original language, without any considerable alteration. But what this was, he must be a very bold conjecturer, who can, at this distance of time, pretend to ascertain. The Carthaginians, no doubt, who possessed all this country*, must, in consequence of their many conquests and colonies, have in some measure introduced their own language; a specimen whereof is still preserved in the Ponulus of Plautus †. Other and greater changes and alterations likewise must have been introduced, by the successive invasions of the Romans, Vandals, Arabs, and Turks. However, the following, which may be presumed to be some of the primitive words in the Showiah, as the language of the Kabyles is called at present, do not seem to have the least affinity with those words, which convey the same meaning in the Hebrew and Arabic tongues. among many others, thamurt, arghaz, thamtuth, tigarum, aksum, &c. their names for carth, man, woman, bread, flesh, &c. will scarce be found to be derivations from those languages, notwithstanding the learned authors of the Universal History are of another opinion. But the reader is referred to the vocabulary of this language, as it is inserted among the Collectanea.

For,

SEC

* Vid. Boch. Chan. in Præfat.

+ Ibid. 1. ii. c. 1.

The language of the mountaineers in S. W. Barbary is called Shillah, differing in some words from the Showiah; but the meaning of the names I could never learn, unless perhaps they were called after some considerable clans, who were either the authors or conservators of them.

403

SECTION VII.

Of their Manufactures, Dress, or Habits.

AFTER this description of the different habitations of the Arabs and Kabyles, we may now take notice of their respective employments therein, by giving an account of their manufactures; which indeed, like their oil, hides, wool, and wax, are chiefly consumed at home, and rarely permitted to be exported to foreign markets. Carpets, which are much coarser than those from Turkey, are made here in great numbers, and of all sizes. At Algiers and Tunis, there are looms for velvets, taffitees, and different sorts of wrought silks. Coarse linen is likewise made in most of the cities and villages, though Susa is noted for producing the finest. Yet both the silks and linen are so inconsiderable in quantity, that the deficiencies are often to be supplied from the Levant and Europe. But the chief branch of their manufactories is, the making of hykes *, or blankets, as we should call them. The women alone are employed in this work, (as Andromache and Penelope were of old), who do not use the shuttle, but conduct- every thread of the woof with their fingers. These hykes are of different sizes, and of different qualities and fineness. The usual size of them is six yards long, and five or six

Probably derived from Howk, texuit.

feet

tuck it up, and

feet broad, serving the Kabyle and Arab for a complete dress in the day, and, as they sleep in their raiment, as the Israelites did of old, Deut. xxiv. 13. it serves likewise for his bed and covering by night. It is a loose, but troublesome garment, being frequently disconcerted and falling upon the ground; so that the person who wears it, is every moment obliged to fold it anew about his body. This shews the great use there is of a girdle, whenever they are concerned in any active employment; and in consequence thereof, the force of the Scripture injunction, alluding thereunto, of having our loins girded*, in order to set about it. The method of wearing these garments †, with the use they are

of

*Thus #igwvvvu is used, Luke xvii. 8. Acts xii. 8. Eph. vi. 14. Rev. i. 13. and xv. 6. And avaarvu, 1 Pet. i. 13. 2 Kings iv. 29. and ix. 1. &c. Euripisates joined with agria, Heb. xii. 1. i. e. Sin, which is so well fitted to gird us in, is also well illus. trated by the fashion and manner of wearing these garments.

+ J. Pollux (1. vii. c. 13.) describes the use of the λos to be ενδυμαι τι και επιβαλλεσθαι, ad induendum et insternendum : and in the latter of these significations it is used by Homer, II. E.

The scholiast upon Il. E. ver. 734. makes the peplus to be a garment that was fitted to the body by a fibula, just as the hyke is, 'ov (says he) xx vidvorto, adλ' ezegovwyto: and so Callimach. in Lavacr. Pallad. ver. 70.

Δη ποτε γαρ πεπλον λυσαμένα πέρνας.

Lutatius upon Statius' Thebais, ver. 101. calls it vestis candida. That it was also a large garment, hanging down to the feet, &c. appears from the following epithets that are given to it by the ancients. Thus Euripides (in Bacch. ver. 40.) calls them

ποδησεις.

at other times put to, in serving for coverlids to their beds, should induce us to take the finer sorts of them at least, such as are worn by the la dies and persons of distinction, to be the peplus of the ancients. Ruth's veil, which held six measures of barley, (Ruth iii. 15.) might be of the like fashion, and have served extraordinarily for the same use; as were also the clothes (ra iuariOS, the upper garments) of the Israelites, Exod. xii. 13. wherein they folded up their kneadingtroughs; as the Moors, Arabs, and Kabyles do to this day things of the like burden and incumbrance in their hykes. Their burnooses also are often used upon these occasions. It is very pro bable likewise, that the loose folding garment, the toga of the Romans, was of this kind. For if the drapery of their statues is to instruct us, this is actually no other than the dress of the Arabs, when they appear in their hykes. The plaid of the Highlanders in Scotland is the very

same.

Instead of the fibula, that was used by the Romans, the Arabs join together with thread or with a wooden bodkin, the two upper corners of this 3 G garment;

VOL. I.

ποδήρεις. Æschylus (in Choeph. ver. 1000.) ποδιτηρας πέπλες. Homer (in Il. z. ver. 442.) is; and again, Od. A. ver. 305. τανυπεπλον.

* Toga dicta, quod velamento sui corpus tegat atque operiat. Est autem pallium purum forma rotunda et fusiore, et, quasi inundante sinu et sub dextro veniens super humerum sinistrum ponitur cujus similitudinem in operimentis simulachrorum vel picturarum aspicimus, casque statuas Togatas vocamus. Mensura toga justæ, si sex ulnas habeat. Isid. Orig. 1. xix. c. 24.

garment; and after having placed them first over one of their shoulders, they then fold the rest of it about their bodies. The outer fold serves them frequently instead of an apron; wherein they carry herbs, loaves, corn, &c. and may illustrate several allusions made thereto in Scripture; as gathering the lap full of wild gourds, 2 Kings iv. 39. rendering seven fold, giving good measure into the bosom, Psal. lxxix. 12. Luke vi. 38. shaking the lap, Neh. v. 13. &c.

The burnoose, which answers to our cloak, is often, for warmth, worn over these hykes. This too is another great branch of their woollen manufactory. It is wove in one piece, and shaped exactly like the garment of the little god Telesphorus; viz. strait about the neck, with a cape or Hippocrates' sleeve, for a cover to the head, and wide below like a cloak. Some of them likewise are fringed round the bottom, like Parthenaspa's and Trajan's garment upon the basso relievo's of Constantine's arch*. The burnoose, without the cape, seems to answer to the Roman pallium ; and with it, to the bardocucullus +.

If

* Vid. Veteres Arcus Augustorum, &c. antiquis nummis, notisque Jo. Petri Bellorii illustrati, &c. Rom. 1690. tab. xxiv. XXVIII. XXXVIII. &c.

+ Pallium (ipation) quia palam gestetur: quod palam sit et foris sub eo enim Tunica sumebatur, &c. Vid. Steph. Thes. Ling. Lat.

Penulæ Gallicæ genus, quæ cucullum habet. Hinc Martial. 1. xiv. 178.

Gallia Santonico vestit te bardocucullo.

Vid. Raynaud. de Pil. § 15. Ferrar. de Re Vest. ii. 1. 21. Salm. Exercit. Plin. p. 392. Vossii Lex. Etym. vel Lex. Pitisc.