they do not communicate one with another; each is a little world in itself: and to command two contiguous ones, it is necessary to establish oneself upon the chain dividing them."

From the sea-coast of Algeria to forty or fifty leagues inland is denominated the Tell (i. e. land fit for cultivation and production of grain), computed to present a surface of about sixteen million hectares, there being about two and a half English acres to the hectare.

Though, in France, the population is only about two to each three hectares, the superior fertility of the soil and climate of Africa is such, however, as to allow the calculation of one to each hectare. Thus there is a surface presented on the Tell for a future population of sixteen million souls.

From the Tell to the Great Sahara is denominated the Little Desert, or Little Sahara: this district bearing the title of desert, because unproductive of grain, though otherwise fruitful in parts, and thickly populated.

That power which holds the Tell may be considered to rule in great measure the destinies of the desert beyond; for the inhabitants of the desert and the Tell are very dependent upon one another, and the former by nature's edict much more so upon the latter than vice versâ ;

the products of the desert being but objects of luxury, such as dates, clothing, &c., whilst those of the Tell are necessaries of life, as corn, &c. Hence the tribes of the desert have a proverb:-"He is our lord, who is lord of our mother, and our mother is the Tell."

Nearly all the Sahara tribes pay an annual visit, therefore, to the Tell. During winter and spring they find water and vegetation in the desert; and moving about from spot to spot, remaining at each according to the extent of water and pasture, they exist. But towards the end of spring, when the wells commence sinking, and the sun to scorch up the herbage, they resort to the towns in the oases of the desert, charge their camels with dates and stuffs, and migrate towards the North with their women, flocks, tents, and all their "household gods." They arrive in the Tell at harvest-time. There they remain during the summer, pitching their black tents, and thoroughly establishing themselves for the season. Corn is then plentiful there, and at a low price if the year has been favorable. Active commerce is carried on; dates and stuffs are exchanged for grain, raw wool, cattle, &c. The great heats pass, the summer is at anend; and now bustle and life reign throughout their douars, for the signal of departure is

given by the heavens. It is to them a joyful signal, for are they not children of the desert? Quickly the camels are loaded; the dark cities disappear; and, heavily charged with the treasures of the fat Tell, they again retire towards the South. About the middle of October, they greet once more their remote homes: the dates are ripe; they remain a month amongst their palm-groves to harvest the fruit; they exchange their grain and raw wool for dates of the year, burnooses, haïks, and other manufactured wool, which they leave in magazines within the oasis; and then bidding adieu to their mud-built towns, they retire with their flocks, and tents, into the depths of the desert, again to wander here and there, from pasture to pasture, from well to well, until the heat of the sun once more warns them of the approach of summer, and the arrival of the period to revisit their great mother, the Tell.

Such is the routine of the existence of these truly nomade tribes. Such is the general law of their movements; such their commerce; and thus does this wandering people enjoy an eternal summer: for may not the winter be considered the true summer of the desert? It is then alone that there is water and vegetation. The great heats arriving, the springs are dried up in their beds: the desert is then a desert indeed:

all herbage droops and dies beneath the fiery sun, excepting the tall date-palms, which, encircled by water, led, by artfully cut channels, from the only living fountain within perhaps several days' journey, offer refreshing though confined groves, beneath which flourish the red pepper plant, millet, and water-melons, affording sufficient subsistence for a limited population.

M

CHAP. XVI.

ORGANISATION OF ARAB TRIBES IN ALGERIA.

*

WITH regard to the Arab tribes, decendants of that vast host which, in the latter part of the seventh century, leaving vanquished Egypt in their rear, rushed onward, to the overthrow of the Byzantine and the Berber armies, from Cyrene to Tangiers, and planted the standard of religious fanaticism upon the very shores of the Atlantic, they may be divided into three distinct classes, viz., those inhabiting the Tell, those holding the plateaus in the more elevated districts, and those truly nomade tribes, children of the desert, of whom we have spoken in the last chapter.

The first are agriculturists, inhabiting that portion of Northern Africa called the Tell, bounded by the Mediterranean on the North, and by the mountains of the Lesser Atlas on the South. This tract of country is of the greatest natural fertility, well adapted for the pasturage

*The information contained in this chapter is chiefly derived from some able papers published in the "Révue de l'Orient," by the Société Orientale at Paris.