a friendly cadi, named D’joudi, who had been wantonly attacked for his loyalty to the French by some organized mutineers under Mohammed Ben-Hadad.  The poor wretch had been obliged to flee, with his women and his flocks, into the protection of his country’s oppressors.  Since the chassepot has succeeded in reducing the Kabyles once more to a superficial obedience, the courts have been busy with the sentences of their insubordinate leaders.  France imitates England’s sanguinary policy in her treatment of rebellious and semi-civilized tribes.  Eight of the leaders of the Kabyle revolt of 1871 have been condemned to death, and a number of others have been sentenced to various terms of imprisonment.  The Kabyles will take their revenge when another European war places the Algiers colonists at their mercy.

The guides who accompany the traveler serve, in the absence of the trees, to attract his scrutiny.  These mountain Arabs are superb fellows.  Lips almost black, and shaded with lustrous beards, set off their perfect teeth, white, small, and separated like those of a young dog.  Their black eyes are soft or stern at will.  They are usually of middle size, large-chested, as befits Arabs from the hills, with small heads and finely-tapered wrists and ankles.  They are dressed in red, with a covering of two bornouses—­a white one beneath, and a black one fastened over.  Long iron spurs are attached to their boots of red morocco, which come up to the knee; for the Algerian Arab, a bare-legged animal when walking, is a booted cavalier when mounted.  The white haik, or toga, is fastened around the temples.  The horse of the principal guide is a fine iron-gray, with an enormous tail of black—­high-stepping, and carrying his elaborately-draped burden as proudly as a banner.

[Illustration:  AN ARAB DOUAR.]

In contrast to this imposing guard of honor, the traveler minces along on a dumb, timid mule, who smells the ground in a sordid and vulgar manner, and is guided by a pitiful rope bridle.  Such are the hackneys and the guides, engaged on the recommendation of the commandant of Constantina, who undertake to carry us to Setif and on to Bou-Kteun in Kabylia.

[Illustration:  THE WASHERWOMEN.]

Setif, the ancient metropolis of this part of Mauritania, and celebrated for a brave defence against the invading Saracens, is now the healthiest spot occupied by the French in all Algeria.  It lies on a great table a mile above the sea, is fortified, and has four good streets, but pays for its salubrity by the extreme outspokenness of the climate.  It is subject to snow for six months, and is enveloped in a cloud of dust the other six.  It is in the midst of a great grain-producing country, and is famed for its market, held every Sabbath.  The surrounding folk dress for market, instead of dressing for Sunday, and exhibit the whitest of bornouses above the dustiest of legs as they sit crooning over trays of eggs or onions, brought far on foot through the powdery roads.