Among the Berbers of Algeria

Front matter

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Preface

THIS book is intended to be a popular record of a journey undertaken with scientific objects, and it must not be expected that those objects — so far as they were attained — have left no trace upon its pages.

If, therefore, technical terms, technical discussions, have crept in and have been allowed to stay, it is because the writer has no wish to insult the intelligence of the reader by excising them on the supposition that the public care for none of these things.

It is, perhaps, unnecessary to add that the bulk of the data can be found in another work, clothed in another dress, where those that take pleasure in the study of their fellow-men may examine in detail an account of the Berbers and their works.

The illustrations are all from our own photographs, be they good, bad, or indifferent, and such as they are it is hoped that they will help the text to tell its own story in a more picturesque way than would be possible without them.

The spelling of native names is French. Thus " ch " is "sh" and "ou" "oo." W has been substituted for "ou" at the beginning of such words as " Wed," where the value of the "ou" is consonantal. This system is nearly as clumsy as our own, but it has at least the merit of being viii PREFACE

uniform and intelligible, and the French have every right to spell their own place-names as they please.

The sketch map does not profess to be anything more. It is not even a travelling map, and it adds nothing to our geographical knowledge. This should be borne in mind when the reader hears about the Hodna Salt Lake, otherwise the author would be justly hoist with his own petard. In short, the map is only added for the benefit of those who wish to know " whereabouts they are," which it would be impossible for them to do with any ordinary atlas of the country.

The few concluding remarks on Anti-Semitism in Algeria are perhaps sufficiently justified by the extracts from the local press which they contain. The solution of the problem of Anti-Semitism will make or mar the future of the country, and that is the writer's excuse for touching it at all.

Chapter I. Page

Algiers to Bou Saada i

Algeria and the French — The ** Tell " — "The Iron Gates" — A Walled Town and a Gathering of Chiefs — Diligence to M'Sila— In a Stone Cart — Megalilhic Remains and Chipped Flints — The Hodna — The Deluge and the Desert — A Saharan Mud-Town.

Chapter II

The Animals and their Saddlery — Scenery near the Djenane — A Difference of Opinion and a Would-be Marabout — Reception at Khroubane — Roman Remains at M'Sif~A Typical Conversation — Ride to Ain el Hadjar — A Robber Chief — More Roman Ruins — The Biter Bit — Barika, a Roman Colony.

Chapter III

Bad Travelling — Ain Touta, Les Tamarins and El Kantara as French Colonies — El Kantara — The Gorge — Roman Remains — Arab and Negro — Gardens of the Chateau Landon at Biskra.

Chapter IV

Batna — Lambessa — Penal Settlement — Roman Remains — A Cordial Administrator — "Cavaliers" — Alwve the Snow-line — The Sun — Cedar Forest — Ruins of a Roman Station— Cattle and Mules — The Pine Forest — First View of El Arbaa — Our Quarters — The Village : its Houses, Crops and Inhabitants — Future of the Chawia — The " Cafe " — Chawia Women — Domestic Details — Sheep, Goats, Chickens, and Dogs of the Chawia — The Letter of the Law.

ix

X CONTENTS

Chapter V. Page

Ride from El Arbaa— Position of Bouzina —Social Pit-falls— A Menu— Trade — The Eternal Feminine - Our Purchases — Houses and Streets — An Interior — A Nfusical Evening — The Kaid in Full Dress — Country round Bouzina — Cuckoos — Italians— A Veteran of many Fights — The Mill-stream — The Terraces — Anthropometry and its Results— " Fox "—A New "Cavalier," his Points— The Commercial Spirit — Tattooing amongst the Berbers — The Question of their Former Christianity.

CHAPTER VI. Menaa and the Abdi Valley 108

Poachers — The Pax Gallica — Marble — Town and People of Menaa — Blackmen — Good Quarters — Scenes on the Terraces — Position of Men and Women as Regards Work — Politics, Past and Present — Silver Ornaments — Traps — Shoes — A Marabout's Tomb — The Government School — The Mosque— An Old Graveyard — Roman Remains — Landmarks — Skulls in the Trees — From Summer to Winter — Pottery Making — Weaving —Married Life— Politicians — Houses — Hockey — Acquisitions —El Baali : its Food, Houses and Inhabitants — Shaving Heads — A Family on the March — A Leaky Roof^Quaint Quarters —Cards — Snow^-Chimneys— A Contrast.

