that as the »greater part of the mountainous region.: of Atlas
has always heen. inaccessible to the . conquerojseif Africa,
it would not he surprising if -hooks should he found written
itr some peculiar alphabet^ if it were possible to traverse,
without danger, the« recesses of their country. : This conjecture
has been in part verified, . Among the Tuaryk, who
belong to the same race, it appears that the use- of letters
has lötig been known: they have a system of alphabetic
writing of their own, of which an account was first given by
Dr. Oudney in the Journal of Clapperton and Denham.
M. Venture first published a tolerably copious specimen
of the Berber language, with a grammatical analysis, for
which I must refer to his memoir.* I shall add some
further observations on the different branches of the Berbef
race.
S e c t io n II.—Different Branches of' the Berber Race.WL
* 1. Berbers of Atla^^l. Shuluh.—&. Kabyles.—4. Tuaryk.
1. Berbers of the Northern Atlas.
We have an account of these mountaineers Trom- Mr.
Jackson, who says that Atlas is inhabited ?by morêfitha®
twenty different tribes, carrying nil« perpetual - warfare
against each other, tribe against tribe, and village against
village. Hereditary feitde-end only imth^^teiteinarioh rif
whole families. The tribes who live on the snowy^piountams
of Atlas dwell in caverns from November to April, and their
exploits give origin to traditions and legends whieh terrify
the people of the plains. They are very poor, and make plundering
excursions in quest of the means of supporting
Hfe. They are a Robust and active people.
* Another "more copious analysis of the Berber language, drawn up with the
assistance o f a native instructor, a taleb of the Beni Boojeeah, 'has been published
by Mr. Hodgson, in the memoir above cited, in the Transactions of the American
Philosophical Society. There is also a very able treatise on that subject by
Mr. W. F. Newman, late Fellow of Balliol, made by the author, without any assistance
whatever, from a portion of St. Luke’s Gospel, printed in Arabic letters
by the Bible Society. Mr, Newman’s Memoir is published in the West of England
Literary and Scientific Journal, printed at Bristol.
The Berbers1 of the higher Atlas are described by Lem-
prifere, who. -calls* them Brebes, as a very athletic strong-
featured people, patient and accustomed to hardship and
fatigue. He says that, they seldom remove far from the spot
of their abode; they shave the fore-part of their heads, but
suffer the hair to grow from the crown as far behind as the
neck. Their only covering is a woollen garment without
sleeve&j ■ fastened round the waist1 by- a belt. These people,
adds Lempri&re, differ entirely from the Arabs: and Moors,
being the aboriginal inhabitants&of the country, and in a
great' measure independent in their own mountain villages,
where they feed cattle and hunt wild beasts.*
2. Shuluh.'
The mountaineers in the Southern parts of Maroco term
themselves Sjchoukmh, the plural? of,- Shelah. They- live
in villages fef houses made of stones and mud, with slate
roofs, occasionally in tents, and evemin caves: th^, are chiefly
huntsmen, but .cultivate titae,^|»nd and rear bees. Leo Africanus
reckons, them as a part of the same raee with the Berbers
of the northern Atlas, andy. according to M. Venture, their
idiom, which they term Amazich or Amazigh, iaeaning the
noble language, is" a. cognate dialect of the Berber speech.
By Mr. Jackson it was considered as totally different, but
evidence has b@CM adduced by Lieutenant Washington, in a
memoir published in the Journals of the Royal Geographical
Society, which seems tp prove that M. Venture's opinion was
well founded. The author has given a vocabulary collected
by himself from the mouth of a native Shelah, who had
passed his life in Mount-Atlas, which he has compared with
the-collections of Venture and- others;- - A part of this will be
inserted in the following section Goliated with specimens of
several other Atlantic dialects.
* Lempriere’s Tour to Maroco, p. 171.