e Berrebbers of the north
are of a more robust and stouter make than the Shilluh, a strong
family-likeness runs through all their tribes. Their customs,
dispositions, and national character, are nearly the same; they are
all equally tenacious of their independence, which their local
positions enable them to assume, and are all animated with the same
inveterate and hereditary hatred against their common enemy, the
Arab. They invariably reside in houses or hovels built of stone and
timber, which are generally situated on some commanding eminence, and
are fortified and loop-holed for self-defence. Their usual mode of
warfare is, to surprise their enemy, rather than overcome him by an
open attack; they are reckoned the best marksmen, and possess the
best fire-arms in Barbary, which render them a very destructive enemy
wherever the country affords shelter and concealment; but although
they are always an over-match for the Arabs, when attacked on their
own rugged territory, they are obliged on the other hand, to
relinquish the plains to the Arab cavalry, against which the
Berrebbers are unable to stand on open ground.

The Arabs, who now form so considerable a portion of the population
of Barbary, and whose race in the sheriffe line has given emperors to
Morocco ever since the conquest, occupy all the level country of the
empire, and many of the tribes penetrating into the desert, have
extended themselves even to the confines of Soudan. In person, they
are generally tall and robust, with fine features, and intelligent
countenances. Their hair is black and straight, their eyes large,
black and piercing, their noses gently arched; their beards full and
bushy, and they have invariably good teeth. The colour of those who
reside in Barbary, is a deep, but bright brunette, essentially unlike
the sallow tinge of the mulatto. The Arabs of the desert are more or
less swarthy, according to their proximity to the negro states,
until, in some tribes they are found entirely black, but without the
woolly hair, wide nostril, and thick lip, which peculiarly belong to
the African negro.

The Arabs are universally cultivators of the earth, or breeders of
cattle, depending on agricultural pursuits alone for subsistence. To
use a common proverb of their own, "the earth is the Arab's portion."
They are divided into small tribes or families, each separate tribe
having a particular patriarch or head, by whose name they distinguish
themselves, an