1021 



BERBERS. 



BERBICE. 



1022 



On the coast of Adel, south-east of Abyssinia, is the harbour long 

 known by the name of BEKBERBA. The Somaulis, the inhabitants of 

 the country, are supposed by some to be of Berber race ; and the 

 whole of this coast, from Cape Guardafui to the straits of Bab-el- 

 Mandeb, is called Barbaria in the ' Periplus of the Erythrean Sea.' 

 The supposed relationship however between the Barabra of Nubia and 

 the Berbers of the Atlas is matter of great doubt. The Guauchos, the 

 old inhabitants of the Canary Islands, are said to have been a colony 

 of the Amazirgh race. (Glasse's ' History of the Canary Islands ;' 

 Bory de St. Vincent, ' Histoire des Isles FortuniSes.') 



In the empire of Marocco the aboriginal race is divided into two 

 great sections, called by the Arabs Brebbdr (Berbers) in the north, 

 and Shellooh in the south. The Brebbe'r inhabit the northern and 

 eastern parts of the Great Atlas chain. The Berbers in the mountains 

 live under tents, or in huts covered with mats, or in caves, but in the 

 plains they have houses and villages, built generally of wood and clay, 

 covered with straw, and surrounded by a wall full of loopholes to fire 

 through. They live chiefly on the produce of their cattle ; they have 

 great flocks of sheep, and also mules and donkeys, but few horses, 

 and, unlike the Arabs, they travel and fight chiefly on foot. Some 

 cultivate the ground, and they all rear bees. A great number of Jews 

 live and have lived from time immemorial among them on a footing 

 of social equality, a peculiarity which is not found among the 

 Shellooh, or indeed among any other tribe in Afiica, where the Jews 

 are everywhere more or less despised, and avoided or oppressed. 

 These Jews are called Pilistins by the other Jews of the towns, who 

 look upon them as heretics. The name of Pilistins is sometimes 

 applied to the Berbers themselves by the Shellooh, who consider them 

 sua Philistines, descendants of Casluhim, sou of Mitzraim, and as having 

 immigrated into the country in the time of Goliath, long after them- 

 selves. The sympathy between the Berbers of North Marocco and 

 these Philistine Jews is attributed to a tradition among the Berbers, 

 that their ancestors at one time before the Arabian invasion professed 

 the Jewish religion. This tradition is confirmed by Arabian writers, 

 especially by Abulfeda, and by Abu Mohammed Salehh, author of the 

 ' Ketab al Cartas,' who wrote about the year 1326, and who says, that 

 of the Berbers of Moghrib el Acsa some followed the Christian reli- 

 gion, others the Jewish, and others that of the Magi or of Zoroaster. 

 He says also that the descendants of Sauhagia and Kothama, who 

 emigrated from Asia after David had killed Goliath, and settled in the 

 Moghrib, were professing Judaism at the time of the Arab conquest, 

 and that they accompanied Tarik in his invasion of Andalusia. At 

 present the Berbers in general profess, nominally at least, the religion 

 of lalam, and are more fanatical against the Christians than the Moors 

 themselves. They have light complexions, and many have hair as 

 fair as the northern Europeans ; their beards are scanty and thin, 

 differing in this from the other races who inhabit Marocco ; they are 

 remarkably well proportioned, robust, active, lively, bold, and 

 implacable in their reveuge. They are often at war with their Arab 

 neighbours, and also among themselves, tribe against tribe, and 

 family against family. Their hatred and revenge are hereditary, and 

 blood can only be redeemed by blood. The government of Marocco 

 encourages these animosities between tribe and tribe, for the purpose 

 of weakening their strength, which if united might become extremely 

 formidable, as the Berbers and Shellooh together form at least one- 

 half of the population of the whole empire. Griiberg reckons the 

 Berbers at about two millions, and the Shellooh at one million and a 

 half. Most of the Berber tribes live in a state of almost total inde- 

 pendence, under the administration of their omzargh, amrgar, and 

 aumcran, elders and lords who are hereditary. One of these, named 

 Amrgar M'haughe, excited a general insurrection in 1819, and main- 

 tained for several years an obstinate war against the emperor. The 

 Berbers generally wear a woollen sleeveless jacket and trousers, with 

 occasionally a blanket or a baracan over it. They shave the fore part 

 of the head, leaving the hair behind hanging down to their shoulders ; 

 they have short mustachios, and a small tuft of beard on the chin ; 

 they go mostly bareheaded and barefooted ; they are good runners, 

 swimmers, and huntsmen, and are very fond of their muskets, which 

 are often ornamented with ivory and silver at considerable expense. 



The Shellooh are of smaller make and less robust than the northern 

 Berbers, and they have darker complexions : they are more industri- 

 es, peaceful, civilised, and humane ; they work at trades and manu- 

 factures ; they are rather husbandmen than shepherds ; they live in 

 houses called tigmiu, made of stones and mortar, covered with roofs 

 of bricks or slates ; they have villages called teddert, and towns called 

 murt, surrounded by walls and towers. They have no Jews among 

 them, and although some of their tribes live close to those of the 

 Berbers, they keep separate from, and never intermarry with them. 

