The Human Race

by Louis Figuier

72.—GRINDING WHEAT IN THE KABYLIA.

“When quite ripe, the dokhar is gathered, and arranged in small bunches (moulak) on a string. These strings are suspended to the boughs of the female fig-tree, towards the end of June in the plains, towards the end of July on the mountains. From the stem of each dokhar, when dry, issue a quantity of small winged insects, which introduce themselves into the fruit on the tree, instil a new life into it, and prevent it from falling.

“These insects, agents of this fecundation, are produced and developed in the fruit of the wild fig-tree, and leave it, as soon as arrived at maturity, to attach themselves to the female fig-tree. Their body is hairy, like that of the bee, which is known to fulfil an analogous mission towards certain flowers.

“These insects are of two kinds, black and red. The first, smaller than the second, do not carry like the latter a sting in their abdomen. The natives assert that the black insect alone plays a useful part in the caprification of the fig—the part played by the wind, the bird, or the hand of man in the instance of the date. A long experience attributes to it the privilege of preserving the figs from perishing and falling before they have become ripe. This custom has given rise to the well-known Kabyle proverb, ‘He who is without dokhar is without figs.’ The abundance of figs in every locality and under every difference of climate depends upon that of the dokhar. Sometimes, however, the latter, although plentiful, gives birth to but a small number of these preserving insects, as in 1863, when the crop was poor, the dokhar having produced but few insects.

“The Kabyles are convinced that one of these insects can preserve ninety-nine figs, but that the hundredth becomes its tomb. This is possibly only a popular prejudice; but it is as well to cite it. Truth among primitive people becomes sometimes crystallized in the shape of a superstition, and the inexplicable pervades everything.

“Caprification takes place at least once a year. When the dokhar is abundant it is prudent to repeat the process several times at short intervals, and it is most important that it should be performed at the proper moment, either in the autumn or in the spring, or the crop may become seriously endangered and partly lost.

“A rule generally observed in the villages where the dokhar flourishes, is, that no one may sell it, under a penalty of a fine of two pounds, to a stranger, or even to an ally, before the gardens of his own locality have been copiously provided with the precious preservative.

“Previous to our rule the Kabyle tribes were continually at enmity with one another, and the sale of the dokhar was then suspended and forbidden between them. As the fig is the principal and indispensable food of the inhabitants, this prohibitory measure was the surest means of starving the enemy, or at least of occasioning him serious inconvenience. It is, therefore, probable that the different tribes frequently came to open blows in order to procure by bloodshed what they were unable to obtain by purchase.”

Copper and iron are rather abundantly found in Kabylia, and its inhabitants are expert in extracting these metals from their ores. However, they are beginning to import metal goods from Europe.