Unlike most oases of the south, where water comes gushing out of the ground and is directed by artificial channels to irrigate the gardens, there was no surface water at all on the site chosen by these people to found their cities. Every palm-tree planted, every seed sown had to be watered artificially from wells, and if one looks at the broad oasis, with its thousands of palm-trees, and when one realizes that when the Mzabites first came the land was as barren as that seen from the road, the feat performed leaves one amazed. The system of drawing water has, moreover, not changed since those days. The well is sunk and a kind of tank is built beside it, with channels leading out to the parts of the land to be irrigated. A sloping path is constructed, down which walks a camel with a rope tied to its neck, while at the other end of the rope is a skin resting at the water-level. When the camel gets to the end of his walk the skin reaches the surface and by an ingenious contrivance pours its contents into the tank; the camel returns to the well, thus lowering the skin to the water again, and the process recommences. The creaking sound of the pulley drawing up the skin has a certain curious charm reminding one of Egypt. Occasionally, but very occasionally, the rain comes, and to meet this possibility barrages have been made across every little valley in order to form small lakes. Beside every path or rock, gutters have been constructed leading to one center where the water can be stored. A rain-storm in the Mzab is worth untold millions to its inhabitants. And yet the Mzabite is not a farmer in any sense of the word, and unless he is himself forced through poverty to work in the garden he will avoid all contact with the soil and employ Arabs to look after the land. He is essentially a merchant, living in his shop and opposed to all outdoor life, all sport or anything military. This antipathy to war again raises the question as to whether he is really pure Berber. His cousins the Touaregs, the men of the Aurès and the Kabyle Mountains, the people of the Riff, are all born warriors. Why, then, has the Mzabite never been able to defend himself?