The Berebbers inhabit the mountains of Atlas north of the city of Marocco, living generally in tents; they are a robust, nervous, and warlike people, having a language peculiar to themselves, which differs more from the Arabic, or general language of Africa, than any two languages of Europe differ from each other; it is probably a dialect of the ancient Carthaginian. In travelling through the Berebber Kabyles of Ait Imure, and Zemure Shelluh, I noticed many of the inhabitants who possessed the old Roman physiognomy. The general occupation of these people is husbandry, and the rearing of bees for honey and wax. They possess much cunning and duplicity, and are never outwitted by the Moors, or entirely worsted by the troops of the Emperor, with whom they have had very frequent encounters, but have never been permanently subdued: they esteem it the greatest advantage possible to fight on their own territory. Their allegiance to the Emperor has often been secured by retaining their chiefs at court, conferring favours on them, appointing them to offices of state, and to seats in the Diwan; thus making them hostages, as it were, for the peaceable conduct of their respective Kabyles.
The Shelluhs inhabit the Atlas mountains, and their various branches south of Marocco; they live generally in walled habitations, or in towns, and are, for the most part, occupied in husbandry like the Berebbers, though differing from them in their language,[126] dress, and manners; they live almost entirely on (Assoua) barley meal made into gruel, and (Zimeta) barley roasted or granulated, which they mix with cold water, when travelling. They occasionally indulge in (cuscasoe) a nutritive farinaceous food, made of granulated flour, and afterwards boiled by steam, and mixed with butter, mutton, fowls, and vegetables. Many families among these people are reported to be descended from the Portuguese, who formerly possessed the ports on the coast; but who, after the discovery of America, gradually withdrew thither. East of Marocco, near Dimenet, on the Atlas mountains, there is still remaining a church, having inscriptions in Latin over the entrance, supposed to have been built by the Portuguese, which, being superstitiously reported to be haunted, has escaped destruction. The language of the Shelluhs is called Amazirk.
The Shelluhs are a crafty people; they are, perhaps, better disposed towards Christians than the Moors or the Arabs. The term Kabyle applies to all cultivators of land, and to those who rear the cattle and flocks. Sometimes we discover, in traversing this country, an encampment of Bedouin Arabs, who, in their migrations to far distant countries, pitch their tents wherever they find the country productive and unoccupied; here they sojourn till their flocks have consumed all the pasture, when they strike their tents and proceed on their long journey. These people live, for the most part, on camel’s milk; they are an indolent race, and neither cultivate the earth, nor do any kind of work, attacking and plundering caravans whenever they can do it with impunity. It is these Bedouins, or Saharawans, who sometimes plunder the Akkabahs and caravans whilst traversing the Great Desert of Africa. The Arabs of Woled Abbusebah[127] place a string over the crown of the head, bringing it down behind the ears, and shave the front hair, to prevent, as is pretended, their enemies from catching hold of them. The same custom predominates among the independant Shelluhs of Idautenan, inhabitants of Atlas near Cape de Geer. See the [Map of Marocco,] lat. N. 30° 30′.
The Moors, as well as the other natives of this country, are generally of a middle stature: they have not so much nerve as the Europeans, and are, for the most part, thick and clumsy about the legs and ancles, insomuch that a well-formed leg is seldom seen among them; this may proceed from their constantly sitting cross legged, with their legs under them, like the tailors of Europe, or perhaps from their wearing no covering to their legs, which are thus exposed to all weathers. Deformed persons are rarely met with; the loose Arabian dress covers deformity, and their mode of bringing up children, (every thing being left to follow nature,) generally prevents it. Corns and deformed feet are unknown; the toes take their natural growth, and are as useful to the mechanics as their fingers. Lame people are seldom seen; but the blind are more numerous than in Europe. Both sexes have remarkably fine teeth; they universally use a dentifrice,[128] which is procured from vegetables from the interior country. Their complexion, from frequent intermarriage, or intercourse with the Soudanic race, is of all shades, from black to white. The women of Fas are as fair as the Europeans, with the exception of their eyes and hair, which are universally dark.[129] Those of Mequinas are in general so handsome, that it is a rare thing to see a young woman in that city who is not lovely or pretty. With large, black, and expressive sparkling eyes, they possess a healthy countenance, uniting the colours of the lily and the rose, that beautiful red and white so much admired by foreigners in our English ladies; indeed their beauty is proverbial, as the term Mequinasia[130] is applied to any beautiful woman of elegant form, with black sparkling eyes, and white teeth; they also possess a modesty and suavity of manners rarely met with elsewhere. It is extraordinary that the inhabitants of two great and populous cities, situated within thirty miles of each other, should discover such a physiognomical difference, as is apparent between the females of Fas and those of Mequinas, the former being generally of a sallow or pale complexion. The women of Duquella are ordinary and diminutive, whilst the men are the reverse; being tall, and well-limbed, with regular features. The men of Temsena, and Shawia, are a strong, robust race, of a copper colour: the women possess much beauty, and have features highly expressive; and the animation of the female countenance is encreased by the use of El kahol filelly, with which they tinge the eye lashes and eye brows, as already described. In these provinces they are particularly fond of dying their hands and feet with a decoction or preparation of the herb Henna,[131] which gives them an orange colour, and, in hot weather, imparts a pleasing coolness and softness to the hands, by obstructing, in a certain degree, the quickness of perspiration.
