotton is 

 produced. The fndiyofera glauca thrives also. The grains sown are 

 wheat, barley, Indian corn, millet, dourra, and also rice. 



The cows of Barbary are small, give but little milk, and generally 

 lose it altogether with the loss of the calf. Algiers and Marocco are 

 the original countries of the Merino sheep. Goats are very numerous, 

 and supply the people with milk. Horses are proverbially excellent ; 

 the asses are uncommonly fine and much used for riding ; the country 

 people eat the flesh of the young ones. The mules are excellent. 

 The camel is considered superior to that of Asia, and good cheese is 

 made of its milk. The interior of the country abounds with wild 

 boars, porcupines, antelopes, and all sorts of game. In the fastnesses 

 of the Atlas are panthers and leopards, but no tigers ; the lion still 

 maintains the character of its Numidian progenitor for superior 

 strength, fierceness, and also, at least according to Arab report, for 

 its occasional forbearance and generosity. In the desert of Angad, on 

 the borders of Marocco, are large flocks of ostriches. The country is 

 infested by various venomous reptiles and insects, especially scorpions 

 of large size, whose bite is dangerous. There are also serpents of the 

 boa kind. Locusts pay occasional visits, destroying the harvest of 

 whole districts in a few days ; the tribes south of the Atlas eat them. 

 The mineral wealth of the country, as far as known, consists of copper, 

 iron, lead, silver, gypsum, limestone, and marble. The copper-mines 

 have been worked by the French to a considerable extent. 



