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[v]INTRODUCTION.

From the city of Algiers,looking eastwards across the bay, is seen a snow-covered masstowering above lower ranges of mountains. It is to the countrylying immediately beneath those snow-clad peaks, inhabited by apeople of entirely different race and speech to the Arabs, andknown as Kabyles, that the following pages relate. Though Algiershas many English visitors, this district remains little known; thereason perhaps being the want of those accommodations that touristslook for.

A day spent at Fort National, which is at the threshold of theregion I refer to, is usually considered ample, and exhausts theirinterest. But any one making a more prolonged stay in a country, isapt to look upon it in a different light to the passing traveller;and I may be pardoned for having taken up the pen, if I shouldsucceed in inspiring the reader with some of the interest that Ifeel for this district and its native inhabitants.

In former days, when the Kabyles were self-governing, immemorialcustom, religion, and tribal laws, rigidly enforced hospitality.Special funds were put aside by the Jemāa, or villageCommune,[vi] for theentertainment of travellers; it held itself responsible for thesafety of the stranger and for that of his luggage, and eachhouseholder was in his turn called upon to play the part ofhost.

At present, under French rule, it is obligatory for the Amine,or headman, to entertain a stranger for one night. If it were notfor this law, it is clear that, as there are no inns, a Europeanjourneying through the country might, by the caprice of thenatives, be forced to pass the night without shelter on themountain side.

The Amine refuses the money offered him in requital, but someone can always be found to accept a suitable payment.

The house where the traveller may be entertained, will probablybe constructed in somewhat the following fashion.

A series of rooms is built round an open courtyard, which has asingle entrance, and within which cattle, sheep, and goats aredriven for protection at night. The building is of blocks of stoneroughly plastered together, and whitewashed over. The beams andrafters of the roof are apparent, and upon them is spread a thicklayer of canes, the crannies between being filled up with earth;above is a covering of tiles, and on these

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