Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/399

 naturally seek to become French citizens. Large numbers of Italian, Spaniards, and Germans have thus already changed their nationality; while the immigrants from Alsace-Lorraine, officially returned as Germans, claim their right to the title of Frenchmen.

The Algerian Jews, descended for the most part from Andalusian exiles, wore all naturalised in 1870, to the great disgust of the Arab and Berber Mussulmans, who could not understand why this honour should be conferred on such a despised race, while the children of the soil were treated as a subject people. But although now nominally "French," most of the native Jews are still regarded as forming a distinct nationality. At the same time a slow process of assimilation in dress, usages, speech, and ideas is evidently going on, in this respect the second generation of Jewish settlers showing a marked advance.

On the other hand, the Arab Mussulmans could claim naturalisation only under exceptional circumstances, and on the condition of abandoning the precepts of the Koran. So merged is their law with their religion, that the mere application for French citizenship is looked upon by their fellow-countrymen as a sort of apostacy. But this is not the case with the Kabyles, who have never conformed their jurisprudence with the teachings of Islam. Hence whole tribes of Berbers have already applied for naturalisation, and but for certain administrative formalities and the opposition of many functionaries, the half-million inhabitants of Kabylia would gladly ask for incorporation in French society.

One of the chief causes of the rapid assimilation of the various European elements is the adoption of French as the common language of intercourse. Those who can already speak it more or less fluently may be estimated at over a million. Till recently the so-called Sabir served as a sort of lingua franca amongst the various inhabitants of the country. But this was altogether a formless jargon of a rudimentary character, composed of about two hundred words, verbs in the infinitive, nouns, adjectives, or adverbs, used without inflexions and somewhat incoherently, the sense being eked out by a lively display of pantomime and facial expression. Half of the words were Arabic, a fourth French or Provencal, the rest Spanish, Italian, or Maltese; but it is everywhere disappearing under the combined influences of commercial intercourse and the Franco-Arab schools.

A certain national uniformity is also promoted by mixed marriages, although such unions are still rare between the Europeans and the natives. Their offspring are seldom admitted into French society; yet it is impossible any longer to overlook the presence of these half-castes, who remain nominal Arabs, but who become Franco-Arab in speech and usages. To this class belong the so-called "Beni-Ramasses," people of all professions, known in the Algerian jargon as Ulad-Blaça, or "Children of the Piazza," because their homes are mainly the open spaces in the towns.

Of the vast but still scantily peopled productive lands in Algeria, only a very small portion has hitherto been turned to any account. Most of the occupied