Part 53

Footnote 14:

It is a matter of luxury for the Arabs and especially for those of the desert to possess balls made in moulds. For the most part they use rods cut into small pieces.

Footnote 15:

The Arabs of the desert are so fond of their independent wandering life, that they regard as the most wearisome moment of their existence the season when they are compelled to come to the Tell to purchase their supplies of corn.

Footnote 16:

Feminine of sherif, signifying a descendant of the Prophet.

Footnote 17:

In their poetic effusions, the Arabs frequently call the sun aâin ennour, "eye of light."

Footnote 18:

Among the Arabs, there are no rejoicings without firing off of guns.

Footnote 19:

When a desert tribe is at peace, the camels are sent away ten or twelve leagues, to graze, and it may be easily conceived that if a sudden swoop be made upon them it needs excellent horses and vigourous horsemen to recover them.

Footnote 20:

Small and restless ears as well as lively and prominent eyes are a sign, say the Arabs, of a healthy action of the heart, and that the animal is full of life.

Footnote 21:

The mahari is much more slender in its proportions than the djemel, or common camel. It has the exquisite ears of the gazelle, the supple neck of the ostrich, the hollow belly of the slougui or greyhound. Its head is lean and gracefully attached to the neck; its eyes bright, black, and prominent; its lips long and firm, covering well the teeth; the hump is small, but the chest where it touches the earth when the animal couches down, is strong and protuberant; the dock of its tail is short; its legs, very lean in the upper part, are furnished with muscles from the ham and the knee down to the hoof, and the sole of its foot is neither broad nor thick: finally, it has very few hairs on the neck, and its coat, of a tawny colour, is as fine as that of the jerboa. See General Daumas' work on the "Great Desert." In the desert, the mahari is to the djemel what, with us, a race horse is to a draught horse.

Footnote 22:

Hôor, in the plural harar. Not unlikely, this word brought by our ancestors from the crusades is the origin of the word haras.

Footnote 23:

The nomadic tribe of the Arbâa encamps in the neighbourhood of Leghrouât. It is divided into three great sections: el Mamera, el Hedjadj, and Ouled Salah. (Sahara Algérien, p. 45.)

Footnote 24:

All these tribes pitch their tents in the quadrilateral comprised between Sidi-Khaled, Tougourt, the Beni-Mzab, and Leghrouât.

Footnote 25:

The French league is rather less than 2-1/2 miles English.

Footnote 26:

A very populous tribe who occupy the whole of the Djebel-Sahri and the greatest part of the basin of the Oued-Djedi.

Footnote 27:

Berouaguïa is six leagues south of Medeah; Souagui, thirty one leagues from Berouaguïa; Sidi-Bouzid, twenty-five leagues farther on; and lastly Leghrouât, twenty-four leagues beyond that, or one hundred and seven leagues south of Algiers.