The Mazzabibs’ dwelling between Tangier and Algiers at Wady Mezzal, are called Moaterzelites, i.e. dissenters. They refuse to pay reverence to the companions of the prophet. Their language is Berber. All the people in the desert are familiar with the art of making gunpowder; they collect the earth and mortar of ruined towns. From this they make a ley, which is boiled until it acquires consistency: with one pound of it are mixed four pounds of sulphur, and four pounds of charcoal made from the oleander-wood. These ingredients are kept together for three hours, and the powder is fit for use. In D’jebel Eesay they find a considerable quantity of lead.
The word sibkah is used for salt plots (pits), of which there are many.
In the Wady Souf, between Tibat and Ghadames, many meherries, i.e. swift dromedaries, are bred.
In Ghadames there are many ulemmas and talebs, i.e. writers.
In Matemater, Coptic is said to be the language in use.
In Terjgiert, there is a people called Medjehrah, of Jewish extraction, who, to escape death, embraced Islamism. They have the peculiar Jewish features, and the Arabs say, their houses have the Jewish smell. They live in quarters set apart for themselves; but they do not intermarry: they are scribes and merchants, but are never raised to the office of káid or imaum: they do not observe Friday as the Sabbath. The great drink here is made from the date.
In both Rife and Suse, the Jews go armed: they are, however, the property of the Moors, who arm, and send them out as a sort of substitute, and by whom they are supported, and allowed a greater liberty than at Tangiers. In the mountains in the neighbourhood of Tangiers, the Jews act as guards to conduct the Moors. They have all a master, whose shoe they carry, which serves as a protection. They pay tribute, not in money, but in work, the Moors finding the former. The principal trade is in grain and oil: the masters are Berbers, all of whom ride mules. Every douar has its sheïkh and káid, who are Moors, and possessing each a jurisdiction, but not the power of punishing in all cases. Their religious worship is the same as the other, but little cared about. In the whole valley there may be about five hundred. They have their sacred books, synagogue, and rabbi; and they make a pilgrimage to the tombs, distant two and three days’ journey. All the douars have large vineyards, and manufactories of haicks, carpets, &c. which are sent to Tangier. They do not speak Arabic, but Berber or Shelluh.
The Arabs evidently borrowed their letters and their power in pronunciation, and numerical value, from the Hebrews. But the arrangement of the two differs entirely. From the circumstance of the Shelluh or Berber having a greater affinity to the Hebrew than the Arabic, I am led to believe the Shelluh more ancient than the Arabic. The Berbers are the aborigines of Barbary: they extend over an immense space. They have a settlement at Wadan, another at Sausaceding (Susee-dan), and Yamina: they are to be found likewise in Houssa. I presume that Berbera on the eastern coast must contain the same people. During my visit there, I had an opportunity at getting at their language, of which there are several dialects, between the northern and southern range of the Atlas. That of Marocco and the north is very different from that of the Sahara and Súdán, which is very pure. There is, however, a greater difficulty in writing and reading the latter, where the diacritical points are often transposed or omitted.
The washing of the dead is performed thus: a large sheet is thrown over the body, a man then wraps his right arm and hand in a napkin, water is then poured on the sheet, through which it passes to the body; the right side is first washed, then the left, next the back, and then the front; sticks are laid under and over the body to prevent the earth from touching it.
Ablutions are performed with sand in the desert, and sometimes even in the house to save the trouble of fetching water. This sand bath has given rise to the saying, that “sand is useless where water is plentiful.”