CHAPTER IV.

THE NATIVE INHABITANTS OF ALGIERS.

THAT

"His tribe were God Almighty's gentlemen."

Dryden.

"Sufferance is the badge of all our tribes."

Merchant of Venice.

HAT which to an European untravelled in Eastern lands makes the chief novelty, and constitutes no small portion of the charm of Algiers, is the extraordinary variety of costume which meets him at every turn; the blaze of colour, the mingling of the grandly simple with the picturesque and grotesque-Eastern life and European civilization walking side by side.

He is at first somewhat bewildered by the new persons rather than the new things about him. He feels suddenly transported into a masquerade, and can scarcely persuade himself of his surroundings that they are "all real." He finds himself, at every moment, transgressing the rules of good manners, by staring his hardest at each strangely-clad figure he encounters.

As Arab, Moor, or Jew, each in his curious Eastern dress, passes by him, he is sent back in imagination a score or two of years to the days of his childhood, when he pored in delight over the pictured pages of the Thousand

E

and One Nights, or even earlier still, to the dimly-remembered days of his babyhood, to the roughly-coloured but well-beloved daubs which adorned the nursery-walls, and presented to his infant mind, as intimate acquaintances, Abraham and Isaac, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brethren. The remembrance of them, as thus portrayed, has, in the lapse of years, almost faded from his mind; but now, suddenly, in the streets of Algiers, they meet him face to face, jostle him or brush by him, with their grandlysweeping garments and impassive faces, while he stands doubting, with a strange uncertainty, whether that which he sees before his eyes is real, or whether he will not presently wake up to find that he has been dreaming.

There are about ten thousand native Mahomedans in the city of Algiers, out of a population of forty-nine thousand souls. These are chiefly Arabs, and, as we somewhat arbitrarily call them, Moors. There are also a considerable number of negroes, and, added to all these, a large native Jewish population, each of whom wears his distinctive garb; and on first arriving the stranger finds himself somewhat puzzled to distinguish between the various races.

The ARABS, those majestic figures who, with their white burnous wrapped about them, first attract the traveller's attention, and most forcibly remind him of the Biblical patriarchs, are the descendants of that Arab horde, which in the seventh century swept over and conquered the north of Africa, and at the same time established there the religion of Mahomet, while the native population, with the European colonists, were either destroyed or driven into the mountains. Of these mountaineers we shall have to speak further. The Arabs are for the most part agricul

turists on a very small scale, or shepherds; and the greater portion of them still carry a long thick shepherd's staff as part of their ordinary dress.

They are all bare-legged, and some of them bare-footed, though a residence in towns and the necessity of treading

on burning pavements have induced many to adopt the use of shoes. The head is invariably covered by the hood of the burnous, and is besides bound round and round with thick hempen cord; and the burnous itself, made of a heavy white woollen material, seems to serve not only as

a garment to keep out equally heat and cold, but also, like the Scotch shepherd's plaid, as house and home.

At all hours of the day and night, curious white bundles may be seen lying like dropped sacks by the wayside, and the passer-by, curious to inquire, will discover that they are Arabs rolled up in their burnous, and fast asleep, or at any rate bent on the enjoyment of that dolce-far-niente, which is as dear to the Arab mind, as to that of his neighbours on the opposite side of the Mediterranean.

They are a remarkably fine race of men, with handsome intelligent faces, brown complexions, expressive melancholylooking eyes, aquiline noses, good teeth, and black beards; but that which most particularly distinguishes them, is the wonderful ease and dignity of their carriage.

They have the spring of the desert in their elastic step, and wear their ragged robes as though they were regal mantles.

"In the transparent atmosphere, the dark skins and bright-coloured clothes of these stalwart fellows seemed actually to shine with a lustre, whilst the wonderful power, majesty, and grace of their wholly unfettered limbs was quite a revelation."-A Winter with the Swallows.

Owing probably to this same freedom, a deformed or illshapen Arab is scarcely to be met with, even among the lowest or begging class, but blindness is very preva

lent.

In spite, however, of their fine proportions and lithe limbs, the Arabs are said to be constitutionally a weak race. They live very poorly, chiefly on kous-kous, a preparation of semolina; and though able to support a wonderful amount of fatigue on so little, they easily succumb to disease. Their first illness is said to be their last, while the race is

gradually but surely dying out, as it seems to be the fate of all primitive races to do, before the onward march of the civilizer. During the famine of 1867, in spite of all the efforts made by the French, more than two hundred thousand persons are said to have perished.

The French give the Arabs a very bad name for ferocity, dishonesty, and treachery; but it is possible that the immense gulf which lies between the two races, their opposite character, manners, and traditions, as well as the hatred naturally engendered between conqueror and conquered, make them scarcely fair or unprejudiced judges. As individuals they will be found kindly and courteous, and very well disposed towards the English, whom they distinguish instantly from the French, and regard with much more favour-cherishing, so it is stated, an idea that one day the British rule will supplant the French in Algiers, affording its people the same privileges which their co-religionists in India enjoy.

However this may be, English visitors are invariably treated with deference by the Arabs; and ladies may ramble without fear through the most unlikely-looking quarters of the city, or in the lonely country lanes.

Courage, generosity, and hospitality have always been recognised as virtues among the Arabs; they pay great respect to old age, and under French rule, seem learning honesty.

"Professional thieves of the European stamp, such as the pickpocket fraternity, do not exist among the Arabs.

'Speaking of respect for the law, or fear of chastisement, we may remark that cases of assault and robbery, such as make the environs of some European capitals unsafe after dark, are seldom heard of in the neighbourhood of Algiers. Whether this be owing to the inoffensive disposition of the natives, or whether it is to be attributed to the