 It appears that they and the Berbers do not understand each other's 

 dialect without an interpreter. The Shellooh consider themselves as 

 the descendants of the original inhabitants of the country, call them- 

 selves Amazirgh-Beranis, from the celebrated tribe Beranis, or sons of 

 Ber, descended of Madzig, or Mazigh, son of Canaan. But whatever 

 iice there may be in favour of a common origin, circumstances 

 have in course of time rendered them a very different people. With 

 regard to the Shellooh and Berber languages, Griiberg believes that 

 :ire dialect* of one original language, differing less than the 

 Danish, Swedish, and German languages do from each other. The 



language of the Shellooh is known by the name of Shillah. A Spanish 

 missionary at Tangier, Father Don Pedro Martin del Rosario, often 

 travelled through the interior of Marocco, was well acquainted with 

 the Berbers and their language, and was also among the Shellooh of 

 the south, and said that between the two languages there is as much 

 resemblance as between the English and the Dutch, and that with 

 regard to the character of the two people he used to compare the 

 Shellooh to the French, and the Berbers to the Belgians. Our know- 

 ledge of the various Amazirgh dialects seems too imperfect yet to 

 enable us to decide upon their relationship. Chenier, ' Histoire de 

 Maroc,' gives a short comparative list of Shillah and Berber ; the 

 numerals and other words appear nearly the same in both. The 

 works of later writers show considerable resemblance between many 

 words in the one language with the corresponding words in the 

 other. The London British and Foreign Bible Society published, 

 in 1833, twelve chapters of the Gospel of St. Luke in the Showiah or 

 Algerine Berber language. The manuscript was purchased of Mr. 

 Hodgson, late American Vice Consul at Algiers, and the version was 

 made under his superintendence by a Kabyle Berber of the mountains 

 near Algiers. The characters used are Arabic, though with occasional 

 peculiar forms of letters differing from the Arabic. The last chapter 

 is given also in pure Arabic characters. 



The Shellooh live in the western valleys of the Atlas, south of 

 Mequinez, in the province of Temsua ; but they are more numerous 

 south of the city of Marocco, especially in the provinces of Hhahha, 

 Sus, and Guzzula. They occupy also the western offset of the Atlas 

 which runs to the coast of the Atlantic near Santa Cruz, and which 

 divides the large province of Sus from the rest of the empire. They 

 compose the majority of the population in Sus, and especially in 

 southern Sus, where Sidi Hishiam, of the imperial race of the 

 Shereefs, formed in 1810 an independent state, inhabited by 250,000 

 people, chiefly Shellooh. The capital is Talent. The Shellooh are 

 also very numerous in the province of Draha, eastward of the Atlas 

 and towards Tafilelt. The town of Beneali, situated in the Atlas 

 near the sources of the river Draha, is the residence of the chief of 

 all the independent Shellooh of the provinces of Guzzula and Draha. 

 Of the character of the Shellooh, of their patriarchal habits and 

 hospitality, we have favourable accounts from various travellers, but 

 not so of the Berbers and Kabyles, who appear to be thievish, 

 murderous, and cruel. The Shellooh however are also often at 

 variance among themselves, through hereditary blood feuds. The 

 Shellooh profess Islamism; they have Imams and learned men 

 of their nation ; they have given sovereigns, not only to Marocco, 

 but to all North Africa and to Spain : the founders of the dynasties 

 of the Almoravides and Almohades were Shellooh. 



About the other divisions of the Amazirgh race, improperly called 

 Berber, we have still less information than about those of Marocco, 

 who have been till now the most accessible to Europeans. [For the 

 Kabyles of Algiers, see ALGIERS.] There are several Amazirgh tribes 

 near Kerwan and towards the Island of Gerbi, distinct from the 

 Arab or Beduin tribes. [Tunis.] 



With regard to Tripoli, the population of that state is essentially 

 Arab. Tully says there are tribes of African Arabs which he dis- 

 tinguishes from the Asiatic Arabs. But it appears they all speak 

 Arabic, and it is doubtful whether there are any Amazirgh tribes at 

 all. The African Arabs of Tripoli have a tradition that they came, 

 in very remote times, from Arabia Felix under Melek Afriki. This 

 Sabjeau immigration is mentioned throughout all North Africa as 

 having come by land across the desert. These Sabseans either mixed 

 with th ' prior colonies of the Amazirghs from Palestine or Egypt, 

 or contributed to form the other and very mixed race of North Africa 

 called Moors. [Moons.] But the oasis of Ghadamis south of Tripoli 

 is inhabited by a race not Arab ; they are called A'dem ; they have 

 a distinct language, which is called Ertana by the Arabs, and they 

 are supposed to be a tribe of Amazirgh like those of Siwah. 



(Marmol's Africa ; Graberg's Marocco ; Edrisi's Africa ; Leo 

 Africamis, Description of Africa ; Ritter's Afrika; Latin translation 

 of an Itinerary from JFas to Tafilelt, by Ahmed Ben el Hhassan el 

 Metsiovi, written in 1789; Shaw's Travels in Sarbary ; Ottavio 

 Castiglioni, Jlecherches sur les Berb&rcs Atlantiques habitans de In 

 Jiarbarie ; Venture, Notice sur la Lanyuc Berb&re in Langles' Mtmoire 

 sw les Oases ; and the other writers mentioned in this article.) 



BERBI'CE, a district of the colony of British Guyana, was first 

 settled by the Dutch in the year 1626. In 1690 the colony had made 

 considerable progress, and the French, who effected a landing, levied 

 on the population "a contribution of 20,000 florins. In 1712 a flotilla 

 of French privateers attacked the settlement, and exacted a contri- 

 bution of 300,000 florins, which was finally paid by the house of Van 

 Hoorne and Company, who received in return from the family of 

 Van Peere, to whom the colony had been granted in perpetuity, a 

 cession of three-fourths of the concern. In 1720, the proprietors 

 raised a loan in shares, to be employed solely in the production of 

 sugar, and from this date the colony rapidly flourished. Coffee was 

 introduced from Surinam, and a fort was built at the confluence of 

 the Canjoe with the Berbice. A negro insurrection in 1763 threatened 

 the colony with destruction ; nor was it subdued till the arrival of 

 a strong force from Holland. Six years after a conflagration 

 occurred, which extended from the river Courantyne to tho Demerara, 



