In the Land of Mosques & Minarets

races which make up the native population: the Moors, the Berbers, the Arabs, the Negroes, the Jews, the Turks and the Koulouglis. One may see

d, Sallust says, "from a mingling of the soldiers of the army of Hercules, c

ria and Tunisia is divided into many grou

ace apart, but the result of a crossing to inf

endants of Turks

ce, speaking still their pr

ality "Berber-Arabs," as the French know them, who still preserve in

s increasing in numbers at his traditional rate,-and here and there becoming so highly civilized that he wears store clothes and carries a

ilst the real nomads of the interior still retain all their pristine force of character. The Arab hides with jealousy all particulars of his domestic life, and is a v

abstraction that would drive a man of affairs of the western world crazy. The Arab, however, is

e in a café. He drinks the subtle infusion, grounds and all,

an grace. All the time his ear is soothed by as howling a discord as one will hear out of the practice hall of a village band in America or of "La Musique des Sapeurs-Pompiers" of the small town in Fr

ies of ballad singer or reciter who, for a

sers, and the médahs, who are more like revivalists than mountebanks, and

metimes for days. It's an orgie, if you like, but less reprehensible than the bridge-playin

weller within the walls," is not primarily wicked or unreliable, but he has mixed with the sordid ways of commercialism, and his favours-extended always with a smile-are apt to bear a distinct relation to what he hopes to get out of you. If he is simply an ordinary individual, or a gamin who points out your road, his quid pro quo

mile that begins at the corners of the mouth and extends so that it makes a wrinkle at th

d apathetic, the Arab lives to-day as in the past, indifferent to all progress. If you show him your typewriter, your fountain-pe

ulation of ten thousand souls, a protest was actually presented to the government by the Arab population, asking that the great t

ly. Like the Indian and the Chinaman, the Arab is deceitful, but scrupulously honest as far as appropriating anything that may rightly belong to you is concerned, when it comes to actual business transactions. A bargain once made wi

sor of a modern breech-loader. Next to his gun he loves his eldest son. Last comes his wife-or wives. Daughters don't even count; he doesn't even know how many he has. Until some neighbour comes along and proposes to marry one of them, a daughter is only a chattel, a soulless thing, though often a pretty, amiable, helpful being. The Arab of the settlements may be

soft, floating drapery which clothes the Arab so majestically, whatever may be his soc

rm and colour and quality, but it is always a simple burnous. The Sheik of a tribe or the Ca?d of a village wraps himself in a rich

above this, and the nomad often descends to a gunny-sack, from which exhales an odour sui generis; but one and all carry it off with grace and éclat, as does the Arlésienne

e, apparently, as all his tribe, has acquired a taste for strong drink, though even he will not partake of it when it is red) on absinthe, of a kind, and tobacco, of a considerably better kind, ever

adi even, are all "decorated" as a sort of supernumerary rewa

of a tribe of the Tell who had been summoned to Algiers to get the collaret of the Legion bestowed upon his manly breast. He was decorated already, for he was the son of the "Great Tents" and a powerful man in his community, but he was ready enough to make a place for another étoile. He said in his quee

ties of judicial eloquence, from the bench of an Arab justice of the peace will explain the sit

un cabaret sans être

ch, though the sentiment

, alors, un coup de s

ir" is presumably som

la police parce qu'il désirait

ay be Arab-French for "i

aussi longtemps que

time, no doubt, once hav

eux mots, mais je

That is v

des descendants en

collateral

are little for tenses or numbers, but they make their way nevertheless. A Zou Zou, in calling your attention to

ts of his religion call for abstemiousness. He differs from the Greek of old in that he believes in a good dinne

in tea and coffee, and an

frequently the Arab roasts the carcass whole, spitted on a branch. He roasts it before, or over, an open fire, and accordingly it is all

t in his tent he reserves it for you. Beef is seldom, if ever, eaten, but camel is in high esteem, the hump (hadba) being the best "cut." Pork (el hallouf) is abhorred by the true Mussulman. He has reason! Dried

ts concocting. For pastry, too, the Arab has a sweet tooth, and it also frequ

e iniquitous effects are only equalled by t

to you first with all the grace and seductiveness of a houri. You don't accept, and they smoke it themselves, and in a short space drop off into a semi-into

they herd to themselves in some dingy quarter of an Arab village and ply their trades of jewellers, leather workers, embroiderers

business, each of them, and they don't live by taking in each other's washing-as does the indigenous population of the Scilly Islands, or

fferent from those of his brethren in other Mediterranean countries, and here he has a craftsman's mission to fill and he fills it very well.

ons of Adam? This is a question which has be

Women o

nce), the position of the Jews seems to have been defined, and they were put on a par with orthodox religionists. But before and since, their status has been less readily d

many Arab slaves of Barbary were owned by the Papal powers in th

cchia in the eighteenth century, directly under Papal patronage, held a n

n the Galleys Nati

pass Tuni

falotto T

arzocco A

iantacec

Mezza Lu

Camiscia A

Il Gabbi

no Tunis

bone Trip

re for service in th

e race of serva

cities like Algiers, Oran or Tunis; they gather the small savings of the nomad races in a way that is the marvel of all who know their trade. Furthermore, as French citizens, they play no sm

they do the same to the improvident Arab. Clearly the Jew has a mission in life; he has

t we are in. It is the Arab who must be our guide, philosopher and friend. "Ask an Arab anything you like," say the French, "but ask