The Moorish dress resembles that of the ancient patriarchs, as represented in paintings; that of the men consists of a red cap and turban, a (Kumja) shirt, which hangs outside of the drawers, and comes down below the knee, a (Caftan) coat, which buttons close before, and down to the bottom, with large open sleeves; over which, when they go out of doors, they throw carelessly, and sometimes elegantly, a hayk or garment of white cotton, silk, or wool, five or six yards long, and five feet wide: the Arabs, however, often dispense with the caftan, and even with the shirt, wearing nothing but the hayk. The Berebbers wear drawers, and a cloak of dark blue cloth, called a Silham. The poor and penurious are contented with the Burnose, or black cloak of woollen cloth, of a close texture, made so as to resist the rain. To this dress is added a pair of yellow sandals. The dress of the women nearly resembles that of the men, except in the adjustment of the hayk, or surtout covering, and in the (Rahayat) slippers, which are scarlet or red. The hair is concealed in a black silk handkerchief, over which they wear shawls of silk or handkerchiefs of various gay colours; they wear bracelets, and armlets above the elbow, and massive rings of silver round their ancles; their ear-rings are of gold about the thickness of a goose’s quill, and set with precious stones, or coloured glass, the ring being about six inches in circumference; these ear-rings have a gaudy appearance, or, as the French express it, “font beaucoup de parure;” they wear also a number of necklaces, generally of amber beads or coral, some large, and others small, and a variety of rings on their fingers.
In their dress, they are partial to striped silks, ginghams, and cottons of particular patterns.
The people belonging to the court have a particular dress, never appearing before the Emperor in a hayk, but in a silham, or large hooded cloak of white woollen cloth; and in presence of a bashaw, or governor, the hayk is thrown down on the shoulders, which at other times covers the cap, a mode of salutation similar to that of taking off the hat among Europeans.
The religion of the Emperor of Marocco’s dominions is Islaemism, or Mohammedism,[132] which was first planted in West Barbary by the renowned Muley Dris Zerone, on the spot where the town and sanctuary of that name is built, being east of Mequinas, at the western declivity of the Atlas, near an ancient and magnificent ruin, called by the Arabs (Kasser Farawan)[133] the Ruins of Pharoah; from hence assuming the name of (Deene-el-Wasah) the unconfined law, it quickly spread itself to the shores of the Atlantic ocean, to Bled-el-jerrêde, Sigin-Messa, Suse, and Sahara. At the beginning of the present reign of Seedy Soliman ben Mohammed, a considerable body of people, who professed Deism, sprung up, and spread themselves over the northern provinces, exclaiming (la Illah ila Allah) There is no God but the true God; in distinction from the Mohammedan, whose creed is (la Illah ila Allah, wa Mohammed, arrasule, Allah), There is no God but the true God, and Mohammed is his prophet. The Emperor, however, by discouraging such tenets, found no difficulty in annihilating this sect.
Throughout the country are discovered buildings of an octagonal form, with domes of stone, or plastered with lime; these are called (Zawiat) Sanctuaries: and attached to each is a piece of ground, uninclosed, for the interment of the dead. The priest or saint, who is called el fakeer, or maraboot, superintends divine service and the burial of the dead, and is often referred to for the adjusting of disputes or controversies. Criminals taking refuge in these consecrated places are screened from the hand of justice; and the opulent men of the country often, for security, deposit their treasure in them. The toleration of the western Arabs and Moors is such, that the Emperor (although religiously disposed himself) will allow, on proper application being made, any sect which does not acknowledge a plurality of gods, to appropriate a place to public worship;[134] and even the more ignorant and bigotted Mohammedans maintain, that every man should be allowed to worship God according to his own conscience, or agreeably to the religion of his ancestors. They have a rooted contempt for all who change their religion, even if it be to Islaemism; such people are distinguished by the appellation of (el Aluge) Renegades, who, after having embraced the Mohammedan faith, are obliged to practise a system of dissimulation, and to affect more than ordinary contempt for Christians, in order to appear islaemized, and to prevent their being harassed and upbraided for their want of faith in Mohammed.
This people have a particular aversion to the sound of bells, originating perhaps from their being peculiar to the (Ajemi) Barbarians,[135] as they denominate Christians; or because Mohammed reprobated the ancient trumpet of the Jews, as well as the rattel of the oriental Christians, and substituted the human voice to call people to prayer: accordingly a man (denominated El Muden) goes to the top of the tower of each (Jamâa) mosque, and exclaims with a loud voice, first to the east, or towards Mecca, and then to the south, west, and north, the following words (Allah kabeer! A’shed-en, la illa ila Allah, Mohammed arrasule Allah; haiala essla, Allah kabeer. Allah!) God is great; witness that there is no God but one God, and Mohammed is his prophet: come to prayers: God is great. God![136]