Plant cloven stakes, and (wondrous to behold!)
Their sharpened ends in earth their footing place,
And the dry poles produce a living race.
These fig-cuttings look like unpromising bundles of dry sticks; but ‘as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth,’ even so may the people ‘put on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.’
Not till we arrived at the market did we perceive the reason for its being held at such an inconvenient and exposed spot; we then saw a number of villages before us, perched on the crests of precipitous ridges.
The market is on the boundary between the Aïth Ménguellath and a tribe called the Aïth or Beni Yahïa. Beni is the Arabic for ‘sons of,’ the word Aït or Aïth has the same meaning in Kabyle. The locality of markets is often on the boundary of tribal territories, such as Souk-es-Sebt and Souk-el-Jemāa. Souk-el-Arba at Fort National, on the contrary, is in the centre of the tribe Beni Iraten.
Such points of junction were esteemed neutral in old days, when the country was disturbed, and tribesmen could attend and transact business in safety when it would have been dangerous to overstep the limits of their own lands.
An institution that rendered travelling in safety possible when the country was embroiled, is that called Anaya, which is a reciprocal compact between two persons to guard each other from attack. A traveller wishing to pass through antagonistic tribes, or for any reason apprehending danger, sought a friend, who granted him Anaya; this friend, if he did not accompany him gave some token, to be presented in the tribe whither the stranger was going, which would ensure the respect and hospitality due to himself; the new host would in his turn offer the stranger Anaya, and so pass him on in safety. Since the French have introduced settled government, this custom has disappeared, or more truly speaking, lies dormant, for I have myself met a Frenchman who assured me that his life was saved by it in 1870. When the revolt broke out, he was far away from home, but a native friend accorded him Anaya, and by means of tokens, he was passed in safety to a French settlement, though the country was in a flame.
A woman could give Anaya in the absence of her husband; it was in consequence of its violation, that a war occurred in which several tribes took part. It was ‘à propos’ of this same affair, that the villages beneath which we were encamped received the names of ‘Taourirt en Taïdith’ (The Peak of the Dog) and ‘Ouarzen’ (the Ogre). The following is the story: A man of the Aïth Bou Yousef, desiring to pass through the territory of the Aïth Ménguellath, but fearing to fall a victim to the vengeance of an enemy, presented himself at a house in Taourirt, and solicited Anaya. His friend being absent, the wife gave him as token a dog, well known about there as belonging to her husband. Shortly after, the woman saw her dog return alone, covered with blood. Not knowing what to think, she called friends together, who starting in quest of the stranger, soon discovered his body disfigured with wounds, lying at the bottom of a ravine. Indignation was felt at this perfidious act; two parties were formed, and no terms of accommodation being arrived at, fighting began.