Tafilet

by Walter Harris

Although to-day found all through North Africa, from beyond Tripoli to the Atlantic Ocean, the Berbers seem to be entirely cut off from one another, and to have no great intertribal feeling of patriotism, or to be connected by any ties. Yet there can be no doubt that, divided as the tribes are, they have a common origin, being the Hamitic and original inhabitants of North Africa.

Yet even in so small a space of country as that through which I travelled one finds the Berber tribes not only split up into minute clans and factions, but so strangely differing from one another that they might almost be the descendants of different races. Nothing more unlike could be imagined than four typical Berbers, for instance, of four portions of Morocco—the Riff, and the natives of Aït Yussi, Dads, and the Sus—and yet there can be no doubt that they are of the same family, and the language, though split up into dialects, is practically the same. Yet in appearance the type is absolutely different in these above-mentioned portions of Morocco, and no feature in common, even to the dressing or shaving of the head, or costume, is to be found amongst them, though one and all are proud of their aboriginal origin.

But one tradition did I hear amongst the Berbers as to their antiquity, and this tradition seems to be general amongst their tribes, for we came across it on several occasions on our journey. It is difficult to perceive how it could have sprung up, as it seems to hint at an entirely different origin to that which history, and even other traditions of their own, has set down to them. It runs as follows. A certain maiden of the original Berber people, at the time when the race lived in a far-away country swept by strong east winds, once, in passing a strange king, had the misfortune to expose more of her person than was decent, owing to her attire having been raised by the gale. On the king laughing at the girl’s misfortune, the tribe in very shame departed by night, and wandered to the country that they now inhabit. So the story runs, and I leave it to those more versed than myself in sifting traditions and folk-lore to find the signification and value of the tale, which, it may again be said, is not only common throughout the Berbers of the trans-Atlas Sahara, but is known and repeated amongst the Riffis, and between these two districts hundreds of miles of country exist, while no communication takes place one with the other.

No doubt the fact that the Berbers have been many times conquered has done not a little to account for their difference of type, for the Phœnicians, Romans, Vandals, and Arabs have each in turn invaded their country. But from whatever reason it may be, the fact remains that a more divided and subdivided race could not be found, and marriage, or even cordiality, between the tribes is unknown; while they exist, in Morocco at least, in a state of perpetual warfare with any one they can get to fight with them. Not only are their hostilities levelled against the Arabs, for whom their hatred is most deep, but whose religion they have adopted with extraordinary fervour, but also against every other tribe, and failing these, village against village, and even household against household. Mention will be found more than once in the ensuing pages of cases of this, in which it was the custom for neighbours to fire at one another from their windows and roofs whenever the opportunity presented itself. Yet in spite of this the stranger passes in safety through them, for with him they bear no quarrel.

A few words must be said as to the manner in which native travellers proceed in safety through districts in which bloodshed and murder are of everyday occurrence. The system under which immunity from murder and robbery is accorded to the stranger is known by two names, mzareg or zitat. Mzareg originally means a spear, and the term was thus applied from the fact that in old days a spear was given by one of the tribe to the traveller, which, being recognised as the property of one of their number, accorded him safety in his journey. However, spears have long ago disappeared from these districts, though the name mzareg still remains. Nowadays the common custom is for a member of the tribe, in consideration of a small fee, to conduct the traveller in person, both being sacred from attack while passing through the land over which the tribe in question holds jurisdiction. As soon as the limits are reached, a new mzareg or zitat has to be obtained. Sometimes, especially in the case of the Jews living and trading in the Sahara, some mark or token is given, such as a turban or handkerchief, which is considered sufficient; but in cases of caravans and total strangers a man invariably is employed, who answers the double purpose of guide and protector. From Dads to Tafilet I was accompanied on my journey by a zitat, without whom I could never have reached my destination, as amongst the many Berber tribes we passed through his presence afforded me immunity from inquisition and annoyance. Here again I was fortunate, for I was not obliged to change my zitat, the fact being that members of the tribe of Dads can travel in safety amongst nearly all the other Berber tribes, by a reciprocal arrangement by which the caravans of the others are allowed to pass through their district without fear of plunder. Dads has gained this unique privilege from its situation, blocking as it does the entire road from east and west.

