To ensure unity in the family, composed of so many and varied elements, the man is invested with the most absolute authority. He does not marry but he buys his wife, who becomes his property. He is unquestionably her lord and master, he can maltreat her, kill her if she is untrue to him, without risking injury to a hair of his own head. All that he owes her is the “hak Allah.”
Crimes against women are more rare now through fear of the French; but as there is no legal census, many murders may be committed which are never brought to light.
Religious influence first and foremost, also life in common under equal conditions of many generations of different extraction, have obliterated many of the characteristics of the natives of Tunisia. Many Berber tribes have been entirely transformed into Arabs, and, on the other hand, many Arab tribes have been Berberised. Indeed, there are tribes forming a subdivision, of which it is well known some are Berbers, some Arabs.
Of the religious brotherhoods, so numerous elsewhere under Islam, there are comparatively few in Tunisia. We find the “Tidyanya,” “Medaniya,” and the “Aissaua,” and, besides these, many scattered “Shorfa.”
In the towns there is more fanaticism than in the country. In this respect “those who can read and write are the worst.”
Yet many customs and reminiscences may be found of a former age before Mohammedanism was forced on the Tunisians.
For instance, the people hang bits of rag all over sacred trees; many fear the “evil eye,” or honour five as a peculiarly lucky number. For this reason they set the mark of their own five fingers on their houses to protect the latter. Indeed, it is not uncommon for a man who has more than five children, if questioned as to their number, to reply that he has five, rather than be obliged to name an unlucky number.
If rain is long delayed, they take refuge in exorcism, and will on occasion even dip their kaid in a fountain so that his beard may be wetted—that surely brings rain.
The Moors.
Nowhere has all origin of race been so entirely effaced as in the towns. There have sprung up the Moors—quite a new race of town dwellers, which may be said to have absorbed all others.