tatutes derived from their ancestors, and which, on
points like suppression of thefts and murders, do not agree with the
Koran. We have spoken of their name for the law--_kanoun_: evidently the
resemblance of this to [Greek: _chanon_] must be more than accidental.
Another sign is the mark of the cross, tattooed on the women of many of
the tribes. These fleshly inscriptions are an incarnate evidence of the
Christian past of some of the Kabyles, particularly such as are probably
of Vandal origin. They are found especially among the tribes of the
Gouraya, are probably a result of the Vandal invasion, and consist in
the mark or sign of the cross, half an inch in dimension, on their
forehead, cheeks and the palms of their hands. It appears that all the
natives who were found to be Christians were freed from certain taxes by
their Aryan conquerors; and it was arranged that they should profess
their faith by making the cross on their persons, which practice was
thus universalized. The tattooing is of a beautiful blue color, and is
more ornamental than the patches worn by our grandmothers.

Our final inference, then, is, that the Kabyles preserve strong traces
of certain primitive customs, which in certain cases are attributable to
a Christian origin.

A true city of romance, a Venice isolated by waves of mountains, and
built upon piles whose beams are of living crystal, Kalaa, all but
inaccessible, attracts the tourist as the roc's egg attracted Aladdin's
wife. For ages it has been a city of refuge, a sanctuary for person and
property in a land of anarchy. Nowhere else are the proud Kabyles so
skillful and industrious--nowhere else are their women so much like
Western women in beauty and freedom.

[Illustration: KABYLE WOMEN]

The Kabyle woman preserves the liberty which the female of the Orient
possessed in the old times, before the jealousy of Mohammed made her a
bird in a cage, or, as the Arab poet says, "an attar which must not be
given to the winds." In Kabylia the women talk and gossip with the men:
their villages present pretty spectacles at sunset, when groups of
workers and gossipers mingled are seen laughing, chatting and singing to
the accompaniment of the drum. Some of these women are really handsome,
and are freely decorated, even in public, with the singular enamels
which are their peculiar manufacture, and with threads of gold in their
graceful _cheloukas_ or tunics.

But Kalaa, like the picturesque "Peasan