But when it came to a demand for supplies, the Kabyles, says Daumas, utterly refused.

“You have come as a pilgrim,” said their amins, “and we have fed you with kouskoussu.  If you were to come as a chief, wishing to lay his authority on us, instead of white kouskoussu we should treat you to black kouskoussu” (gunpowder).

Abd-el-Kader, without losing the serenity of the marabout, argued with the Kabyles, and succeeded in obtaining their reverence and adhesion; but when he mounted his horse to go the amins significantly told him to come among them always as a simple pilgrim, demanding hospitality and white kouskoussu.

[Illustration:  KABYLE MEN.]

At Thizzi-Ouzzou he met the tribe of Ameraouas, who promised to submit to his authority as soon as the fractions surrounding that centre should do so.  The Sons of Aicha received him with honor and games of horsemanship.  At the camp of Ben Salem the chiefs of several tribes came to render homage to the noble marabout, descendant of Berber ancestry and of the Prophet.  From thence he sought tribes still more wild, discarding his horse and appearing among the villagers as a simple foot-pilgrim.  The natives approached him in throngs, each family bearing a great dish of rancid kouskoussu.  Laying the platters before his tent and planting their clubs in them, all vociferated, “Eat! thou art our guest;” and the chieftain was constrained to taste of each.  Finally, near Bougie he happened to receive a courier sent by the French commandant.  The Kabyles immediately believed him to be in treasonable communication with the enemy, and he was forced to retire.

The young chief was in fact at that time in peaceful communication with the French, having made himself respected by them in the west, while they were attending to the subjugation of Constantina and founding of Philippeville in the east.  Protected by the treaty of Taafna in 1837, Abd-el-Kader was at leisure to attempt the consolidation of his little empire and the fusion of the jealous tribes which composed it.  The low moral condition of his Arabs, who were for the most part thieves and cowards, and the rude individuality of his Kabyles, who would respect his religious but scoff at his political claims, made the task of the leader a difficult one.  To the Kabyles he confided the care of his saintly reputation, renouncing their contributions, and asking only for their prayers as a Berber and as a khouan of the order of Ben-abd-er-Rhaman.  For a few years his power increased, without one base measure, without any soilure on the blazon of increasing prosperity.  In 1840 the sultan of Oran, at the zenith of his influence, swept the plains beneath the Atlas with his nomad court, defended by two hundred and fifty horsemen.  Passing his days in reviewing his troops and in actions of splendid gallantry, he resumed the humility of the saint at evening prayers:  his palace of a night received him, watched by thirty