The races that inhabit the territory of Algiers may be reckoned 

 seven in number : Berbers or Kabyles, Arabs, Moors, Turks, Kooloolis, 

 Jews, and negroes from Soudan. One half of the whole population 

 consists of Kabyles, the aborigines of the land. Although somewhat 

 mixed with the various nations that have successively conquered the 

 country, they still retain much of their Numidian character and 

 habits. The name of Berbers is of uncertain origin, and they them- 

 selves are unacquainted with it; they call themselves Mazigh or 

 Ainazirgh, which name was known to the old geographers and 

 historians. Ammianus Marcellinus calls the island on which the 

 lighthouse of Algiers is built, ' Insula Mazucana.' The oldest Arabian 

 writers call the town of Algiers ' Jezira Beni Mazighanan ' (the Island 

 of the Sons of Mazigh.) The Mazigh race is believed to have extended 

 at one tune all over North Africa, from the borders of Egypt to the 

 Canary Islands : they spoke one common language, of which the 

 Sin, '/.hili and the Shillah of the Berbers are dialects, as well as the 

 language of the Guanchos of the Canary Islands, and probably also 

 the language spoken by the Tuaricks of the Great Desert. The 

 Moors called the Berbers ' Kabyles,' from Kabileah, i. . Clan, but 

 they often give this appellation indifferently to the tribes of the 

 interior, whether Berbers or Arabs, although two very distinct people, 

 because both are living in clans. The Kabyles inhabit the high-lands, 

 especially along the Little Atlas chain, while the Arabs occupy the 

 intermediate plains. The principal stronghold of the Kabyles is in 

 the high-lands east of Algiers, along the coast of the Mediterranean, 

 which extends in length nearly 200 miles, from Dellys to Boua, 

 and which the French call tho Kabylia, The clans of the former 

 assume before their names the Arabic prefix Beni, as Beni-Sala, 

 whilst many of the Arab tribes, scattered about the country of 

 Algiers, use that of Welled, which means the same, such as Welled- 

 H.lfa (the Children of Helfa). The Kabyles live in villages called 

 dathkraht, consisting chiefly of huts which they call gurbie, made of 

 mud and loose stones, covered with the branches of the palm-tree, 

 and thatched with turf or straw. The Arabs generally livo under 

 tents, in camps, which are called dowar. The Kabyles who live on 



the Little Atlas and near the coast, understand Arabic, but the tribes 

 farther removed in the interior know no language but their own. More 

 advanced in agriculture than the Arabs or Moors, they understand the 

 method of irrigation: "We have seen," says Captain Rozet, "in the 

 neighbourhood of Bledah, orchards and fields as neatly arranged and 

 as carefully cultivated as those of France. The Kabyles work the 

 mines of their mountains, and extract iron, copper, and lead ; it is 

 said, even gold and silver ; their arms are frequently decorated with 

 silver plates very well wrought, and they make a spurious coin of 

 silvered copper. They make guns, ploughs, and many coarse utensils, 

 which they sell to the Arabs and Moors ; know how to temper steel, 

 and make also sabres and knives of a tolerable quality. They manu- 

 facture gunpowder for their own use, and much better than that 

 which is made at Algiers, but they never sell any of it. The Kabyles 

 are very eager after European guns ; they offered me as much as the 

 value of 200 francs for mine. Their women weave common woollen 

 and linen stuffs for the use of the family. They do not bake bread, 

 but they crush the grain between two stones, make a paste of the 

 flour with water, and bake it under the ashes, or fry it with oil. The 

 olive is their chief produce, but the oil they make is very sour, probably 

 because they allow the fruit to ferment before they press it. They 

 carry great quantities of it in skins to the Algiers market. They 

 make a kind of soap with oil and soda. The Kabyles grow pears, 

 apples, apricots, peaches, and grapes, in all the chain of the Little 

 Atlas. They gather a great quantity of honey and wax, which they 

 bring to Algiers; with poultry; dates from the other side of the Atlas, 

 lion and panther skins, and monkeys. The tribes who live on the 

 borders of the plain, or in the great valleys, have cattle, and flocks 

 of sheep and goats. They have no camels, this animal not being 

 suited to mountainous regions, but they have excellent asses and 

 mules which they never sell. They fight on foot, whilst the Arabs 

 are chiefly horsemen. The Kabyles are a middle-sized race, of spare 

 habit of body, but robust and well made, and even elegant in their 

 forms. Their complexion is generally dark, but seldom swarthy. 

 Their heads are more round, and their features shorter than those of 

 the Arabs ; they have not the fine aquiline noses so common among 

 the latter; the expression of their countenance is intelligent, but 

 somewhat sinister and ferocious. The furniture of their huts is very 

 simple: a few sheep-skins or mats, spread on the ground or on a 

 wooden platform in a corner, serve them as beds ; their hykes, which 

 resemble in shape the plaid of the highlanders, and their boornooses, 

 or cloaks with hoods, which constitute their dress by day, serve them 

 as blankets at night ; a few baskets, earthen dishes, pots, and jars, for 

 their milk and honey; they keep their grain and fruit iu large vats 

 made of clay baked in the sun, or bury them in holes under ground. 

 In almost every hut of the Beni-Sala we found a Koran, which the 

 inhabitants had left on running away. The women wear the hyke 

 like the men, with a close short-sleeved tunic underneath ; they do 

 not veil their faces like those of the Arabs and Moors ; they let their 

 hair fall on their shoulders ; they wear large earrings, paint their arms 

 and legs in various devices, and their nails and the palms of their hands 

 with henne, or vegetable red." The short account of the Berbers of 

 Marocco, and their appearance and language, given by Lieutenant 

 Washington in his 'Geographical Notice' of that empire, inserted in 

 the first volume of the ' Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of 

 London,' agrees with most of the above particulars of the Kabyles of 

 Algiers, and serves to strengthen the supposition that they are all of a 

 kindred race. Each tribe of the Kabyles has a sheik, or chief, like 

 those of the Arabs; there are also families of rank anioug them. 

 Each tribe has its Marabut, who is a sort of oracle ; these men are 

 considered holy, and are allowed every liberty. They accompany the 

 tribes to war, and exercise great influence over them. The KabyleSj 

 especially those remote from Algiers, never submitted to either Arabs 

 or Turks ; they paid no regular tribute, but the Dey used to send parties 

 of janizaries to seize their cattle, or kidnap several heads of families, for 

 whom he made them pay a heavy ransom. The Kabyles in their moun- 

 tains are inhospitable, and different in this respect from the Arabs : they 

 are capricious and faithless, like their Numidian ancestors, very cruel 

 to their enemies, and seem to delight in tormenting their unfortunate 

 prisoners, whom even the women have been known to join in torturing. 

 They are Mohammedans, at least nominally, and practise circumcision, 

 but never frequent the mosques of the Moors. Those who live at, or 

 come to, Algiers have a separate place of meeting for themselves. 



The Arabs who encamp in the plains are known also by the name 

 of Beduins, and indeed the latter appellation is often given indis- 

 criminately to the Kabyles also by the people of the towns on the 

 coast. These Arab tribes are the remains of the various great 

 immigrations of their countrymen from the east, and have kept 

 themselves distinct from the other races around them. They resemble 

 in their appearance and habit their Asiatic ancestors, of whom they 

 boast. They often move their camps in quest of water, or fresh 

 pasture for their flocks. They speak the Koreish, or eastern Arabic, 

 with more or less purity, are strictly observant of the Koran, and are 

 governed by their elders or sheiks. Some of the Arabs arc cultivators 

 of the soil, and have, villages in the neighbourhood of the towns, but 

 they are very careless in their agriculture, and will, when dissatisfied, 

 abandon their huts, and remove to another district. The Arabs are 

 strict in their conjugal duties, and differ in this from the Kabyles, 