Chapter VII

The Question of Roman Influence — A Bad Track — A Mysterious Personage — Ploughs — Bou Homar — Timegad — The Firis Valley — A Caiion — A Disappointment — Omm el Ashera — Berber Courage — Couscous — A Favourable Impression — Among the Holm-oaks — " Les Braves Boers" — Hassen and his Family at Home — Clothes and Equipment — Cavaliers a Necessity.

Chapter VIII

Country Round — Situation — Flowers and Trees — Eucalyptus and the Climate— Jews — Bou Merzoug — Tellia Apoda — Dolmens — A bos — Hammam Meskoutine — The Hot Springs- -The Gardens — Ride to Roknia — A Rough Country — The Making of a Dolmen.

CONTENTS xi

Chapter IX. Page

First Glimpses at Kabylia — Bougie — Akbou — Wild Flowers and Trees — Among the Hills — Our Quarters at Tazairt — ^The Language — The Village — Houses — Wood-carving — '*Suk" — The Cafe and our Tea— Courtesy of People — The Missionaries — A Street Preacher and the Kabyles — W^hite Fathers — Silver — Oil-mill and Press — Wild Beasts— Our Market and a Discovery— Measurements — The Future — Social Intercourse.

Chapter X

Tazairt to Bordj-Boni — Flora — Fine Scenery — Schools — Short Commons — A Hospitable Kaid — Kabyle Political Organisation — Soffs — Marabouts — Liberal Views — Purchase of a Burnous — Gelaa and its Surroundings — ** Shadow Photography" — Ride to Aklx>u — Tomb of a Marabout — A Ford — A Jackal — Over Chellata — The Ash of Kabylia — Wild Scenery — Lanes — The Mountains — Michelet.

CHAPTER XI. Great Kabvlia 226

Climate of Kabylia— A Scirocco — The Beni Yenni and their Country — Cork Trees — A Fountain — A Silversmith — A Mystery — A Breton— Fort National — The Road to Tagamount Azouz — White Fathers — A Sickle — An Interior — Pottery — To Tamaocht in the Rain — A Carpet-seller — Measurements — The Market — Return to Fort National — A Spoilt Village — To Mekla -Djemaa Seridj and some Unpleasantness — An English Mission and its W^ork — Kabyle Characteristics— To Tizi-Ouzou— A Would-be Butler.

CHAPTER XIL Algerian Anti-Semitism 256

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

BOU HOMAR, A VILLAGE OF THE AUR^S A BERBER VILLAGE .

SKETCH MAP OF PART OF ALGERIA

THE "CHARETTE'* .

AT BOU SAADA ....

OUTSIDE OUR QUARTERS AT KHROUBANE

A SALT-PAN OF THE HODNA

THE HODNA FROM AIN EL HADJAR .

THE BORDJ OF AIN EL HADJAR .

EL KANTARA FROM THE NORTH

SCHOOL CHILDREN AT EL KANTARA

A STREET IN THE ARAB TOWN, BISKRA

THE PRiETORIUM, LAMBESSA

THE HEAD OF THE PASS

IN THE CEDAR FOREST .

DISTANT VIEW OF EL ARBAA

HERDS LEAVING EL ARBAA IN THE MORNING

SWEEPING THE ROOF

A CHAWIA FIFE-PLAYER .

A CHAWIA BERBER OF THE AURfes

EL ARBAA ....

BOUZINA ....

RAID TAHR OF BOUZINA

THE BED OF THE STREAM AT BOUZINA

ON THE WAV TO THE GARDENS, BOUZINA

A CHAWIA SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK

MENAA ....

GROUP AT MENAA .

