August 1, 1900.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



173 



and light with us demand the coolness and shade that 

 the palm tree affords. 



The oases are the depots of merchandise, and are the 

 chief mai'ket centi'cs of the desert, whose riches naturally 

 excite envy and must be protected : thus the oases 

 are fortified. 



The oasis modifies the social organization in three 

 essential matters: — 



1. Work becomes sedentary, but trade and commerce 

 predominate over agriculture. The complication due to 

 a fixed home is reduced to a minimum, for the men of 

 the oases continue to live a nomadic life for at least 

 part of the year. It is these men who effect transport 

 and who trade either for themselves or others. Besides, 

 the actual cultivation of the oases is relatively ea-sy, it is 

 almost spontaneous, as the chief pi'oducts arc from palm 

 and fruit trees ; it is arboriculture, which is the easiest 

 of all. The growing of vegetables does not need any 

 great foresight, for the period of growth is so short; 

 the work they need is soon repaid by the product. 

 Further, the men mainly avoid doing this work. It is rele- 

 gated to women and to negro slaves, who also forai an im- 

 portant article of commerce. Thus this cultivation has 

 not the result of reducing the men to work hai'd at 

 husbandry. Count Goblet d'Alviella writes: — "Every 

 year a certain number of Suafos emigrate into the towns 

 of Tunis and Tell, where they live in the Moors' quarters 

 as blacksmiths, masons, clerks, etc.; but, like the Swiss 

 and Savoyards, they have a great attachment to their 

 native land, and nearly always return thither when their 

 fortunes are made. They then marry several wives, 

 whom they employ to weave. They buy negroes, and 

 thus realise, in pious idleness, the Musulman's ideal 

 life." 



2. The condition of women is raised. She has the 

 sole charge of the workshop during the long absence 

 of her husband ; she watches over the gardens and 

 flocks, which feed around the oasis, and she makes various 

 domestic fabrics. She thus acquires a position of 

 mistress of the house, and is as much, and often more 

 than the husband, the source of income to the house- 

 hold. 



3. Government is constituted outside the community 

 of the family. How could government be constituted 

 outside the family in the societies which we have seen 

 are so strictly limited to the family and the tribe which 

 is, after all, only an enlarged family ? 



Who could organise government except the religious 

 brotherhoods who have created the oases? The ad- 

 ministration of the oases is in the hands of the khuans 

 and zanias, who reign as masters. In the larger oases 

 all the religious orders are represented, their wealth is 

 enormous, but their organisation is very simple. The 

 members of the order are composed of khuans 

 (" brothers ") and mokaddems and sheiks. The khuans 

 are the mass of the initiates. By mokaddem is meant 

 the direct representative of the sheik, who receives alms, 

 presides over religious ceremonies, and directs the con- 

 sciences of the khuans. The sheik is the superieur 

 general or grand master of the order. He resides in or 

 near the tomb of the holy founder of their order, and 

 gives the baraka or benediction. Often below the 

 initiated khuans there are khoddams, servants or clients, 

 who do not receive the special prayer of the order. 

 They are generally entire tribes who adopt the policy 

 of the order and act as defenders. The fraternities hold 

 in their hands the administration of the oasis. This 

 is summed up in the djemaa assembly of notables, chosen 



by each of the quarters of the oasis from the ranlvs of 

 the khuans. 



Dependent upon the djcuifia are six functionaries 

 chosen from the dominant religious party. One is a 

 sort of police agent; he guards the gati^s, sigu;Js the 

 approach of an enemy by beating a drum, is the chief 

 of scouts, and receives travellers and appoints them to 

 various houses. The second unites the functions of the 

 public crier and the clerk of the works. The third is 

 the distributor of water — a very important trust. These 

 three are paid in kind. The three following officials 

 hold purely religious posts. The steward of the mosque 

 is an honorary appointment. The mai-about, who has 

 charge of the services, recites the daily prayers, presides 

 at all cei-emoiiies and funerals, and teaches in the school, 

 is lodged and paid. Finally, the muddin, five times a 

 day mounts the minaret of the mosque to cry the prayer 

 of Islam. 



Naturally these brotherhoods quarrel for sujjremacy, 

 often long and cruel wars result. At the present time 

 one of these orders is pre-eminent, it is the famous order 

 of Snussia. The Snussias cleverly tried to constitute 

 a vast federation of all the religious orders, to create 

 a theocratic panislamism, exclusive of all secular 

 authority. To render this federation more acceptable 

 they have reduced to a minimum their religious formulas 

 and the duties imposed on the khuans. This order is 

 recent, being founded about 1835, by Si-Mohaniined- 

 ben-Ali-ben-Snussi. After many vicissitudes he founded 

 a zania at Djerboub, in Tripoli, and since then more 

 than 250 in Sahara and Arabia; all are directed from 

 Djerboub, the headquarters of the order. 



On the northern borders of the Sahara are more or less 

 cultivated lands, which are termed by Demolins " half 

 oases," who states they are largely peopled by fugitives 

 from the desert — that is, by people who, in every epoch, 

 have been evicted from it; speaking generally, they 

 have not gone of their own accord, for these men, little 

 accustomed to work, prefer the adventurous life of the 

 desert to the narrow life of its confines. They bring 

 with them, however, their aptitude for business and 

 their skill in organising government, which become still 

 more accentuated under the new conditions. These 

 border countries are often not favourable to agriculture. 

 Many are mountainous and have poor soil; but they 

 are favourable for barter, lying as they do between 

 two great commercial highways, the sea and the desert. 

 The inhabitants therefore take to commerce. In these 

 border states agriculture is undertaken by the least 

 capable and entorjirising ; the others give up agriculture 

 on the first opportunity and take to small manufactures 

 or to commerce. 



The various Kabyle tribes have each their speciality, 

 and as they hold markets in each village on successive 

 days the inhabitants can procure all they require. Many 

 women make beautiful pots. Weaving occupies some 

 tribes, wood-carving others, some are clever blacksmiths. 

 One has learned from a French deserter how to make 

 guns. Jewellery and smelting constitute the industry 

 of one group. Their markets are busy, and are used 

 also as general assemblies for the discussion of public 

 business. The emigrants from the villages carry on 

 different trades. Some become bakers, others bankers 

 to their fellow countrymen in the different villages, most 

 become pedlars. They are in no great hurry to 

 accomplish the pilgrimage to Mecca, and when they do 

 go, they travel more as merchants than as pilgrims. 



Here on the border countries the influence of tho 



