The _Berebbers_ inhabit the mountains of Atlas north of the city of Marocco, living generally in tents; they are a robust, nervous, and warlike people, having a language peculiar to themselves, which differs more from the Arabic, or general language of Africa, than any two languages of Europe differ from each other; it is probably a dialect of the ancient Carthaginian. In travelling through the Berebber Kabyles of Ait Imure, and Zemure Shelluh, I noticed many of the inhabitants who possessed the old Roman physiognomy. The general occupation of these people is husbandry, and the rearing of bees for honey and wax. They possess much cunning and duplicity, and are never outwitted by the Moors, or entirely worsted by the troops of the Emperor, with whom they have had very frequent encounters, but have never been permanently subdued: they esteem it the greatest advantage possible to fight on their own territory. Their allegiance to the Emperor has often been secured by retaining their chiefs at court, conferring favours on them, appointing them to offices of state, and to seats in the Diwan; thus making them hostages, as it were, for the peaceable conduct of their respective Kabyles. The _Shelluhs_ inhabit the Atlas mountains, and their various branches south of Marocco; they live generally in walled habitations, or in towns, and are, for the most part, occupied in husbandry like the Berebbers, though differing from them in their language,[126] dress, and manners; they live almost entirely on (Assoua) barley meal made into gruel, and (Zimeta) barley roasted or granulated, which they mix with cold water, when travelling. They occasionally indulge in (_cuscasoe_) a nutritive farinaceous food, made of granulated flour, and afterwards boiled by steam, and mixed with butter, mutton, fowls, and vegetables. Many families among these people are reported to be descended from the Portuguese, who formerly possessed the ports on the coast; but who, after the discovery of America, gradually withdrew thither. East of Marocco, near Dimenet, on the Atlas mountains, there is still remaining a church, having inscriptions in Latin over the entrance, supposed to have been built by the Portuguese, which, being superstitiously reported to be haunted, has escaped destruction. The language of the Shelluhs is called Amazirk.