B E R 



2G4 



B K R 



Mt. but were driven tway by the Arb race. The northern- 

 most Berber*, east of Toluan, also rallo<l Krriflevn from 

 Mount Brreef. have a bad character along the coast. The 

 Berber* in the mountains live under tents, or in huts co- 

 vered with mat*, or in cares, but in the plains they have 

 home* ami village*, built generally of wood and clay, 

 covered with straw, and surrounded by a wall full of loop- 

 holes to fire through. They live chiefly on the produce of 

 their rattle: they have grea't flocks of sheep, and also mules 

 and donkeys, but few homes, and, unlike the Arabs, they 

 travel and fight chiefly on foot. Some cultivate the ground, 

 and they all rear IKVS. A great number of .lews live, and 

 have lived from time immemorial, among them, on ix footing 

 of social equality, a peculiarity which is not found among 

 tlie Shellooh, or indeed among any other tribe in Africa, 

 where the Jews arc everywhere more or less despised, and 

 avoided or oppressed, these Jew* arc called Pilistins by 

 the other Jews of the towni, who look upon them as here- 

 tics. The name of Pilisl'.ns is sometimes applied to the 

 Berbers themselves by the Shcllooh, who consider them as 

 Philistines, descendants ofCasluhini, son of Mitzraim, and 

 as having immigrated into the country in the time of Go- 

 liath, long after themselves. The sympathy between the 

 Berbers of North Marocco and these Philistine Jew* is 

 attributed to a tradition among the Berbers, that their an- 

 cestors at one time before the Arabian invasion professed 

 the Jewish religion. This tradition is confirmed by Arabian 

 writers, especially by Abulfcda. and by Abu Mohammed 

 Salrhh, author of the Kftab al Carlos, who wrote about the 

 1 .32f>, and who says, that of the Berbers of Moghrib d 

 Acsa some followed the Christian religion, others the 

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

 says also that the descendants of Sanhngia 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 

 Tarek in his invasion of Andalusia. (Grabcrg's Morocco.) 

 At present the Berl>crs in general profess, nominally at 

 least, the religion of Islam, and are more fanatical against 

 the Christians than the Moors themselves. They have liyht 

 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, restless, 

 and bold, and implacable in their revenge. They have a 

 sinister, malignant glance of the eye, like the Kabylcs of 

 Algiers, and the instinct of cruelty seems to be strong in 

 both. Kozet and other modern travellers observe that the 

 Kabyles, women as well as men, seem to delight in tor- 

 menting their prisoners. The Berbers of Maroeco are often 

 at war with their Arab neighbours, and also among them- 

 selves, tribe against tribe, and family against family. Their 

 hatred and revenge are hereditary, and blood ean only he 

 redeemed by blood. The government of Marocco encou- 

 rages these animosities between tribe and tribe, for the 

 purpose of weakening their strength, which if united might 

 becime extremely formidable, a* the Berbers anil Shcllooh 

 together form at least one-half of the population of the 

 whole empire. Grat>efg reckons the Berbers at above two 

 millions', and the Shcllooh 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 amucran, elders and lords who are hereditary. 

 One of these, named Amrgar M'haushe, excited a general 

 insurrection in 1819, and maintained for several years an 

 obstinate war against the emperor. The Berbers d'ress in 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 wear short mustachios, and a small tuft of 

 heard on the chin ; they go mostly bareheaded and bare- 

 footed; they are good runners, swimmers, and huntsm, n. 

 and are very fond of their muskets, which are often orna- 

 DMnted with ivory and silver at a considerable expense. 



The Shellooh are smaller made and less robust than the 

 northern Berbers, and they have darker complexions : they 

 are more induMriom. peaceful, civilized, and humane : they 

 work t trade* and manufactures; they are more husbaml- 

 mi-n than sh'-pherds ; they live in houses railed ligmin, 

 made of (tone* and mortar, covered with roofs of bricks or 

 slates; they have villages called tcddort, and town* rr\lle<l 

 murt. surrounded by walls and towers. They have n< 

 among them, and although some of their tribes live close to 



f the Berbers, they keep separate from, and nvcr in- 

 termarry with them. It appears flint they and t! 