TERRACE-CULTIVATION AT MENAA

CHAWIA WOMAN IN FULL DRESS

HOUSES AT CHIR

xiii

Frontispiece Title-page

PAGE

xvi

• 13 21

• 30 36

• 37 39

• 53 60

. 64 67 To face page 69

• 74 76

. 78

. 85

. 109

. 114

. 120 xiv CONTENTS

PAGE

CHAWIA WOMAN MAKING POTTERY . . .129

CHAWIA GIRLS SPINNING . . . . 13I

BEE-HIVES AT Kh BAALI . . . . -135

A CHAWIA PLOUGH . . . . . 144

TiMEGAD ..... To face page 147

ENTRANCE TO A CAI^ON . . . . 149

IN A CANON OF THE AURfeS . . . • iSl

RUINS OF A ROMAN FARM, OMM EL ASHERA . . 1 53

REMAINS OF A ROMAN OIL-PRESS NEAR LAMBESSA . .156

A "CAf6" by the WAYSIDE . . . . 160

GORGE OF THE RHUMMEL, CONSTANTINE . . . 164

NATURAL BRIDGES IN THE GORGE OF THE RHUMMEL . 1 65 THE PETRIFIED WATERFALL AND HOT SPRINGS AT HAMMAM

MESKOUTiNE .... To face page 172

ROMAN REMAINS AT HAMMAM MESKOUTINE . . 1 73

A DOLMEN AT ROKNIA . . . . -175

A STREET IN TAZAIRT . . . . . 185

MOSQUE AND CEMETERY AT IGHIL ALl . . . 187

KABYLE CHILDREN ..... I92

A SILVERSMITH OF TAZAIRT . . . . -193

AN OLIVE-PRESS AND MILL AT TAZAIRT . . I95

IN THE MOUNTAINS NEAR GELAA .... 203 PART OF THE VILLAGE OF GELAA . To face page 204

HAWTHORN IN THE MOUNTAINS OF GELAA . . 213

DISTANT VIEW OF THE MOUNTAINS OF GELAA To face page 2l6 TOMB OF A MARABOUT . . . . . 217

FORDING THE WED SAHEL . . . . 219

THE DJURDJURA FROM CHELLATA . . To facc page 222

KABYLE GIRL AND BASKET .... 23O

THE VILLAGE OF BENI ATULLI AND THE DJURDJURA

BARNS AT TAG AMOUNT AZOUZ . . . -236

INTERIOR OF KABYLE HOUSE WITH WALL-PAINTINGS . 240

POTTERY MAKING . . . . . .241

OLIVE-GROVES AT TAMAOCHT .... 243

A KABYLE MEAT-MARKET ..... 245

TAOURiRT MOKRAN . . . To facc page 247

A NATIVE OFFICIAL .... To face page 250

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Chapter I

Alj^eria and the French— The ''Tell"— "The Iron Gates "—A Walled Town and a Gathering of Chiefs — Diligence to M'Sila — In a Stone Cart — Megalithic Remains and Chipped Flints— The Hodna — The Deluge and the Desert— A Saharan Mud-town.

IT is not a hundred years since Algiers constituted at once a menace and a disgrace to European civilisation, since its corsairs infested the seas and swept together into its prisons Christian sailors of every Western state. Less than a century has elapsed since the consuls of the Powers were subjected to every kind of indignity by a Dey who not only set at defiance his master the Sultan, but enjoyed immunity from the natural consequences of his misdeeds by the exercise of that astute diplomacy of the East which divides the West against itself until it is self-neutralised — a colossus of no account. Even the Americans with their freedom from international ties, and the weakness those ties too often bring, had to bow the knee of humility before this arch-pirate.

When we remember this, and have recalled the exploit

2 J

2 AMONG THE BERBERS OP^ ALGERIA

of Lord Exmouth and his Dutch allies, let us not forget that it is to the French, and to the French only, that we owe a great work of reformation — the cleansing of one of the filthiest Augean stables in the modern world. Through every change of government and of party, under King, Emperor, and Republic, at the cost of much blood and treasure, they have persisted in the work. No millions of money, no millions of sturdy colonists have rewarded these efforts. The French nation has still to endure a drain on its resources, and that with little prospect of relief In return it enjoys a sense of possession, the use of the word " colony," and a consciousness of a great task well begun. Little as we are wont to over-rate the successes of our neighbours, let us, in this particular at least, give them credit for what they have accomplished ; and, while criticising perhaps their methods, let us be thankful that wc have not had to achieve their results. All this, and much more. Englishmen are willing to admit, if only the journalistic gutters of France, and especially of Algeria, stank less of Anglophobia and Anti-Semitism. What does not appeal to the head sometimes appeals to the pocket. Prejudice and ignorance have already prevented Algiers from becoming, as it bade fair to become, one of the first ports and coaling stations in the Mediterranean. Prejudice and ignorance are now endeavouring to deprive suffering humanity of an unrivalled health resort, and they will succeed if the people of the city and the provinces choose as their civic functionaries ruffians who have been exiled for their crimes, or ruffians who have only the spirit to incite others to commit them. The people who cursed the Sultan for killing Armenians have nothing to say to the demagogues who would massacre the Jews ; still they will not risk their comfort and their skins, and especially their money, in a town where such men are revered as patriots ; and this the worthy or rather the worthier citizens of Algiers will shortly learn by sad experience.

