Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/395

 SOCIAL CONDITION OF ALOEEIA. 819 which claims descent from the first caliph, Abu Bekr. The haughty members of this tribe are all marabuts, and held in high estimation by the surrounding popu- lations, who are fond of claiming kinship with them. They trace their origin to a saint who lived in the seventeenth century, and whose tomb is shown on the Saharian slope south of Arba. This shrine, surrounded by five villages, is held in great veneration, and was fonnerly a great centre of sedition and fanaticism. In 1881 it was razed to the ground, but afterwards rebuilt, the policy of the French Government being to control the tribes through the great feudal chiefs. The whole region of the Sahara, from the Marocco frontier to Tripolitana, has already been placed under the absolute authority of the chief of the powerful Sidi Sheikh confederacy. Breznia, on the Wed Seggwer, is the chief granary of the tribe. Social Condition of Algeria. In spite of the omissions and contradictions of the official returns, a general increase of population in Algeria may be accepted as certain. Before the first summary census it was usually estimated at about three millions, although an approximate return in 1851 gave scarcely more than two and a half millions. In 1872, after the terrible famine, which had at least decimated the population, the total scarcely exceeded two millions four hundred thousand. But since that period the two successive censuses of 1876 and 1881 have shown a ibpid annual increase of about ninety thousand a year, a rate much higher than that of France. At present the Algerians exceed three and a half millions, and should this rate of progress continue, they will number five millions before the end of the century. In the returns, the native element is not distinguished according to its Arab or Berber origin. Hence it may be possible, as some assert, that the Arab race is really diminishing, and the Berber increasing. In the towns of Algiers, Constan- tine, and Oran the mortality is considerably in excess of the births among the Moors, who are chiefly Arabs. But in the rural districts, where the Berber element prevails, the births greatly exceed the deaths. Hence it is evident that the so-called " indigenous " population will long maintain its numerical supe- riority, although not augmenting so rapidly as the foreign settlers, except in the Kabyle districts. In 1885 the Arabs and Berbers appear to have been six times more numerous than the European immigrants, the Berbers alone representing probably one-half of the total population. They also receive some increase through immigration, the labourers from Marocco being for the most part of Kabyle or Shellala race. By crossing with the natives, the Negroes also contribute to strengthen the Berber element, for they are settled chiefly amongst the Ruaghas of the Saharian districts. But since the suppression of the slave trade the blacks are diminishing in Algeria, partly through absorption, partly through excess of mortality. Since the conquest the Europeans have augmente<l according to a regular rate of accelerated progression. Beginning with a yearly increase of a few hundreds,