E
THE (ttLUIA SUNDAY REE: MARCH 24, 1P07
pidest White Race in the World and Its
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IN A KABTTiE TOWN.
(Copyright, 1907. by Frank O. Carpenter.)
A.ILLOT, Algeria, March 2L
M
(Special Correspondence of The
Iee.) Have you ever heard of
the white race of the Atla
mountains? Its people have
fixtures like ours, und some of them have
blue eyes and red hair. Many have rosy
kins and complexions so fair that If
dressed In European clothes they would
not be out of pluco In Iondon, Purls or
New York. Others are darker, from their
Admixture with the Arabs and Moors, but
they are still a people of their own kind,
nd strong enough to Impress their brand
on their offspring.
This race Is scattered through ths mighty
mountains of northwestern Africa. It Is
composed of the Berbers or Kabyles, who
are numbered by millions and are found
everywhere In these hills.
Ti.e Atlas mountains begin opposite the
Canary islands, well down the Atlantlo
coast, and run from southwest to north
east for a distance of more than 1,600
miles, ending near Cape Bon, below the
Island of Blcily. They are longer than
from Philadelphia to Omaha and wider
than the distance between Washington and
New Tork. The region altogether is more
tbn one-seventh the size of th'a United
tea proper, and Including the valleys
j has a population of 15,000,000 or more.
Berbers of Morocco.
Fully one-half of these people are mads
tip of the descendants of this white race,
and if we take the tribes which have left
the mountains and gone down Into the low
lands and desert they will number still
more. The Tuaregs, the tierce brigands
of the Sahara, who wear black veils night
and day and scour the desert on camels
robbing the caravans, are of Berber origin,
and so are the Blskrls and others who come
from far down In tho Sahara to do tho
heavy work about tho wharves of the
Algerian ports. There are several million
Berbers in Morocco, where they have di
vided up Into hundreds of tribes. They
live In the mountains and. are lawless and
wild. The band of Italsull, which kidnaped
Ion Perdlpnrls, Id one of them, and they
are the, main cause of the danger to for-
tignerb tn that country today.
Oldest. White lines on Record.
The Berbers are the oldest white race
upon record, and If we could trace our
own forefathers back Into the dark ages
we should probably find that they are our
cousins. They are supposed to have come
here from southern Europe, but. If so. It
was when Europe was savage and when
was w
our an
' fingers
V of the
ncestors were still eating with their
gers and sleeping on skins In tho wilds
forests.
SlKndced, the Berbers were here when Ath-
waa In Its Infancy and when Rome
was yet to be born. There are records In
the Egyptian temples dating as far back as
1,300 years before Christ which speak of
them as having rosy cheeks, blue eyes
and red hair, and we find them fighting
with the Phoenicians, the Carthagentans,
the Romans, the Goths and the Vandals.
They were conquered again and again, but
they fled to their fastness In the Atlas
and have kept their Individuality to this
day.
When the Arabs came, the Berbers were
again overcome, and they adopted the Mo
hammedan religion, but they have modified
It to suit themselves, and they have still
their own ways and customs, as they had
In the past. The Kabyle women do not
veil their faces, and the men are satisfied
to have but one wife. A large number,
however, have Intermarried with the alien
races, and there are now among thtm as
many brown skins as fair skins. The fierce
African sun darkens the lightur-hued Ka
byles In the summer, and they take on the
brown, roseate complexions of Italy, Spain
and south France.
Kabyles of the Grand Atlas.
Z have seen many of these fair-skinned
Berbers or Kabyles since I came to the
black continent some months ago. I met
them first In Morocco and again In Spanish
Africa, and I have found them everywhere
during my travels In Algeria. I have spent
it Uat week tn Grand Kabylla. where
lAy are almost the sole Inhabitants, and
have gone from village to villi re investi
gating their customs and photographing
them at work and In their homes. Within
the last three days I have ridden for more
than 100 miles through the wildest of these
African mountains, crossing the Grand
Atlas chain from Tlil-Ouzou. the capital
of Kabylla, by way of Fort National and
Mtchelet. over a pass almost as high as
Viiunt Washington, and then coming down
fTthta little town of Maillot, In the rich
alley of the Tell, where I now am.
The road we took over the mountains
covered a dlstanco tit about 170 kilometers.
It was built by the French as a military
highway to bold these people la order, and
It Is so smooth that one could go over it
In an automobile. Indeed, I was offaied
an automobile for the, trip at a cost of
. 13 per day, but I found that I should have
Ato pay one day's return fare for every day
J ' 'ed the machine, miking the cust really
,S-y LUora Wis alo danger of a
;'
breakdown In the moiinitaln, and I con
cluded to hire a carriage Instead. This I
got for $15 per day. It had an Arab driver
and three horses hitched up abreast, and
It enabled me to make my way leisurely
from point t point, now stopping at a
vtllagn and now at the little fluids where
the Kabyles were working.