It is strange to find within forty-eight hours (or less) of London a country into which few British tourists enter. Algiers they know, Tunis they know. Kabylia they have heard of. Of the rest they know and hear nothing ; indeed, in more than one village we found ourselves the first English visitors, while in many the women and children had rarely before seen a European of any kind.

Very many people who have been to Algiers have been no further; others again have rushed through by rail to Biskra. The latter at least know what the former realise very imperfectly, that the tell or coast-country is the best if not the only good land in the colony. The high plateaux with their severe winters and scorching summers, long droughts and torrential rains, will doubtless in the course of time be brought under the plough of a European population. At present the settlements are few and far between, in general more remarkable for forts, loopholed walls and soldiers, than for farms, hedges, and agriculturists.

Tne nomad Arab is the curse of the country. Indolent, vicious, and unprogressive, he will burn a mile of forest to provide a few acres of bad pasturage for his flocks ; and as Sir Lambert Playfair, who knew Algeria better than any modern Englishman, remarked, will, when he attempts agriculture, plough round a thistle rather than root it up. With the destruction of the forests the rainfall is either absent or, if present, immediately thrown off the barren hills into the shotts — the great salt pans of the interior, bearing with it millions of cubic feet of invaluable alluvium. Planting is the great need of these districts — woods, forests — anything that will give shade and hold moisture. Eucalyptus has been largely tried nearer the coast, but as we had occasion to remark near Constantine, though it grows quickly and well, it will not endure the heavy falls of snow which may occur once every ten years. There remain the ilex, the cork-tree, and, where the scirocco does not blow, the cedar. All these are native to the country and would thrive slowly and surely if only the destructive Arab and his locust swarms of goats could be relegated to their natural habitat — the Sahara.

This land of rocks and sand, of smiling oases, the home of the date-palm, is the land also of the nomad Arab. There he can safely be left to spend his fury on the forces of nature, his fanaticism on divergent sects of his own religion. It is but necessary to guard the lines of communication with the trade-centres of the Soudan. No European population will desire for centuries to come to make this land their home. Whether it will ever be physically possible for them to do so is at present a question rather for those who love the by-paths of science than for practical men or politicians.

Of the Berbers there is much good to be said. Whether in the olive-clad mountains of Kabylia or the terraced valleys of their .Eurasian fastnesses, they are white men, and in general act like white men. Among them the virtues of honesty, hospitality, and good-nature are conspicuous. It is not their misfortune alone that the lowlands know them no more ; not their misfortune only that Mohammedanism has debarred them from entering as they would otherwise have entered on the path of European progress and liberality: it is the misfortune of the whole civilised world. Descendants of a mighty race whose culture once spread from the Atlantic to the Red Sea and the Hauran, from Crete to Timbuctoo and the Soudan, there are still to be found among them the vestiges of the arts and sciences, of the spirit of conquest, of the capacity for self-government which, if developed, would make them again a great nation. It was to trace if possible their connection with the most ancient races of Egypt by the methods of anthropology, by collections of pottery, of designs, of physical measurements, and by observation of their everyday occupations, and of the monuments of their ancestors, that we left Dr. Flinders Petrie's camp in Upper Egypt, and after two uneventful voyages across the turbulent waters of the Mediterranean landed at the end of March in Algiers.

We had been a little afraid that our enterprise would be distasteful not only to the French authorities but to those who have the difficult task of promoting friendly relations between them and the English mariners and visitors. Our doubts were unnecessary. With a few words of caution touching our use of cameras in fortified towns and of our tongues among the Kabyles, Mr. Drummond Hay, the Vice-Consul, bade us a hearty Godspeed. Everywhere we were received by the officials with courtesy — often, as in the Aures, welcomed with kindness and consideration.

