s not a rifle slung over the shoulder of
Abd-el-Kader but a sub-machine gun. Bismillah! This could not have been
so back in the days when the French Camel Corps ruled the land with its
hand of iron.

The djemaa el kebar was already in session, seated in a great circle on
the rug and provided with glasses of mint tea and some with water pipes.
They looked up at the entrance of the warrior clan chieftain.

* * * * *

El Aicha, who was of Maraboutic ancestry and hence a holy man as well as
elder of the Ouled Fredj, spoke first as senior member of the
conference. "We have heard reports that are disturbing of recent months,
Abd-el-Kader. Reports of activities amongst the Ouled Touameur. We would
know more of the truth of these. But also we have high interest in your
reason for summoning the djemaa el kebar at such a time of year."

Abd-el-Kader made a brief gesture of obeisance to the Chaambra leader, a
gesture so brief as to verge on disrespect. He said, his voice clear and
confident, as befits a warrior chief, "Disturbing only to the old and
unvaliant, O El Aicha."

The old man looked at him for a long, unblinking moment. As a youth, he
had fought at the Battle of Tit when the French Camel Corps had broken
forever the military power of the Ahaggar Tuareg. El Aicha was no
coward. There were murmurings about the circle of elders.

But when El Aicha spoke again, his voice was level. "Then speak to us,
Abd-el-Kader. It is well known that your voice is heard ever more by the
young men, particularly by the bolder of the young men."

The fighting man remained standing, his legs slightly spread. The Arab,
like the Amerind, likes to make speech in conference, and eloquence is
well held by the Chaambra.

"Long years ago, and only shortly after the death of the Prophet, the
Chaambra resided, so tell the scribes, in the hills of far away Syria.
But when the word of Islam was heard and the true believers began to
race their strength throughout all the world, the Chaambra came here to
the deserts of Africa and here we have remained. Long centuries it took
us to gain control of the wide areas of the northern and western desert
and many were the battles we fought with our traditional enemies the
Tuareg and the Moors before we controlled all the land between the Atlas
and the Niger and from what is now known as Tunisia to Mauritania."

All nodded. This was tribal history.

Abd-el-Kader held up four