XL 



Three of the regiments of light cavalry in the French 

 army in Algeria are recruited solely from the Arab popu- 

 lation. The men are called Spahis, and are said to be ex- 

 cellent in their place, amenable to discipline, and apt to 

 prove effective within their limits when called upon. The 

 Berbers, or aborigines, who were in the land prior to the 

 Arab conquest, do not appear as a distinct type m the 

 army. They have been ground down by many genera- 

 tions of poverty, and seem to have lost the notable old 

 Punic trick of fighting. As a military material they are 

 inferior. Most Arabs — all the pastoral or nomad Arabs,, 

 in fact — are stanch French haters. They are held down 

 with the strong hand alone. Only the exceptional Arab, 

 who has given in his submission and is deemed quite 

 trustworthy, is ever allowed to have powder and lead in 

 his possession. All others are deprived of fire-arms and 

 ammunition of every nature. But an Arab who has once 

 accepted the situation, as does the Spahi who enlists, may 

 be trusted, they say, implicitly. 



The Spahi retains his national dress, furbished up to 

 make him feel proud. He rides in a saddle which is all 

 but as bad as the one the Indian used to make with 

 straight up and down pommel and cantle, and has by no 

 means the latter's raison cVetre. The tree and bearings 

 are long. The pommel is coarsely finished, and rises with 

 scarcely a slope to about the waistband when the man 

 sits down in his seat. The cantle rises almost perpendicu- 



