Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/411

 SOCIAL CHANGES. S88 Miihuinmcd or the conquerors of Miiuritania ; the »horf.i, who roj^fonl m their common mother P'utima, wife of Mohammed, and who coniMxjuently belong to the Prophet's family ; Uistly those whose ancestor is some reputed suint or roarabut, and who have thus ac(iu!red u sort of nobility not less respected than the others. All those men stand higher thun the common uiuhh of the faithful, and when favoured by circumstances, such um triljul feuds, wars, commotions, or family occurrences, are ever ready to enforce their pretensions. The tribal groupings also are not unfrequently modified, the followers of con> tending parties passing from one side to the other, according to the vicissitudes of these ambitious rivalries. Fragments of a single tribe have thus occositmally become scattered throughout the whole of the IJarbary States. Hence by purchasing the friendship of one chief or another, the French Government has vainly hoped to secure the loyalty of the whole tribe, the official proteg^ being simply replaced by some more popular rival in public favour. The policy pursued by the French has also at times simply resulted in the creation of formidable opjwnents by founding real Arab monarchies. It was hoped that the work of pacification would be made easy by dealing with a single chief instead of with the several heads of countless tribes. Thus it was that under Fi-ench patronage Abd-el-Kader became a sultan, and the chief of the Ulad-Sidi sheikhs received as a fief the whole of the Algerian Sahara, while Mokhrain assumed almost supreme power in southern Kabylia. The lands hitherto reserved for the commune, the widow, the orphan, and the poor, thus passed into the possession of the great feudal lords. Nevertheless the vassal chiefs continued still powerful enough to revolt, and even since the French occupa- tion have waged war with their suzerain. Social Changes. But this regime of the great Arab fiefs is drawing to a close. The virtually independent chiefs are being gradually replaced by French administrators, or by Mohammedan kadis, entrusted with the administration of justice, in accordance with the Moslem jurisprudence accepted by the French tribunals. Sheikhs, kaids, aghas, and bash-aghas, receive their investiture from the French authority, and yield direct obedience to it« orders. Their judicial functions are strictly limited ; but they have not yet been deprived of the traditional prerogative of indemnifying themselves from the proceeds of fines imposed on criminals — a prerogative which has always proved a source of the most crying acta of injustice. The dwars no longer enjoy the some facilities for migrating from the uplands to the plains, and according as the country becomes settled, the nomad tribes find their freedom of action more and more restricted A continually increasing number of natives are also abandoning the primitive tribal orgimisution, and attaching themselves to the French communes, in which they constitute the proletariat class. The old habits disappear, customs change, a settled life takes the place of the nomad state, the jMitriarchal yields to the communal system,