80 CELTIC REMAINS IN ALGERIA, 



inherit, in the confederation of Aith latin. The Kabyles are not 

 nomade, like many of the Arab tribes, but reside in huts, are 

 diligent tillers of the soil, and have many workers in the metals 

 and in pottery. The warlike Touareg tribes of the desert speak 

 the same language, with a less admixture of Arabic words, and 

 preserve some Berber inscriptions, viz., on a shield and bracelet. 

 Its affinity with any known language is very obscure. Colonel 

 Hannoteau, who has been living for several years at Fort Napoleon, 

 in the centre of the curvilinear range of the lofty Jebel Jurjura 

 mountains, has published a grammar of the Kabyle vernacular ; 

 a hasty inspection of it confirms one in the opinion expressed by 

 Max Midler, that its connexion with the Semitic, or any other 

 family, remains to be defined. The women are not veiled ; their 

 arms are tattooed, and on their foreheads may often be seen a 

 mark, said to be that of the cross, a sign of the supposed religion 

 of their ancestors before the Arab invasion. But as some of the 

 stelse which have Berber inscriptions have the form of the Phoe- 

 nician votive or sepulchral stelae, (of which I have seen many in 

 the museum of Constantina, with the crescent of Ashtaroth), it is 

 possible that the frontal mark may be the outline figure of a wor- 

 shipper of Baal, as the sun, with both arms upraised. It is 

 unquestionable that these emblems of Carthaginian worship were 

 carved on christian tombs, {vide stones of Enchir ain Hechna), as 

 well as D M , the " Diis Manibus " of the Romans. The sun and 

 moon were invoked as judges, in oaths. In a Church at Carthage, 

 which had been a temple of Astarte, Pagan ceremonies and 

 worship were observed. Augustine says that the heathen, when 

 asked to embrace Christianity, replied, " Why should we leave the 

 gods whom the christians worship with us." But, unmixed with 

 these reminiscences of heathenism, may be seen the christian 

 monogram on sarcophagi, carefully preserved by the French. I 

 observed the letters of one in relief, ten inches in length, cut on 

 each end. A stone, nine feet in length, lying on a heap of stones 

 between Setif and Zana, has this inscription, in letters about four 

 inches long, in relief :—" DEI BEATA ^ ET IN CHEISTO 

 CONPAEATA." The letter N is inclined, and is perhaps a mis- 

 take for M. 



Prsecilius, supposed to have been a christian, prepared an 

 epitaph on himself, of which I present a copy, inscribed in his 



