his long silence. "You have not forgotten OuldAdda, your son, whom they killed in the day of combat, and bitter remembrances prompt your tongue. But every tree bears its fruit; the plant that flourishes by the side of a fountain, would die on the top of a hill. The mountain has rocks, and the mountain has Kabyles. In the plain you will find wheat, flocks with rich fleeces, and Arabs for inhabitants. The two races are different, and their sentiments sound differently, that is all. In the plain, as in the mountain, the demon has his followers, and God his worshippers. You should despise no Mussulman; every one follows his own path."

"How is it," said I, "that you do not share the hatred that is so generally entertained for them by your people ?"

"I have studied them," replied he, "and, beneath rude exteriors, have found much goodness. I may well take their part, for I owe my life entirely to the respect each of these savages bears towards any one of his race. I was a soldier at that time in the service of Osman Bey, and witnessed the disaster alluded to. 'You are going,' they say, 'to make an incursion into their country. If the arm of God directs your

blows, success will accompany you. God alone can give it you. The Kabyle, when defending his wife, his property, and his village, is like the panther protecting its young. Why go and seek them ?" "

66 Have you ever seen oil drop upon cloth ?" asked I; "the spot increases gradually, until it at length reaches the last thread of the stuff. It is the same with us. We must absorb the whole of this country; besides, these mountains have become the refuge of rebels, and the ramparts of robbers. All who injure us are their friends, and our villages have been menaced. We, however, did not come here to suffer injuries. A horse not broken in will throw his rider, and it is our will to be masters of this country."

you

"The truth is in your mouth," said Ali, after a moment's reflection. "You are right; but will find a very different country from any you have yet seen. Days scarce suffice to descend their precipices. The sides of their mountains are full of villages, so built as to be secure from a coup de main, whilst their warriors, as brave as lions, have well practised eyes and good guns. Even in times of peace, they play at war, for there is no fête where the firelock levelled to the eye

does not play a great part, and he who hits most eggs suspended by a thread which forms a kind of target, bears off the palm. The Kabyle is so sure a shot, that he is said to carry his enemy's life in his eye. No one knows how to choose and defend a post better than he. He is a good protector also of his own people, for he never forgets an injury; vengeance is often with him an heir-loom, and though the penalty of death is not written in his laws, it is written in blood for many offences between man and man, and family and family. Banishment is, however, regarded the severest punishment. In time of peace, when they addict themselves to commerce, to the fabrication of tissues, arms, and powderand may God chasten them for it-false wares, to cheat the Arabs in the plains, the commandment is, notwithstanding, for ever in their mouths. As for authority, there is none among them; they bow only before their Marabouts. Even the decisions of the assembly nominated by themselves, are subject to the approbation of each of them, and at certain times public criers go from village to village, calling upon the inhabitants to sanction or reject them, but a common enemy unites them all in what they call a soff (alliance). Tribes then

mix with tribes, and chiefs with chiefs, one only being proclaimed the master of death. He it is, to use their own expression, 'who fixes the combat, and guides the arm.' Of powder, I can tell you, they have an abundant stock, and their defenders are numerous; for, from the moment a child can lift a gun, he is inscribed among them, and till his hand trembles with age, he owes his blood to the defence of his country. The chiefs, in the service of all, take care that the arms are in good order. At the hour of powder the youngest are armed with knotty sticks, to dispatch the fallen by beating them about the head and body; they amuse themselves too by throwing stones into the enemies' ranks, and they carry off the wounded. The women themselves excite the fury of the men by their screams and by their songs, for among the Kabyles they are as masculine, both in confronting danger and in suffering, as their husbands, who, should they show fear in action, or run away, would be branded by their wives with a coal mark on their haiks-which is considered emphatically as the brand of a coward. Now you are going to smell powder as you have never felt it, or heard its explosions before, but, if it pleases God, you will return, for he is the master of our destinies."

Ali appeared, in his heart, to doubt of the fulfilment of his wish, and as I was about to reply, added, "if any evil should befall you, or yours, recollect the Anaya,* and forget not that women can give it you. Their hearts are more easily moved than men's. life."

I owe my

It is to a woman that

"I do not know what you are speaking about. What is the Anaya?"

"The Anaya," replied he, "is in the mountains, the proof of the respect in which every man is held by himself and by others, his title to consideration, his right to protection. His wife, his oxen, his fields, are nothing to the Kabyle, in comparison with the Anaya. Anything recognised as having belonged to one entitled to bestow this talisman, is, in almost all cases, a sure safeguard. On quitting the territory of one tribe, the traveller possessing the Anaya, may exchange the pledge he has received for another, which will be given him by the friend to whom he carries it, and thus from tribe to tribe he may traverse the whole

The most interesting details respecting the Anaya and the Kabyle customs will be found in the Grande Kabylie, a very remarkable work, written by General Daumas and Captain Fabar.