New Britain herald., 1916-01-25

or the troubled areas of Northern Atrl-
 ca, where war and agitation for war
 has been engendered anew by the con-
 tagion of the world-struggle, there lies
 a truceless country, inhabitated by
 people, the masked Tuarges, fascinat-
 ing for the mystery and exclusiveness
 with which they have surrounded their
 life. These people, natives and rulers
 of the Middle Desert, are the allies of
 no one, neither of the Bermanic bund
 nor of the entente, but wage a furtve
 guerilla warfare with all who invade the inhospitable Sahara sands of their
 domain. They are the buccaneers of the trackless sand, forever at war with
 all civilization and it's restraints" be-
 gins a war geography primer just is-
 sued by the National Geographic so- ciety at Washington, which describes the people now warning with the Af- rican armies of Italy for the mainten- ance of their power to levy tribute up- on the ancient trans-Saharan cavaran routes.
 Masked Tuaregs are Berber nom-' ads, a white desert people, whose country is probably the most inacces- sible on earth Even before Egyptian civilization began to leave coherent records of it's history, the Tuaregs, or Berbers, were long established along Northern Africa. The great Arab in- vasion of the eleventh century dis placed them from their possessions upon the seacoast and drove them in- to the savage area of the interior des- ert, where, with their hands raised against all who come into their path less country, they have maintained themselves through the intervening centuries, despite lack of water, sand storms, and lack of farming land, re- quisitioning by force of arms from the Arabs and Egyptians, to the north and east, and from the blacks of the Soudan, in the south, such necessities and luxuries as their cheerless DOT tion of mother earth cannot supply them.
 There are five main tribes in the Tuareg confederation, and they inhab- it the desert from Tuat to Timbuktu and from F'ezzan to Binder Their homes are reared in the heart of arid wastes, where vast solitudes, unnat- ural heats, and unmarked distances shroud everything in uncanny mys- tery. They are masters of an area half that of the United States in ex- tent. Of this 1,5O0,0OO square miles
  maintained by an enduring struggle l with the drifting sands These fierce who have forced the great 1 desolation to yield them a support number 3o0,000, or more, according 1 to estimate; and they have made ] feared by the natives from l the Mediterranean to the jungles of l Central Africa.
 The Tuaregs wear the end of their l turban cloth drawn around the face, l allowing nothing but the eyes to be l seen. It is worn for the purpose of l protecting the throat and lungs from 1 the cutting blasts of fine desert sand, l and also, probably, as an element en- hancing the mystery of their life, for they seldom or never remove these 1 whether rowing over the des> ert or visiting in the cities on the coast. Due to these cloths, they are called Masked Tuaregs, while the Arabs call them People of the Veil' The masks are dark blue and white, the former being worn by Tuareg no- bles and the latter by the serfs and slaves.
 Some centers for trade, Tuarcg towns. are situated in the Middle Des- ert These are Wargla, TimbulItu, Chat, Ghadames, Murzuk and Insal- ah However, the Tuareg has little cares for trade and industry. He is a fearless enduring, hard fighting ad- venturer along the merchandise trails that cross the desert. Two important trails leave Tripoli, on the coast, and traverse 5000 miles of sands and bar ren wastes to the Soudan, where rich cargoes of skins, gold, ivory, and other interior African products are loaded upon camels and brought northward. Som etimes, a single cavaran consists of thousands of camels and merchan- 1ise to the value of hundreds of hOu- sands of dollars. When passing through the Tuareg country, the lead- CTS of such caravans have had to pay tribute to the chieftains by the way for safe escort or run the risk of los- Ing all their goods