Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/159

 THE BEIIBERS AND ARABS. 181 rocnt^, have imparted none of their physical characteristics to the people, aa far at least as can now be detected ; nor liave any traditions of their former supremacy survivetl aniong-nt the local conununities. The most careful observers have also failed to detect any traces of Greek or Vandal influences in the outward ap|x>urancc, languages, or usages of the present inhabitants of Tunisia. The only two ethnical elements represented in the country, apart from the Jews and foreigners who have recently immigrate<l, are the various groups rightly or wrongly known by the comprehensive terra of "Berbers," and the descendants of the Arab invaders. These latter, to judge by their sjKjech, and the ascendancy which they owo to their traditions representing them as the conquerors and reformers of the country, apparently compose the largest part of the nation. But those peoples who in the time of the Carthaginians constituted, under various names, the very basis of the population, are in reality still by far the most numerous, however much they have become mixed with those other elements which, by a succession of crossings, have become gradually merged in the native type. The ancient language has not yet entirely died out, and the inhabitants of Jerba Island still speak a Berber dialect, and even wrote it at one time. A book written in Berber is still said to be preserved in one of the villages of this island. The ancient Libyan characters were probably employed in its composition, because the Jeraba, as the islanders arc called, recog- nise the letters of their own alphabet in the copies of Libyan inscriptions which have been shown them. The powerful L'^rgliamma tribe, who arc found in those parts of Tunis near the frontier of Tripoli, also s{x>ak a Berber dialect closely related to that employed by the Jeraba, The mountaineers of the Jebels Dwirat and Metmata, who belong to the same " Kabyle " group as the TriiX)litan Berbers of the Jebel Jefren, also speak this dialect. But it is not true, as was till recently believed, that the Drid or Derid clan in the northern portion of Tunis on both banks of the Mejerda, still speak the Berber language. All the northern and central Tunisian tribes, even those who have jealously preserved their Berber traditions and genea- logies, have become assimilated to the Arabs in speech. Besides, these two ethnical elements have become so closely connected during the last thousand years and more, that many a trilx? bearing a single collective name consists in reality of dis- tinct fractions, some of their elans being of Berlx»r others of Arab extraction. Thus the Khumirs, who are usually considered as forming a homogeneous group, are divided into four secondary tribes, of which one is of pure Berber origin, whilst the three others arc said to be of Arabic descent ; but all alike employ the Maugrabin dialect. Still, the traditional descent of a tribe is not a reliable guarantee for the purity of its origin, because from geneiation to generation the race may have been greatly mo<litied by marriage. It is a recognised fact that, in Xortheni and Central Tunis, the two races have been almost merged in one by these crossing ; Arabs and Berbers have l)ecome mutually assimilated one to the other. The relatively low elevation of the uplands and the breadth of the valleys, which ramify far into the interior of the country, have facilitated this ethnical fusion, and the abrupt contrasts that are met with in Algeria and Marocco between the Kabyles and Arabs, who still differ in appearance and customs, are seldom seen