Yet the tribesmen are profoundly superstitious, and hold
in great dread the evil spirits who they think surround them and to whom
they attribute bodily and mental ills. An idiot is one who is possessed by
a wicked demon, and is to be feared accordingly.
There are found current among them a vast number of fairy tales, such as
equal in wildness and horror the strangest inventions of oriental
imagination. Their tales of ogres and ogresses are unsoftened by any of
that playfulness and bonhomie which give such undying charm to the
"Thousand and One Nights." The element of the miraculous takes many
original forms in their popular tales, and they have more than their share
of the folk-lore legends and traditions such as Herodotus loved to collect.
It was said of old that something new was always coming out of Africa, and
certainly the contribution which the Berbers and Kabyles have made to the
fund of wonder-stories in the world may be looked upon as new, in more than
one sense. It is new, not only because it is novel and unexpected, but
because it is fresh, original and highly interesting.
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