We had heard of the warmth of Algiers and had unconsciously assumed that the whole country was almost semi-tropical. It was therefore with feelings of resentment that, as the railway bore us southward, we marked a decrease of temperature and an increase of clouds and rain. It was exceptional weather said our fellow-travellers. Of course it was ! Whoever visited any country yet where the weather or the season were not exceptional ? In England do we ever have a normal summer? or a normal winter? Certainly, if the account of the oldest inhabitant is to be believed, each season does more to violate natural laws than the last.

Another unpleasant surprise awaited us. The neigh-

6 AMONG THE BERBHIRS OF ALGERIA

bourhood of Algiers is well cultivated. The reddish soil is covered with vines and perennial flowers. Date-palms stand in the Place de la Republique and roses, wistarias and bougainvilleas bloom on the heights of Mustapha Supcrieur. But as we left the tell^ or coast lands, and wound laboriously up the valley of the Isser, the scenery became more and more barren and forbidding. Grey, cloud-capped mountains, from which streamed icy rain, succeeded one another in a long procession. Presently snow peaks began- to appear through the rifts in the sombre canopy overhead. Kabylia, they said, lay just beyond and among those peaks. We congratulated ourselves on having decided to seek the sunny south before we entered Kabylia. There was no rain at Bordj-Bouarreridj we were told — for it was there wc were to leave the rail — there we should find sun and warmth — indeed, almost the Saharan climate. We nodded and shivered the cold shiver of unbelief.

As we approached the " Iron Gates " the scenery became really fine. Above us hung masses of rocks clad in dull green scrub and coarse — probably esparto — grass, from which numberless little yellow flowers peeped out. Beneath roared muddy streams in spate, their beds dotted with oleanders. I lere and there groves of eucalyptus — pollarded in many cases, with what measure of success may be imagined — dripped disconsolately, weeping, one would think, for the bright skies of their native land. The mountains assumed grotesque shapes, of castles and battlements, of animals, but especially of walls and gates. The strata had been lifted by some subterranean convulsion into a vertical position. The harder layers stood out like the spines and shields on the back of some great extinct reptile, some as much as fifty feet high and not much more than a yard thick. Beyond the " Gates " the weather cleared somewhat, and we saw a rolling plain dotted with bushes of Aleppo pine and juniper, Arabs and their flocks, nomad encampments, and beyond all the majestic chain of Djurdjura, their summits snow-laden. Towards Bordj- Bouarrcridj — a name which is as trying to the tongue as it is to the eye — we left the fine country behind and found nothing but bare brown hills to gaze upon. The railway station was crowded with French officers and men in full dress, with spectators of all colours and conditions, and with a score of stately Arab chieftains. Among them were many of fair complexions ; one in particular we named at once "John Bull." John Bull had a round, good-humoured face of a bright peony colour, out of which twinkled a pair of light blue eyes His flaxen beard and moustache fell down over the folds of a magnificent scarlet burnous, and his snub nose presented a remarkable contrast to the fine aquiline features of many of his neighbours. He was an Arab shekh — doubtless of Kabyle origin, like many of the Arabs near the Djurdjura — but if he had been suitably attired and turned adrift in London, men would have wondered at seeing so obvious a Britisher at a loss to find his way and ignorant of his own language. A swarthy man in a fawn-coloured burnous beside him would have stood for a type of the purest Semite. The scarlet and blue of the soldiers' uniforms, the rich burnouses heavily embroidered with gold, the snow-white haiks and turbans lent an air of enforced gaiety to the sombre surroundings. A mean walled town, only a few hundred yards from gate to gate, full of mean houses (of which the hotel was not the least mean), constituted the city of Bordj-Bouarreridj as reconstructed after the last native rebellion.

To-day, the flags only made it by contrast more miserable. The representative of the Government had summoned the shckhs from far and near to meet him, this being the most comfortable and convenient way of assuring himself of their fidelity, and they were now seeing him off at the station with much cold politeness and formality.

