of the splendor he possesses in the "Thousand and One
Nights," and in Oriental stories. This anachronism renders the heroes of
the tales more real, and they are real Berbers, who are alive, and who
express themselves like the mountaineers of Jurgura, the Arabs of the
Atlas; like the men of Ksour, or the nomads of Sahara. In general there is
little art in these stories, and in style they are far below other
collections celebrated through the entire world.

An important place is given to the fables or stories of animals, but there
is little that is not borrowed from foreign lands, and the animals are only
such as the Berbers are familiar with. The adventures of the jackal do not
differ from those of the fox in European stories. An African trait may be
signalled in the prominence which it offers the hare, as in the stories of
_Ouslofs_ and _Bantous_. Also, the hedgehog, neglected so
lamentably in our fables, holds an important place; and if the jackal
manages to deceive the lion, he is, in spite of his astute nature, duped by
the hedgehog when he tries a fall with him. As to the lion, the serpent,
the cock, the frog, the turtle, the hyena, the jackal, the rat, their roles
offer little of the place they play in the Arab tales, or even the
Europeans.

If we pass from Berber we find the Arab tongue as spoken among the Magreb,
and will see that the literature is composed of the same elements,
particularly in the tales and songs. There are few special publications
concerning the first, but there are few travellers who have not gathered
some, and thus rendered their relations with the people more pleasant. In
what concerns the fairy tales it is, above all, the children for whom they
are destined, "when at night, at the end of their wearisome days, the
mothers gather their children around them under the tent, under the shelter
of her Bon Rabah, the little ones demand with tears a story to carry their
imaginations far away." "Kherrfin ya summa" ("Tell us a story"), they say,
and she begins the long series of the exploits of Ah Di Douan.[6] Even the
men do not disdain to listen to the tales, and those that were gathered
from Tunis and Tripoli by Mr. Stemme,[7] and in Morocco by Messrs. Souin
and Stemme,[8] show that the marvellous adventures, wherein intervene the
Djinns, fairies, ogres, and sorcerers, are no less popular among the Arab
people than among the Berbers.

[6] Deeplun, Recueil de textes pour l'etude de l'Arabe parle, v