[1]I am not aware whether anyone has previously remarked that the Kabyles click. In a paper published by the Society of Arts, March 4, 1881, on the Languages of Africa, by Robert N. Cust, I was amused to learn that clicking is common to many languages. Speaking of the Hottentots, Mr. Cust says: ‘The great feature of the language is the existence of four clicks, formed by a different position of the tongue; the dental click is almost identical with the sound of indignation, not unfrequently uttered by Europeans; the lateral click is the sound with which horses are stimulated to action; the guttural click is not unlike the popping of a champagne cork; and the palatal click is compared to the cracking of a whip.’ He says that the Bushman, in addition to the four clicks of the Hottentot language, has a fifth, sixth, and sometimes a seventh and eighth. According to Bleek and Lepsius, two authorities, Hottentot is, curiously, entirely distinct from other languages spoken by black races, and is connected with the Hamitic languages of white races of North Africa.
[2]According to Baron H. Aucapitaine the Jubaleni are the moderns Igáouáouen concerning whom a neighbouring tribe sings as follows:—
‘O God, give us snow! May the sky be full of flakes,
That the accursed pass may be blocked
Between us and the Igáouáouen
Their friendship is a grief,
Their acquaintance a path with a steep declivity.’
Jubaleni at first recalls the Arabic ‘Jibel’ (a mountain). The Arabs however did not appear in the country till many centuries later, and the word Jubaleni has a very ancient and interesting origin. Iolaus, Jolaus, or Jubal was worshipped by the Phœnicians as a god. ‘Without doubt he is the Juba or Jubal also worshipped by the Moors. It again occurs in the name of the Mauretanian King Juba, and in the African Jubaltiana. Thus also Iolaus has been retained in the name of the town Iol or Jol.’ The word also occurs as an attribute of the god Baal ‘Ju-Baal’ (the glory of the Lord.) (See Mövers, Die Phönizier.) Upon the city of Iol was built the Roman town of Cæsarea, the remains of which are to be seen at Cherchel. According to Mövers, Baal became the national god of the Mauretanians.
[3]The inhabitants of the Canary Islands, if not originally of Berber race, have at any rate been subject to Berber dominion at a time anterior to their discovery by Europeans (see Hyde-Clarke, Ethnological Society).
[4]Since writing the above, the French have entered Tunis, and at the point of the bayonet, have forced the Bey to sign a treaty. In future there is to be progress, and we have the gratification of learning that already civilisation is advancing in its normal manner. In the ‘Daily News’ of June 7, was a letter from the correspondent in the French camp, dated May 26, 1881, in which he gives an interesting account of the introduction of the old Algerian institution of razzia into Tunis, which he thus graphically describes. ‘It is simple in its aim, simple in its execution. It requires but one condition: You must be stronger than the enemy or friend towards whom the razzia is directed. The receipt is: Take a sufficiently strong force, scour the country of the enemy or friend, drive off all his cattle, if necessary spoil his crops, burn his tents, and if it is possible to perform a good clean sweeping razzia without shooting anybody, do not do so.’ ‘Depreciation of property is of course the effect of a razzia. The French find themselves with more cattle than they know what to do with, and sell them to the highest bidder. I have had pointed out to me a Frenchman whose business it is to go from one camp to another picking up cattle cheap. The effect on the Arabs themselves is, they will sell everything they have for what it will fetch, feeling that at any moment it may be taken from them.’