The province of Haha was in arms; caffilahs, and travellers could not pass; but it was expedient that I should go to Mogodor. Men of property in this country, influenced by a philanthropic spirit, often expend large sums in digging wells in districts, through which caffilahs pass, on their road from one country to another. I knew one of these philanthropists who was at Santa Cruz, and who had recently benefited the province of Haha, by having dug a well in the Kabyl of Benitamer, a mountainous district in Haha; I sent for him, and as he was under obligations to me for various services I had rendered to him and his family, he consented to accompany me to Mogodor, through the disturbed province of Haha; and he assured me, that his influence throughout that province was such, that, by travelling quick, and without any baggage, tents, or incumbrances, he did not doubt of conducting me safe to Mogodor. I agreed to go with him, without servants, tents, or bedding, being determined to reconcile myself, under present circumstances, to the accommodation the country might afford. We started from Santa Cruz at sun-set; travelling through Tamaract, to the river Beni Tamur. We continued our journey till we arrived, at the dawn of day, at the foot of immense high mountains, called Idiaugomoron. Here my companion and guide L'Hage Muhamed bu Zurrawel, pointed out to me two castellated houses, about two miles distant from each other; the family-quarrels of these people had produced such animosity, that the inhabitants of neither house could with safety go out, for fear of being overpowered and killed by those of the other; so that wherever they went, they were well armed, but dared not go far. These two families were preparing for a siege, which often happens in this province. Thus the inhabitants of one house attack another, and sometimes exterminate or put to death the whole family, with their retainers. The province of Haha was thus in a state of the most lamentable civil war, originating from these family-quarrels and domestic feuds. The heathen and anti-christian principle of revenge and retaliation, is here pursued with such bitter and obstinate animosity, that I have known instances of men relinquishing their vocation, to go into a far country to revenge the blood of a relation after a lapse of twenty years, and pursue the object of his revenge, for some murder committed in his family, perhaps forty or fifty years before.
To a British public, blessed with the benign influences of the Christian doctrine, it is perhaps necessary that I should elucidate this retaliative doctrine by an example:--Two men quarrel, and fight; they draw their kumäyas (curved daggers about 12 inches long), which all the people of Haha wear, as well as all the clans or kabyles of Shelluhs; and if one happens to give his antagonist a deadly wound, it becomes an indispensable duty in the next of kin to the person killed or murdered, (though perhaps it can hardly be termed a murder, as it is not committed, like an European duel, in cold blood, but in the moment of irritation, and at a period when the mind is under the influence of anger,) to seek his revenge by watching an opportunity to kill the survivor in the contest. If the former should die, his next of kin takes his place, and pursues his enemy, whose life is never safe; insomuch that, whole kabyles, when this deadly animosity has reached its acme, have been known to quit their country and emigrate into the Sahara; for when the second death has been inflicted, it then becomes the incumbent duty of the next of kin of the deceased to seek his revenge: they call this justifying blood. This horrible custom has the most lamentable influence on the happiness of human life; for there will sometimes be several individuals seeking the life of one man, till this principle, pervading all the ramifications of relationship and consanguinity, produces family-broils, hostility, and murder, ad infinitum!! We stopped at a friend of L'Hage Muhamed, who presented us with honey and butter, thin shavings of the latter being let to fall into a bowl of honey for breakfast. This bowl was served up with flat cakes kneaded without leaven, and baked on hot stones; these are converted from corn into food in less than half an hour; they are in shape similar to our crumpets or pancakes. We were pressed by this Shelluh to stay and dine with him, which being agreed to, he sent a shepherd to his flock to kill a fat young kid, which was roasted with a wooden spit, before the vital heat had subsided, which was very tender, and of an exquisite flavour. The bread or cakes above described appear to be similar to what the women kneaded for the guests in the patriarchal ages: indeed, the customs of these people, as well as those of the Arabs, is precisely the same as they were in the patriarchal ages, and which are delineated in the 18th chapter of Genesis, 1st to the 8th verse.
The honey of this province is very fine: it has an aromatic flavour, derived from the wild thyme and other aromatic herbs on which the bees feed. Among these people every meal is preceded with a washing of their hands with water, which is brought round for the purpose in a brass pan; each guest dips his right hand in the pan, and a napkin is presented to wipe them; they then break the bread, and, after saying grace, which is universally this,--bismillah, i.e. "in the name of God," each guest takes a bit of bread, dips it in the honey and butter, and eats it. It is reckoned uncourteous or vulgar to bite the bread; therefore the piece broken off is sufficient for a mouthful, so that there is nothing that should offend a delicate appetite in this antique mode of eating. We remained several hours with our hospitable Shelluh friend; and we departed, after taking a little sleep, at four o'clock in the afternoon. Travelling all night, we arrived, at the dawn of day, at a large house in Idaugourd; the Shelluh to whom it belonged brought us carpets, and we slept under the wall of his house till the sun arose. The people of this country prefer sleeping in the open air to a room, and they have an excellent mode of securing themselves from the heavy dews of the night, by covering their heads and faces with a thin woollen hayk or garment, which they throw over their heads and faces. When I have had the Arabs of Sahara (who have conducted the caffilahs from Timbuctoo) at my house at Santa Cruz, I gave them a long narrow room, 48 feet long, which was called (beet assuda) the apartment of Sudan, to sleep in; but they invariably came out at night, and placed their carpets and mats, as beds, outside of the room, and slept under the balustrade, in preference to the confinement, as they called it, of a room.
We rose at sun-rise, passed through the picturesque district of Idaugourd and the Woolja, and entered Mogodor at four o'clock, P.M.