The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-11-18
NO TERROR TO RIFF1ANs
rbev Are Not Considered Men Until
they Have Shed Human Blood.
From the New York World


they Have Shed Human Blood.
From the New York World.
although Spain has found it easy to
stir ND strife on the Moorish coast, -
rites J. Z. Budget Meakin, who spent
nine Years in Morocco, "if the trouble is
suowed to progress much further she
will find that she has caught more than
one Tartar.
The people with whom she has to deal
fine Rifians-thOugh an uncOuth. IN
kempt lot, speaking an unwritten Ian
cuage outside Of their own country, but
AKIN to those spoken east and west of
Them by men of their own stock, are
hardy. daring and wideawake. They are
sons of the mountains and the plainsmen
Who venture within their borders must
hide the consequences.
Accustomed to powder and sword from
their childhood, death has no terror for
them and blood no horror. So warlike
are they that no member of their tribes
isconsidered man who has not shed hui
man blood. The greatest taunt that can
he hurled at one of their race is TO swear
that his father died in bed or from a
wound in the back.
"Some years ago, while resident in Tan
eier. determined to study the Riffian
language, in or on which no books were
then published, though since that time
the British and Foreign Bible society has
issued two Riffian editions of the gospel.
So 1 engaged a couple of servants. a man
and boy, from the Riff mountains, and
forthwith forbade the use of Arabic In
the household.
"The boy was descended from Moham-
med in some way, and his father, as a
saint in consequence, kept q shrine close
by Alhucemas, another of the Spanish
possessions on that coast. After awhile
he returned to his home and / lost sight
of him. Some three years later he hailed
ne oyfully on the Tangier market place,
and calling me aside sought my help in
the purchase of half a dozen guns
"On my inquiring the purpose he told
me in confidence that they were for him
and his two brothers to shoot his uncles
with. for they had slain his father His
father had come to Tangier to claim dam
ages from Spain for the bombardment of
his mosque on the occasion of previous
attempt to raise such a disturbance as
now. Needless to say, the father OBJ
tanned no redress, but on returning home
found that his brothers had divided his
property. On his proposing to return to
Taugier to complain against them he was
promptly shot and buried
My quondam employee, who had left
for 10 one in Barbary reckons birth
days-further informed me that, although
he had married since ! saw him last, he
could hardly be considered to have ar
rived at mans estate. not having vet
shed human blood, but here was his op-
portuuity. Later he earnestly begged a
walking stick of mine, with a crooked
handle, which he thought Just the thing
on which to rest his gun in ambush.
in spite of all my dissuasiOn-counte
balanced even by the praises and encOur-
agement of Moor, who had lived in Eng
land, to whom l turned in vain for assis-
tance-the boy went back to his work.
doubt not he is now a man
These Berbers are not to be con-
founded with the Arabs who have immi-
grated from the east and dwell on some
Of the plains, speaking Arabic, the Ian
guage of their creed and court, the me
dunn of communication also between the
Berbers who understand it and the outer
world. The miXed races Of the towns,
which include also negro blood as a result
of the still surviving slave trade. are STYLED
for convenience Moors, a term which is
geographical, not racial. The Berbers
are far superior TO the Arabs in physique
and energy, and have never yet been sub
dued by any in Morocco. They are a
white race, but they vary greatly in
hight in various localities, though uni.
ifCrmly 1.-the and of wonderful endur-
ance. The acrobats in Buffalo Bills show
belong to one of the southern Morocco
Berber tribes.
Those Of them who inhabit the Riff
mountains, between the straits of Gibral-
tar and Algeria, are but one group of
tribes among many such groups, all of
which retain an Independent and unique
form of popular government by councils
of forty. Their one weak point is their
lack of cohesion and their constant inter
tribal feuds. the outcome of vendettas
chiefly. We're they to combine they
could declare their independence of the
sultan of Morocco and snap their fingers
at SPAN at the same time. Not that it
would not ultimately go hard with them,
but TO subdue them would cost the victor
more losses than the vanquished.
Most are well armed and that with
modern repeating rifles, master of ten to
eighteen shots in the local parlance,
which they can use with effect, All feel
at home with the slightly curved durk
and the handy knives in their belts, and
none know fear,
THE dress is loose and often ragged
the most prominent garment being usually
a sacklke brown wool cloak, some t to &
inches wide and 4 feet long, with a hood
and short sleeves. A red cloth gun case
serves for turban, If the shaven skull is
not left bare, with one long shaggy patch
OF hair over one ear, as wild an adornment
as could be wished
The mountain passes, the hiding places
are known to them alone, and they are
lmbued with as undying love of home as
hatred for the foreigner. What it cost
France to subdue their brethren in Al
geria will never be told. What it would
cost any European power to conquer that
province of the Riff alone it is terrible to
contemplate. In her last Moorish war
Spain never reached this part. in this
case she surely has not counted the cost
In advance"