. French Military Road.
This road . over the Atlas Is a wonderful
piece of civil engineering. It goes along
the sides of the. cliffs and has been fairly
cut out of the rocks. In places the drop
to the valley below Is something like 2,000
feet, and at times, whn a caravan vf cam
els passed by us, each beast loaded with
two great, long bags of barley which
tripled Us width, we had to stop for fear
we might be crowded over the rocks and
dashed to pieces In tho valley below. At
Ships That Ainister
AD It not been for the panicky pendent markets. By this system every ters were employed to carry their catch
attack of Admiral Rojcstvensky's week or two found the men at home living back to market.
ships on the trawlers of the like Christians. And when steam came the fleets In
North sea. manv would never But as the trade develoied fleets were creased Immensely and the fish carriers
H
have realised that Great Britain
alone has an array of 100,000 men and boys
employed in catching fish for It.
The wild waste of stormy waters known
as the North sea Is dotted with, floating
"villages" made up of the fishing fleets.
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Here 12.000 men and Inds earr a perilous
and precarious livelihood. Some of them
spend but a bare fortnight out of the en
tire year at home with their wives and
families.
The far-famed Dogger Bank Is one of the
principal, fishing grounds. If the North
sea's floor were raised about 100 feet the
Dogger Bank would form a third memler
of the British Island, about half the size
of Scotland.
Tear In and year out, by night as well as
day, these shallow waters are ploughed by
thousands of fishing boats. The fishing
fleets dwell here as permanent villages
perhaps 200 or 3W smacks, ringing In size
from forty-five to eighty tons, with a crew
of from five to seven hands. These vil
lages have their churches, stores, canteens,
hospitals, postofflces and fish carriers.
Twenty years or so ago a London philan
thropist, who had heard stories of distress
among the fishermen, took a run out on a
steam carrier from Blllinggate to the
Dogger, a 100-mile trip. Hs found the men
In a pretty bad way. They were utterly
cut off from the world, just as though
they lived on Tristan d'Acunha.
Some of the sick were without even the
most elementary medical aid. Broken
limbs and wounds were roughly treated by
the skipper, often with serious results; and
last, but by no means least, all the men
were at the mercy of the Dutch "copers."
These were sturdy little sailing boats, out
from Dutch ports, laden mainly with fiery
aniseed brandy, doubtful literature and In
ferior tobaoco. The men eagerly balled
these fellows, and would get roaring drunk
out of sheer desperation st the loneliness
and utter monotony of tbeir Uvea
In still earlier days smacks ran out
singly, carrying enough ice to preserve
their catch, and lecllng their own Inde-
v
other places we met droves of donkeys,
whto-h their Kabylo owners had to bring
down te alnglo file, In r-rder to na.su, end
aain companies of Kabyle natives, with
loads on their backs, who walked the same
way.
Tho road Is a limestone pike, with fre
quent Blono culverts and now and then
bridges of stone and iron. Away up on
the top of tho Atlas there Is a tunnel
which has been blasted through the rock,
mnd on the very top of the pass we weat
through a deep cut which had been made
for the road. All along the way are piles
of broken stone, showing that the repairs
are going on all the time, and there are
guard houses at every few miles, where
the men who take care of the road are
stationed. This pass Is, In fact, a military
highway, and it enables France to control
the whole region about.
Dannfroua People-.
The Kabyles are. among the most Insur
rectionary of the population of Algeria.
Like the Swiss, they live In the mountains,
and they have the same love of freedom.
They submit to the French and work for
them; but I am told that they hate them
at heart, and that if France should have
a great war with any other nation they
would again break out Into rebellion. This
they did In 1871, when France had Its war
with Germany. At that time an army of
these mountaineers marched on Algiers,
formed, with regular admirals, from whoso
central s-.nack Instructions were Issued In
daylight by flags and at night by rockets
and flares. TV It v.ns that the fleets
began to stay out on the fishing grounds
for weeks at a time and smart sailing cut-
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THB PEOPLE SIT ON TTTK TUOOTl AT TITEm
They were defeated by the French, and
since then no Kabyle or othor native, ex
cept In certain wild districts, is allowed
to have arms.
At Port National I found a battalion of
couaves, about eight hundred strong; and
the town Itself Is fortified in such a way
that Its guns command the many villages
on the neighboring peaks. The road is so
made that guns can be easily taken over
It, and the many Kabyle towns, in view
everywhere, can be shelled. On my way to
Tizl-Ouzou I. passed soveral regiments of
French soldiers who were on the march,
and I could easily see how an army of
them with a road llko this could keep the
people In order.
