Now it was these tribes who so loathed a foreign yoke, and fled further and further into the desert before the invaders of their country, who were the forefathers of the present Imochars. With regard to the Awellimiden, their very name indicates their origin; they are the descendants (_uld lemta_) of the Lemta or Lemtuma, a Sahara tribe which conquered and finally absorbed all its neighbours of the same stock. All this may perhaps be called actual history. Now for some of the legends of which the Awellimiden Tuaregs are so fond. Great lovers of the marvellous, they account for their origin thus. I will translate as literally as possible what one of them actually told me: “I say the ancestors of the Imochars were no other than genii. “The women of a village called Alkori went one night to dance in the bush, and there they fell asleep. “Presently they were surprised by some genii, who, surrounding them before they were fully awake, embraced them. “In the morning the women returned to the village. “When a few moons had risen and died (that is to say, when a few months had passed), the men of the village saw that the women were about to become mothers. “The chief of the village therefore cried, ‘Seize them and put them to death!’ “But the cadi replied, ‘No, let us wait until the children are born.’ “So they waited until nine moons had risen and died, when each woman gave birth to a boy. “Some men said, ‘Now let us kill the mothers and the children.’ “The cadi replied, ‘No, let us wait till they are older, none but God can create a soul.’ “So they waited. “The boys grew, and as time went on fought with the other children of the village; and they made for themselves weapons of iron, swords and daggers, such as had hitherto been unknown in the country. “The chiefs then said, ‘If we do not put them to death these boys will become our masters. Let us kill them at once, before they come to their full strength.’ “To which every one replied, ‘Yes, yes! you are right!’ “They then sent a messenger to call the uncles of the young fellows, and said to them, ‘What we wish is that you should kill your nephews, and if you do not we will kill you.’ “To this the uncles answered, ‘We have no wish but to comply with your demand, but we do not know how to put to death our nearest relations. You take our weapons and do with them what you will.’ “‘Very well,’ said the chief. ‘You had better leave the village now and return here to-morrow evening.’ “So they left; but one of them managed to warn his sister of what was in the wind, so that the sons of the genii knew what to expect. “They therefore ran away, walking all night until the dawn, when they climbed a mountain. “In the morning the chief of the village beat the war-drum, and the horses were saddled. “The people followed the boys till they came to the mountain they had climbed, when they lost all traces of them. “Meanwhile one of the children had said, ‘Shall we have to fight here?’