4-16. Paris, 1886.

As to the class of declamatory poems, one in particular is popular in
Algiers, for it celebrates the conquest of the Maghreb in the eleventh
century by the divers branches of the Beni-Hilal, from whom descend almost
the whole of the Arabs who now are living in the northwest of Africa. This
veritable poem is old enough, perhaps under its present form, for the
historian, Ten Khaldoun, who wrote at the end of the fourteenth century and
the beginning of the fifteenth, has preserved the resume of the episode of
Djazza, the heroine who abandoned her children and husband to follow her
brothers to the conquest of Thrgya Hajoute. To him are attributed verses
which do not lack regularity, nor a certain rhythm, and also a facility of
expression, but which abound in interpolations and faults of grammar. The
city people could not bear to hear them nor to read them. In our days, for
their taste has changed--at least in that which touches the masses--the
recital of the deeds of the Helals is much liked in the Arab cafes in
Algeria and also in Tunis. Still more, these recitals have penetrated to
the Berbers, and if they have not preserved the indigenous songs of the
second Arab invasion, they have borrowed the traditions of their
conquerors, as we can see in the episode of Ali el Hilalien and of
Er-Redah.

The names of the invading chiefs have been preserved in the declamatory
songs: Abou Zeid, Hassan ben Serhan, and, above all, Dyab ben Ghanum, in
the mouth of whom the poet puts at the end of the epic the recital of the
exploits of his race:

"Since the day when we quitted the soil and territory of the Medjid, I
have not opened my heart to joy;
We came to the homes of Chokir and Cherif ben Hachem who pours upon thee
(Djazzah) a rain of tears;
We have marched against Ed-Dabis ben Monime and we have overrun his
cities and plains.
We went to Koufat and have bought merchandise from the tradesmen who come
to us by caravan.
We arrived at Ras el Ain in all our brave attire and we mastered all the
villages and their inhabitants.
We came to Haleb, whose territory we had overrun, borne by our swift,
magnificent steeds.
We entered the country of the Khazi Mohammed who wore a coat of mail,
with long, floating ends,
We traversed Syria, going toward Ghaza, and reached Egypt, belonging to