Page:EB1911 - Volume 27.djvu/369

Rh Presentation nuns. The town has a considerable retail trade, and is a centre for the disposal of agricultural produce. Tuam received its first charter from James I. Before the union in 1800 it returned two members to the Irish Parliament.

TUAREG, or (more properly Tawarik, the collective form of tarki, from Arabic terek, to give up), the name given to the western and central Saharan Berber peoples, in reference possibly to their abandonment of Christianity or their early home in Mauretania. They call themselves Imoshagh (&ldquo;the noble people&rdquo;), another form of Amazigh. They inhabit the desert from Tuat to Timbuktu and from Fezzan to Zinder. The Tuareg country covers about 1,500,000 sq. m., less than 3000 acres of which are cultivated. There are only some half-dozen commercial places in the whole Sahara to which the Tuareg resort. These are the centres from which the trade routes radiate, Wargla, Timbuktu, Ghat, Ghadames, Murzuk and Insalah.

The Tuareg, at any rate the noble class, are regarded as among the purest of the Berber stocks, but with the adoption of Islam they have become largely Arabized in manners and customs, though the nomad Tuareg preserve in singular purity the Tamashek dialect of the Berber language. Their general colour is the reddish yellow of southern Europeans, the uncovered parts of the body being, however, darker through exposure. Their hair is long, black, and silky, beards black and thin; eyes black, sometimes blue; noses small; hands delicate, but bodies muscular. They are a tall people, the chiefs being especially noted for their powerful build. They dress generally in a black tunic (some tribes wear white), trousers girt with a woollen belt, and wear as turban a cloth called litham, the end of which is drawn over the face, allowing nothing to be seen but the eyes and the tip of the nose. The purpose of this is to protect the throat and lungs from the sand. These cloths are dark blue or white: the former being worn most by the nobles, the latter by the common people. To this difference of colour is due the terms &ldquo;black&rdquo; and &ldquo;white&rdquo; Tuareg. The Tuareg seldom remove their masks or face-cloths. Even abroad they wear them, and have been seen so dressed in the streets of Paris. The Arabs call them &ldquo;People of the Veil.&rdquo;

TUAT, a Berber word sometimes applied generally to all the oases in the western part of the Algerian Sahara, i.e. between 2&deg; W. and 2½&deg; E. 26&deg; and 30&deg; N., sometimes restricted to a particular group which borders the east side of Wad Mzaud between 26⅛&deg; and 27½&deg; N. According to the first usage Tuat includes the oases of Gurara in the north and Tidikelt in the south with the important centre of Insalah. The three groups are spoken of collectively by the French as the Tuat archipelago. The district is comparatively fertile, being formed of recent alluvium extending along the base of the Tademait plateau (Cretaceous), and produces dates and some cereals and vegetables. The wadi Saura (known in its lower course as the Messaud), formed by the junction of the wadis Zusfana and Ghir, marks the north-western boundary of the oases. After the winter rains in the Atlas it carries a considerable body of water in its upper course, but lower down its channel is choked by sand. Works were undertaken (1909) by the French to keep open the channel as it passes Tuat proper. At Gurara water is obtained from springs brought to the surface by the outcrop of impervious Devonian rocks. There is an extensive sebkha or salt lake at Gurara. The oases support a comparatively large population. The separate ksurs or hamlets, of which the district is said to contain over 300, are in Tuat proper placed close together. The political centre of Tuat is the oasis of Timmi, which has some forty ksurs. All the ksurs are strongly fortified, the walls of the citadels being of immense thickness. The whole region has been formed into an administrative unit known as territoire des oasis sahariennes, and comprising a native commune subdivided into the annexes of Tuat, Gurara and Tidikelt. In 1906 the commune had a population of 134 Europeans and 49,873 natives, of whom 112 enjoyed municipal rights. There were four places with over 2000 inhabitants: Adrar (Timmi), 2686, and Zaniet-Kunta, 3090, in Tuat; Insalah, 2837, in Tidikelt; and Timimun, 2330, in Gurara. Nine other places had between 1000 and 2000 inhabitants. By race (excluding the troops) there were 19,654 Arabs, 5470 Berbers, 4374 negroes, 191 Jews (professing Islam) and 19,412 persons of mixed blood. The district is of importance as commanding the routes southwards to Timbuktu from both Morocco and Algeria, and it is thus a great centre of trade. The oases appear to have been inhabited from a very early period. According to tradition numbers of Jews migrated thither in the 2nd century They were the predominant element in the oases when the conquests of Sidi Okba drove the Zenata south (7th century). These Berbers occupied Tuat and, to a large extent, absorbed the Jewish population. The Arabs took possession of the oases in the 10th century and imposed Islam upon the people. Thereafter the region was governed by Zenata Berbers or by Arab chieftains. In the 14th