With regard to the Jews living amongst the Berbers a similar practice exists to the mzareg, only in their case it is known as debeha, or sacrifice. This name has been applied from the fact that the system first arose from Jews seeking the protection of the Berbers by sacrificing an ox or a sheep to them: nowadays the native Jews no longer need to perform this, the patronage of the Berbers being hereditary, the vassalage descending in both families from father to son. Any injury suffered by the Jew is revenged by the protecting Berber as though it had been committed to a member of his own family. In this manner the Israelites are able to live in tolerable security from murder and theft; in fact, they are the only people who do, as the Berber is never happy unless he has some one to kill, or is running a risk of being shot himself from behind some stone. As may be expected, the Berbers do not allow their influence to be used for nothing; but so poor are the Jews, and also the entire country in which this state of things exists, that it is little or nothing that the “lord” can screw out of his vassal.

In the same way the tribe of Aït Atta, one of the most powerful of the Berber tribes of the Sahara, recently added a large district to the south of Mesgita, on the Wad Draa, to their already extensive territory. However, the inhabitants—Haratin—could not be enrolled as are the Jews, as they are Moslems; and though exactly the same principle is carried on, the term implied is neïba—agents or representatives. They, as in the other case, are protected by their conquerors from attack from elsewhere, in return for which they pay an annual tribute.

With regard to the language of the Berbers. Generally speaking, it is known in Southern Morocco as Shelha, but as a matter of fact it consists of many different dialects. Although along most of the road we travelled over the dialect was much the same, I was told that in the heights of the Atlas, as again in the districts of the Draa, it was very different, and that it was no easy matter for natives of each place to render themselves comprehended by each other. The Berber language as spoken in Morocco may be divided into four distinct dialects, which are again much subdivided: (i.) Shelha proper, as spoken generally throughout the Atlas, from the tribes of Ghiata, Aït Yussi, and Beni Mgild, to the south-east of Fez, as far along the Atlas as about due south of Marakesh; (ii.) Riffía, spoken by the Riffis inhabiting the mountains of the north coast, from the south-west of Tetuan to the French frontier of the province of Oran; (iii.) Susía, spoken from along the Atlas and the Sus valley to the south, from where Shelha proper terminates, about due south of Marakesh, to the Atlantic coast; and (iv.) Drauía, the common tongue all along the valley of the Wad Draa from Mesgita, where the junction of the Dads and Idermi form that river to where it flows into the Atlantic. So various are these dialects that, although my Riffi servant could catch the gist of the remarks of the Shloh amongst whom we travelled, and was with difficulty understood in return, he found it impossible to comprehend the Haratin of the Draa, who speak Drauía, though the Shloh of Dads and the intermediate oases can do so.

I was able only to learn of one feast celebrated amongst the Berbers which had not been adopted from the Arab calendar, so completely have they embraced the religion of the latter. This feast appears to be a kind of harvest-home, and is known as the Ayur Nûgûrûmûn, the meaning of which not even the Berbers seem to know. Curiously enough, it is held in the Shahr el Fukra, which points out that it is annual only according to Arab ideas—that is to say, counted by lunar months—whereas one would have expected, if it were a survival of great antiquity, that it would have been at a fixed period in the solar year. The programme of the feast is simple. Guns are fired during the day, and great dishes of food are brought into the streets and there partaken of, the poor being asked to join. One other custom only differing from the Arabs was I able to hear of—namely, that the bride remains three days in her husband’s house before the marriage is consummated.

That some civilisation had reached the Berbers long before the Arab invasion is certain, but, as far as we know, the Romans never crossed the Atlas. Yet, curiously enough, all foreigners are known to-day amongst them as Rumin (sing. Rumi), though this may be owing not a little to the fact that it was not until the Arab invasion that the Berbers were driven to the remote districts they now inhabit, but were spread all over the country; for it was principally through the prowess of these men, whose desire for booty the Arabs stirred up, that Spain was invaded and conquered. Therefore it must be certain that the Berbers of Morocco knew the Romans as well as the Romans knew them, and that they carried away with them into the Atlas and the districts beyond the traditions of the forefathers who had been in actual contact with the Roman colonists. Yet there is no doubt that remains of even pre-Roman date exist in the Atlas and the Sahara, and I think it is risking but little to suppose that they were erected by Phœnician colonists. That the Phœnicians were strong in Morocco at one time is shown by the ruins of the great colony of Lixus, on the river Kûs, near El Araish, and I can see no reason why they should not have pushed much farther afield. And to them, I think, may be put down the workings of former mines in the Atlas and Anti-Atlas, and the building of the stone remains which are found in more than one spot—and invariably without mortar—in those ranges. One may go even further, and ask the question, whence the Berbers obtained their existing architecture; for the great ksor, with their many towers, have no resemblance to any Arab architecture that I have ever seen, either in Arabia or Africa, while they do most strangely resemble the elevations given in such works as those of Messieurs Perrot and Chipiez of Phœnician castles.