I found most of the Kabyles friendly, and
the contrast between them and their broth
ers in Morocco was striking. In Morocco
every one carried a gun, and I was not
allowed to go into the mountains unless
accompanied by soldiers.
Through the Atlua Mountains.
Pefore I describe my visit to the Kabyle
villages I want to tell you something
about these mighty mountnlns which form
their homes. I have traveled through the
Alps, the Himalayas, the Arries and the
Rockies. Each has Its own grandeur, and
the same is true of these mlgnty African
mountains, which In many tespects have
scenery surpassing that of any other range
of the world. The air here is as clear as
to Do
that plied between the Nortfi sea and the
market grew Into steamers, capable of car
rying out S.000 empty fish trunks, and
maybe fifty tons of Ice for preserving, as
well as the fifty or sixty tons of coal
requisite for the double run, out and horns
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Home in the Atlas Mountains
V
JfEAT.
that on the high plateau of Bolivia. One
ran Bee as far as on Iake Tltlcaca, and
the sun is so bright that where it strikes
the fleecy white clouds It paints patches
of navy bluo velvet on the mountains bo
low. These high Atlus peaks rise from ths
plain in rugged grandeur. They roll ovor
each other, with great canyons'and gorges;
and they may be seen an hundred miles or
more away, cutting the blue sky of the
horizon. They are of as many colors as
the mountains of Colorado, and in places
are quite as ragged and rocky. Almost
everywhere they are cultivated high nbove
the line of fertility of the hills of other
countries. Their slopes are cut up Into
patches of all shapes, some of which are
not bigger than bed quilts. About these
patches are stone walls or hedges; some
times they are marked by furrows or
ditches. Some have fruit trees growing
in them, but more often they are only
bunches of scrub, amongst which the grain
has been planted. Each of these little
patches Is a Kabylo farm. Nearly every
family owns some land, to which It clings
as Its dearest possession. The men cultl-
vate their little crops and mane wnat tney
can- from them, and then go down Into the
lowlands to work for the French farmers
to piece out their Incomes.
Woods of the Atlas.
Along the lower slopes of the Atlas
there are many big orchards, but these are
Bank Fishermen
Thus each large fishing fleet might be at-
tended by half a dozen steam carriers,
which might be seen plowing their way
back to London often with S.000 boxes of
fish, each weighing perhaps eighty pounds,
Soon tho men would be eight weeks at a
stretch at sea, laboring In all weathers.
6undays not excepted, so long as a good
fishing breeze held.
The piiuhl of these fellows soou became
1
KABTLE WATER CAimiTR.
owned mostly by the French. They are
walled off from the road by hedges of cac-
tus. In which dried thorn bushes nave uoen
twined, making a barrier impassable for
man or beast There are also olive or
chards, and almost everywhere, even to
high up in the nnountalns, are groves of
wild olive trees, and now and then a for
tst of the ervorgreen oak, whose bark fur
nishes our cork.
Others of the mou-nitalns, especially the
gipcj facing the valley of the Tell, are
covcrea witb scrubby oaks, with loaves on
Inch long and of much the shapo us those
of a rose bush: they are light green in
collar. The trees are nothing like the grand
oaks of America, but fievortheless they bear
acorns ond furnish food for numerous hogs.
Many of the trees are trimmed of their
branches every year In order that the
known, and a secondhand smaek called
the Ensign was fitted out with decent liter-
ature, surgical Instruments, a competent
doctor, a maglo lantern and a hundred
and one minor comforts, such as would be
appreciated by men.
Tho Ensign was soon followed by a reg-
ular hospital ship, called the Queen Vic-
torla. and fitted up with a perfectly
equipped hospital of eight beds and two
swing ccts. The staff consisted of a fully
qualified surgeon and a surgeon's mate, with
tie requisite servants. '
Others of similar design followed
until today the North Sea p patrolled by
eleven floating hospitals, which ate never
Idle for a moment, for they are ready to
carry fish, tow a line of smacks In a calm,
carry out malls or hold a service or enter
talnnif nt on the shortest notlca. For the
hospital Is at once church, temperance hall,
library, club and Institute on the high
seas. Each steamer bears upon lis bow
the watchword "Heal the sick," and this
she certainly does, for everything that skill
and money cun provide, from X-ray In
stallation to trained hospital nurses, are
aviilluhle.
Tho vessels also carry good tobacco, for
aale at cost price, thus checkmating and
starving out the vicious "coper" who made
the men's craving for heap tobacco a
means of Inducing them to purcliaso also
the most villainous kind of ll'iuor, often
with tragic results. Indeed matters be
came so bad at one time that a sperl.il
act of the Rritlsh Parliament was passed
In ISM making the sale of alcohol to fisher
men at sea Illegal.