The population was en fete, A band of loafers, stimulated to a feverish patriotism by numerous ap^ritifs^ paraded the streets until a late hour, waving an enormous tricolour and chanting the Marseillaise, each in the key that pleased him best— for of such is liberty, equality, and fraternity. It may have been due to a guilty conscience, but we fancied that we heard mention made of the bravery of the Boers, and of the exceeding dirtiness of the nation to which we had the honour to belong, and we were glad to stroll without the walls to admire the heavy gold and black of the evening. It was certainly a picture : the clOud-pall and the almost Roman town in the foreground from which four roads radiate at right angles, but it was also unspeakably sad and depressing. The few tiny hovels by the roadside that sheltered the colonists from ]that chill, piercing wind served also to accentuate the utter desolation of the place. Scarce a bush or a blade of grass was to be seen. Only brown hills stretching interminably toward the sunset, whose passing glories were vividly reflected in the pools and streaks of water that furrowed without refreshing the arid waste of the plateau. It seems somewhat Pepysian to mention so trivial a detail, but I would add to this brief account of Bordj-Bouarreridj a high commendation of the local vintage. It is— or rather was — rich, sweet, and full of iron, like many Australian wines, and unlike the majority of Algerian, which resemble not good vinegar but bad, and are heady into the bargain.

The road from Bordj to M'Sila drops from three thousand to two thousand feet, and we were somewhat elated at the prospect held out to us of exchanging cold and rain for warmth and sun. " At M'Sila," said our half-caste Arab driver, " it never rains." He might have added, had he been conversant with English, ** but it pours." The diligence of the usual Continental type was full to overflowing. Inside were six Arabs. Three more were wedged into the coupe, and one of these was of very generous proportions, lieside the driver sat two more. On the top was stacked a great pile of goods and luggage reaching up to the tilt, and leaving a vacant space of roof some six feet square. In this space were bestowed five Arabs, whom our two selves, together with a Spanish hal fa merchant, shielded from the bitter wind that came tearing over the hills from the west. There were thus ten passengers on the roof, but fortunately the road was as good as could be expected after the rains, and the pace was necessarily limited to about six or seven miles an hour.

Our Spanish friend was one among the many of his countrymen who have come to seek their fortunes in Algeria. Settling in some barren hollow of the inhospitable hills of the plateaux, they quickly build up a connection with the neighbouring Arabs, who bring them in the esparto grass from the mountains. It is then dried, bleached by the sun, and is ready for export. Practically the whole of this trade is in Spanish hands. The Province of Oran is much fuller of Spaniards than of Frenchmen, which, considering the interest always taken in the country by their forefathers, is not wonderful. If report speaks truly, however, this state of things is by no means to the taste of the French, who, it must be confessed, would seem to prefer in their possessions, to a non-French population no population at all, to trade not in French hands no trade whatever. At any rate, although they have perhaps never avowed such a policy even to themselves, it is the only explanation of the narrow tariffs and commercial restrictions with which they hamper even their own merchants.

lo AMONG THE BERBERS OF ALGERIA

" Algeria for the French '* is a well-known watchword of the Algerian anti-Semitic press, and if it is at present levelled only at the Jews, when they are driven out or otherwise got rid of, it will be none the less applicable to the other aliens, Spaniards, Italians, Maltese, and even Arabs, whose assistance is now being enlisted in the cause of" all good anti-juifs."

The scenery through which we slowly made our way can best be described as a cross between the most uninviting tracts of Scotland and Spain. Its monotony was broken and the European illusion dispelled, by occasional herds of camels guarded by men who would describe themselves as Arabs, but whom fair complexions and grey and blue eyes often proclaimed to be the direct descendants of the original Berber population.

As we discoursed with the Spaniard about Regulus, Hannibal, and Marius, whose exploits, I must confess, were more familiar to him than to me, blue mountains appeared to the southward, their tops dotted apparently with scrub and sprinkled with a generous fall of snow. Every few miles a white-walled, red-roofed homestead, surrounded by a clump of blue gums and poplars, reminded us that we were in a civilised country. At one of theee, with many hearty a Dios^ we dropped our classical scholar, and betook ourselves to the examination of our other fellow-passengers, who were evidently already well posted as to our peculiarities, extraction, business, and intentions.

In Egypt we had been Khawageh, in Algeria we found ourselves Moghrabi — Westerners — the same name as is applied in the " Arabian Nights" to men skilled in magical

lore. M conversed in Egyptian Arabic, but often

found himself unintelligible, and indeed the differences of the dialects arc very considerable. Scarcely one common word for common objects is the same in both. Neither

ALGIERS TO BOU SAADA ii