 do nut understand each other 's dialect without nn inter 

 prefer. The Shcllooh consider themselves UH the descend- 

 ants of the original inhabitant* <>f the country, call them- 

 selves Ainazirgh-Beranis, from the celebrated tribe BIT, mi", 

 or sons of Ber, descended of Madzig, or Masirgb, - 

 Canaan. (See GralK-rg, Appendix, note r>, On tin- <lme- 

 alogy of tht Profile '/ Tni^il<ina.) Kvery lluii'.' ' 

 to confirm the opinion that, notwithstanding tho apparent 

 difference between the Shelloohs and Berbers, thej . 

 either originally of one race, or have at former epochs so 

 mixed together as to create a great afh'mty between them, 

 which allinity, in course of ages, has become again in great 

 measure obliterated. With regard to tin: Shellooh and 

 Berber languages, Graberg firmly believes that tin" 

 dialects of one original language, differing less than the 

 Danish, Swedish, and German languages do from < 

 other. The language of the Shellooh is known by the name 

 of Shillah. A Spanish missionary at Tangier, father Don 

 Pedro Martin del Rosario, who has often travelled through 

 the interior of Marocco, is well acquainted with the Berbers 

 and their language, and has also been among the Shelloohs 

 of the south, said, that between the two languages tin 

 as much resemblance as between the English and flu- 

 Dutch, and with regard to the character of the two people 

 he used to compare the Shelloohs to the French, and the. 

 Bcrlwrs to the Belgians. Our knowledge of the various 

 Ama/irgh dialects seems too imperfect yet to enable us t.> 

 decide upon their relationship. Grey Jackson, vol. i., in the 

 short comparative list which he gives of Shellooh and Berber 

 words, puts down for camel algrom in Shellooh, and aram in 

 Berber, and then in another similar list of the Shcllooh and 

 Siwah dialects he marks arum in Shellooh for camel. Again, 

 he says that sheep is aouli in Berber and izimer in Shellooh, 

 and afterwards he says that sheep is jcllibb both in Siwah 

 and Shellooh. A horse in Shellooh is marked ayccse in one 

 place and akmar in another, and so on in several other in- 

 stances. Chenier, fliotnire (It Afarnf, gives a short com- 

 parative list of Shillah and Berber : the numerals and other 

 words appear nearly the same in both. By comparing 

 Shaw's vocabulary of the Showiah or Berber of Ah 

 Homemann's and Minutoli's of the Siwah language, Jez- 

 reel Jones' vocabulary of the Shillah language, Jackson's 

 and Chcnier's of the Shillah and Berber of Marocco, and 

 Venture's Dirtinnnaire Herber, one may find occasional 

 affinities among them all, especially between the Shillah, 

 the Showiah of Algiers, and that of .Siwah. In vol. ii., now 

 series, of the Transactions of the American PHilntaphiral 

 Snrii'tif, i< an interesting letter from Mr. Shaler, American 

 Consul at Algiers, to P. du Poncenu, dated 1, s-.it, containing 

 some information which he gathered concerning the KahyK 

 or Berber tribes of the interior, and especially about the Bcni 

 Mozab, together with a vocabulary of the Showiah or Al- 

 gerine Berber in a double version, one furnished by a Jew \<\\ 

 interpreter and tho other hy a Swedish gentleman, not 

 named, long resident in Barbary. There seems to be great 

 attiuity between many words and the corresponding ones in 

 the Shillah language, whilst others seem like the few given 

 by Jackson of the North Berber of Marocco. Jar 

 asserts that neither Berber nor Shillah have written cha- 

 racters, and that those who write in them use the Arabic 

 characters. He never heard that any other characters had 

 ever been in use. among them; although Marmot al 

 thii contrary. The London British and Foreign Bible So- 

 ciety published, in 1833, twelve chapters of the Gospel of 

 St. Luke in the Showiah or Algorine Berber language. 

 The MSS. was purchased of Mr. Hodgson, late American 

 Vice Consul at Algiers, and the version was made under 

 his superintendence by a Kahyle Berber of the mountain 

 near Algiers. Mr. Hattersley is mentioned, in the notice 

 acrninpnnying this version, as having superintended the 

 publication. The accuracy and success of this \ersion have 

 .rtained ( isu.-ii. 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 Slicllo-ih live in the western valleys of the Atlas. 

 south of Mequinez, in the province of Temsna ; hut they are 

 more numcMu-i south of the city of Marocco, especially in 

 the provinces of Ilhahha, Sus. and Gu/zula. They occupy 

 nlso the western off-el of the Atlas which runs to tin- i 

 of the Atlantic near Santa Cruz, and which divides tli<! 