Tho flouting hospitals also carry loan
libraries and games. Tl oy distribute
bundles of magazines and newspapers, and
offer woolen comforts for sale tt low prices.
And In summer volunteer evangelists,
vaudeville artists and other entertainers
go out in these ships and amuse the hard
working fishermen, who appreciate the
leajt brightening up of their dreary lives.
It ass In one of these little floating hos
pitals, helped by Skipper Joseph William
White and his crew, that the surgeon plied
Ms knife and needle immediately after the
utrage by ths Russian Baltic fleet. Tha
(Continued on Page Five )
twigs and limbs may be used for fuel. I an
told that It is against the law to cut the
trees down to the ground, and that moat
of the charctal and firewood of Algeria
are made from theso switches. They are
uaed by the bakers, and the bread of a
great part of Algeria la baked with them.
onset tn the Atlas.
As one climbs up the Atlas mountains
the views widen so tliat the whole world
seems spread out below. One can aeo so
far that such mountains as the Alps axe
dwarfed by the mighty panoramas. The
ragged hills stretch away for hundred of
miles on every si do, and In the winter,
when the Atlas is covered with snow, the
views must be, beyond expression, mag
nificent. I saw one sunsvt at the very top
of the pass, which will remain In my mem
ory as among the most wonderful of tha
cloud paintings of my life. During the day
the sirocco had been blowing Its hot blast
from the desert and the sun had been bid
den. When It aet the sky was full of
clouds, and it gilded them In a hundred)
rosoato hues. We were high up In tha
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um8 a eS- and htJr becama
Patchwork of many colors, which we saw
a u-t t ,
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othorB a snow whJt t'11 with now pink.
a disappeared a band of royal
1"T' ran around these mountain peaks.
"sting below them, while thre were band
of burning copper above and below.
In the Kabyle Vllfavea.
tile most striking feature of tha whole
of these Atlas scenes la the human Interest
which shinies out of their every picture.
The Kabyle villages aro everywhere. There
are thousands of them In the Algerian
mountains. Every great hllltjcp Is spot tod
with them, and they cap all the lower
peaks. The people build right on the tops
of tho hills. Their little huta ore of stone
and plaster, with roofs of red tile. Tho
walls are whitewashed, and every town
mckes a great patch of white and red on
tho landscape.
The villages are usually far off the road,
and are reached only by mule paths. I
climbed up and visited some of them. Ona
was entered by a gato forming a sort of
loafing place for the gowned, bronze faced,
turbaned citizens. Passing through this, I
was right In the settlement. The houses
stand close together, built along narrow
streets with no pavements cf any kind.
They ore all of one story, and look mora
like stables than homes. The doors are
rude, although some have carving upon
them. They enter Into a court upon which
aro sometimes two houses, the walla of
both facing tho street. The average house
Is about fifteen feet squsre; It has a ridge
roof, which la seldom more than twelve
feet In height nt the comb. Here In tha
Atlas these roofs are of red tile, and In
other places they are of thatch.
Tho houses are entered from the court
by doors as rough as those which faoa
the street. They are absolutely without
ornamentation. They have no windows,
and, with the exception of a little hola
about u foot square under the roof at ona
end, no 11 y lit but that which comes In at
tho door.
la a Ilerlfer Home.
Iet me give you a picture of one of thess
Borber homes which I visited yesterday.
My dragoman, Emmanuel Zammlt, who
speaks the Kubyle language, acted as my
Interpreter, and through him the owner
gave us permission to enter. We had tried
at several other houses, but the women
ran from us as though we had the plague,
and tlm boys slammed the court doors In
single bowl, which usually contains tha
jealous, and their women will huve nothing
to do with s'range men. In this case both
husband and wife were at home, and tho
man was more liberal than most of his
kind. He did not Introduce us to his wife,
but the wes with him In the hut, and as
usual, unveiled. She had a baby at her
l.reubt, and there were half a dozen small
children sprawling over the floor. Indeed,
we had to step carefully at first for fear
of trampling a baby, but as our eyes be
came accustomed to the darkness we get
along very well.
In this house there was no sign of what
we call furniture. There were neither
chairs nor tables. The members of the fam
ily were sitting sround a pile of figs, which
they were sorting as we entered. They sit
on the floor and eat squatting about tha
main dish of each meul. They eat with
wooden spoons, using a common knife.
They eat most things with their fingers,
and often break up bread and soak It In
the soup or (tew. They have meat about
once a week, but their chief diet consists
of fruit and of bread made of wheat or
other grain. They grind their meal them
selves, sometimes In the family mill and
sometimes In one belonging to the village
In common.
In a little home like this the winter sup
plies of ths family are stored. One of tha
receptacles I noticed was a stone Jar fjf
(Continued on Page FlvsJ
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