in the handling of their rude
tools. With their small axes they felled large trees so rapidly as to
astonish the French. The felling, however, was a minor part of the task.
The heavy beams had to be carried from the bottom of the steep ravine up
goat-paths to the level of the bridge. This was done in the old
Egyptian way, by sheer multiplication of hands, with no aid from the
mechanical forces. A number of men took hold of each beam and of
hand-spikes passed under it where the track was wide enough, and others
drew by ropes. The slow and solemn procession, enlivening its way with
equally solemn chants in the deepest of gutturals, climbed the precipice
on the slow but sure principle. The bridge was a success, the threatened
diversion of trade escaped, and Beni-Menguellet stock stood at a higher
quotation than ever. A squad of sappers, not a mouthful in a military
sense for the hundreds of Kabyles they supervised, had done more to win
the loyalty of the natives than a brigade of _beaux sabreurs_ or
cave-smokers could have accomplished. The hammer rather than the musket
is the weapon of subjugation.

[Illustration: FORT NATIONAL.]

[Illustration: ROMAN TOMB, NEAR FORT NATIONAL.]

At these markets Kabylia sits to the foreigner for her picture. How she
lives, what she produces and what she wants is plainly and picturesquely
stated. The inevitable Jew, in beard and gaberdine, brings from the city
his pack of trinkets and gay stuff, with bales of heavier tissues for
the excessively simple work-day robes of the Kabyle. The rich plain of
Oued Sahel sends its wheat and barley to exchange for the products of
the hill-loving olive-orchard and fig-plantation. The Beni-Janni, chiefs
of the metal-workers, sit surrounded by enticing rows of swords,
daggers, guns, armlets, leglets, silver and copper-gilt head-dresses and
brooches. Vases in clay, ornamental and plain in every gradation, are
the specialty of the Beni-Aissi. The Beni-bou-Yousef are the weavers,
famous for many-colored haiks and burnouses, leaving to the Beni-Abbes a
repute for similar garments of a particular striped fabric. Horses of
the Barb type, small but elegant in figure, come from all quarters; but
mules, which are offered in considerable number, are something of a
monopoly with the Beni-Ouassif, the Kentuckians of Kabylia. Women,
indifferent as to tribe, and indifferent also, it is sad to state, in
appearance, being mostly over age, spread stores of butter, hone