Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/288

 284 NOETH-WEST AFRICA. crepancies may be found within the same Kbaila, or federal league. Many communities are a mere confused aggregate of families of diverse colour and origin, and such heterogeneous groups are found in the suburbs of all the large towns. The Algerian Arabs. The bulk of the Arab tribes are concentrated in the western district, where Mascara may be regarded as their natural capital. Abd-el-Kader, himself a perfect specimen of the Arab type, selected this place as the seat of his empire, and here all the natives of pure Arab descent still live under the tent. According to Faidherbe, the Arab population, including the Moors of the towns, numbers altogether not more than one-fifth, or about six hundred thousand souls. But this estimate would be too low if it comprised all those who possess genealogies tracing their descent from the Prophet's family, or from some noted hero of Islam. The Algerian Arabs have generally a dull or brown complexion, black hair, scant beard, fine teeth, aquiline nose, broad movable nostrils, black eyes, prominent superciliary arches, high skull, open rounded brow. . The legs and neck are disproportionately long, and the chest too narrow, while the women are all com- [)aratively undersized. In public the Arabs are grave, dignified, and impassible ; but within the social circle they readily lay aside their assumed air of solemnity, converse and gesticulate with great vehemence. They are indifferent agriculturists, to whom a settled existence is always repugnant, who still love the free life of the steppe, with its boundless horizon, shifting mirage, and ever-changing camping- grounds. To understand and sympathise with them, here they must be seen and studied, for here alone they are happy, hospitable, and genial; here alone they become confidential, and relate with glowing enthusiasm the great deeds of their forefathers. Descendants of warriors who overran all North Africa, from Egypt to Marocco, they naturally despise the degraded races dwelling in fixed abodes, and their ideas regarding property are far from harmonising with the niceties of the code introduced by the new masters of the land. Hence frequent wrangling and strife, aggravated at times by the instinctive hatreds of race. In any case, the Arabs seldom become landed proprietors. The ground, which has no definite limits, belongs in common to the whole tribe ; but the social organisation being always feudal, the tribe itself is represented by its chief, who thus becomes the virtual master of the land. "As soon as there are three of you," says the Prophet, "elect a chief." Religious fanaticism also tends to foster discussion among the Arab tribes, who are much more inclined to mysticism than their Kabyle neighbours. Most of them are sincere believers, obeying the precepts of Mohammed, and muttering in a low voice the passages from the Koran which command the extermination of the Infidel. Thus it happens that bj'^ his manner" of thought and sentiments, as well as his habits and traditions, the tribal Arab feels little inclined to adapt himself to the changed conditions developed round about him by the settlement of the land, the