Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/160

 182 NOETH-WEST AFBICA. in Tunis. The pure Berber type is to be found only amongst the southern high- landers and in Jerba Island. Uere, as in the Algerian Jurjura, it has been noticed that, compared to the Arabs, the natives have shorter and broader features, that their skull and facial outline are less regular, the hair lighter, the glance more animated, the expression more frank, and that they are altogether of a more cheerful and enterprising disposition. Although the difference between the two races is very clearly defined, that between their several modes of life is much more strongly marked. Both towns- men and nomads, be their origin what it may, present the strongest contrasts, and mutually treat each other as if they belonged to two different nations. According to the latest census, the population of Tunis is equally divided between the " men of the houses " and the " dwellers in the tents." In the northern regions the nomad tribes, surrounded on all sides by towns, villages, and cultivated lands, have a somewhat limited range, whilst in the south they possess the whole extent of the steppes as their free camping-grounds. Besides, families which are but half nomad reside in all parts of Tunis, at one time cultivating the ground in some depression, at another following their herds to the upland pasture lands. Famine, civil strife, and war often break up the friendly relations between the tribes, and the groups composing them often remove to a distance of hundreds of miles from each other. Not a single generation passes without these migrations, which are analogous to those handed down to us bv history and by local traditions. Thus it is that the Drids or Derids, who for- merly followed in the train of the " Bey of the camp "as taxgatherers, have become scattered throughout various parts of Tunis on both banks of the Mejerda ; while the northern Ulad Sidi-Abid tribe, neighbours of the Bejas, have sent an off- shoot into the Xafta oasis, near the Shott-el- Jerid. According to M. Duveyrier, the Dedmakas, or Tademakkas, one of the tribes composing the Khumir group, are closely related to the Kel-Tademakket, now incorporated with the confederation of the Tuareg Auelimmidcn, on the banks of the Niger, and all the other Khumirs, ev^n those who call themselves Arabs, came from the south and from the west some centuries ago. The Tarabelsi also, who cultivate the land in the suburbs of Tunis, are evidently descendants of immigrants from Tripoli, as their name seems to indicate. On the other hand, it is a common tradition in Tunis that the Maltese, those Arab islanders who have become such fervent Catholics, are closely related to the Ulad Said who roam throughout the environs of Susa. At a still recent period a great many nomads lived by war and pillage, either as soldiers ot the Bey, or as professional brigands. The Urghammas, on the frontiers of Tripoli, number some thirty thousand individuals, representing an armed force of at least four or five thousand men, and were exempted from all tribute, for the ex- cellent reason that they refused to pay it ; but they were officially entrusted with the defence of the border lands against foreign marauders. Hence, under pretence of carrying out the Bey's instructions, they crossed into the neighbouring territories at their pleasure, killing the men and carrying off the women, children, and provisions. The Urghamma warriors, proud of their sanguinary exploits, were accustomed to