Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1894-03-16
RIFFIANS.
SPANS HARDY AND wARLIKE
FOES IN MOROCCO.
yone of tho Race Considered a Man
Until He Has Shed Human
Blood Death Has No
Terrors for Them.
<THE Riflians, writes Mr.. 3.
BE L. Budget Meakim who

lot, speaking III uh"lAeeoh 'onBhpSS
absolutely unknown 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
yidcawake. They are sons OF the
mountains; and the plainsmen who
venture within their borders must bide
The consequences. ~.
Accustomed to powder and sword
from their childhood, death has no
terror for them and blood no horror.
So warlike are they thatno member of
their tribes is considered n man who
has not shed human blood. The great
sst taunt that can be hurled ct one of
their race is to swear that his father
lied i'll bed or from wound in the
bnck.
"Some years ago, while resident in
Tangier, / determined to study the
RiiIian language, in or on which no
books were then published, though
since that time the British and For
sign Bible Society has issued two
Ril1ian editions of the gospel. So I
engaged couple of servants, man
and boy, from the Riff Mountains,
and forthwith forbade the use of
Arabic in the household.
"Tho boy was descended from Mo-
hamet in some way, and his father, as a
saint in consequence, kept a shrine
close by Alhucemas, another of the
Spanish possessions on that coast.
After while he returned to his home
and lost sight of him. Some three
years later he hailed me ioyfully on
the Tangier market place, and calling
me aside sought my help in the pur-
chase Of half dozen guns.
Con my inquiring the purpose he
told me i'll confidence that they were
Tor him and his two brothers to shoot
his uncles with, for they had slain his
father. His father had come to Tan
gier to claim damages from Spain for
the bombardment OF his mosque on the
occasion of previous attempt to raise
such disturbance as now. Needless
20 say, the father obtained no redress,
but on returning home found that his
brothers had divided his property. On
ais proposing to return to Tangier to
complain against them he was prompt
y shot and buried.
"My quondam cmployc, who had
left my service Mt tho age of thirteen
Or thereabouts-for no one in Barbary
reckons birthdays-furthcr informed
nc that although he had married since
{ saw him last, he could hardly be con-
,idered to have arrived ct mans es-
tate, not yet having shed human blood;
out here was his opportunity. Later
he earnestly begged walking stick of
mine, with crooked handle, which he
thought just the thing on which to
rest his gun in ambushi
SIN spite of all my dissuasion-co
terbalanced even by tho praises and
encouragement of Moor WHO had
lived in England, to whom turned in
vain for assistauce-the boy went back
to his work. L doubt not he is now "a
man.
"These Berbers nro not to be con-
founded with the Arabs who have i'm
migrated from the East and dwell Oh
some of the plains, speaking Arabic,
the language of their creed and court,
the medium of communication also be-
tween the Berbers who understand it
and the outer world The mixed races
of the towns, which include also African
blood rs IL result of the still surviving
slave trade, are styled for convenience
Noors, term which is geographical,
not racial. The Berbers are far SUI
perior 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
height in various localities, though
uniformly 1.-the and of wonderful en-
DURANGO. 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 Strait of
Gibraltar and Algeria, are but one
group of tribes among many such
groups, all of which retain an indie
pendent and unique form of popular
4 government by councils of forty.
4 Their one weak point is their lack of
.$cohesion and their constant inter
s4tribal feuds, the outcome of vendettas
sa,hiefly. Were they to combine they
sY could declare their independence Of
.48the Sultan of Morocco and snap their
.8hngers ut Spain at the same time. Not
that it would ultimately go hard with
4 them, but to subdue them would cost
. the victor more losses than the van
quished.
"Most are well armed and with
modern repeating rifles, masters of
ten to eighteen shots, in the local
parlance, which they can use with
effect. All feel at home with the
slightly curved dirk and the handy
knives ill their belts, and none know
fear.
"Their dress is loose and often
ragged. the most prominent garment
being usually sack-like brown wool
cloak, some four feet, six inches wide
and four feet long, with 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 nm
adornment as could he wished.
1.-The mountain passes, the hiding