404 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



have their hair cut short, but the 

 beard is allowed to grow to fair 

 length; they wear a fez, and the 

 women use a looser, fuller cap. 

 The main ornaments are elaborate 

 necklaces, large silver bracelets, 

 and sometimes nose-rings. The 

 tribal weapons are a straight 

 sword, guns of any pattern, and 

 smooth-bore cannon, made by 

 drilling out a cast block of metal. 

 The Berber houses are gener- 

 ally two-storeyed buildings of 

 stone; they are often crowded 

 together in the villages, which 

 are surrounded by a stone wall 

 or bank. In the country districts 

 the people mostly dwell in tents 

 or beehive-shaped straw huts. 

 These huts simply rest on the 

 ground, and are moved about 

 from place to place. Two or three 

 men get inside each hut, lift it up, 

 and then walk off with it to the 

 new site selected for the village. 

 Colville describes a Berber village 

 on the move as looking like an army 

 of gigantic snails on the march. 

 The Berbers are industrious agriculturists. They grow wheat and barley, which they 



cut with the sickle, while the ground is prepared with a wooden, iron-shod plough; they also 



groAV maize, onions, beans and lentils, coffee, and various fruits, especially walnuts and olives. 



They practise most of the primitive industries; they smelt iron-ore, burn clay into tiles, spin 



flax and cotton, and weave cotton and woollen fabrics, including carpets; they make pottery 



and soap. 



Politically they are grouped into sofs, or associations, and into great confederations, or 



kabails. The government of each community is by a council, or jemaa, presided over by 



an amina, or mayor, an office which is often hereditary. 



Though Mohammedans, the Berbers are not very rigid in their religious observances. 



Circumcision, for instance, is often neglected. They drink wine made from their own vines,, 



but abstain from imported liquors; and they are usually monogamous. 



Pliolo by Lekegian & Co.} 



STREET MINSTRELS, CAIRO. 



THE NORTH AFRICAN ARABS. 



The supplementary elements in the population of Morocco and Algeria may be grouped 1 

 into classes, excluding the Europeans and some remains of Roman colonies. The most- 

 important intruders are the Arabs, who conquered Algeria and Morocco in the seventh and 

 eleventh centuries. They are still politically predominant in Morocco, and were so in Algeria 

 until the French occupation. The Arabs live mainly in Western Algeria and Morocco. The 

 latter country ranks next to Arabia as the most sacred land of the Arabs, and its sultan is 

 head of the Western Mohammedans. 



The Arabs are widely scattered in Algeria, but are most numerous in the west. They 

 form numerous clans, most of which are prefixed by the word " Aulad " or "Tiled," such as 



