The Kabyles profess to be Mohammedans of the Sunnite branch of Islam, but they are a source of scandalization to their Arab coreligionists by reason of their laxity in religious matters, their failure to obey the precepts of the Koran. They observe Sunday instead of Friday as their day of prayer; they eat the meat of the wild boar and drink a highly potent brandy made from figs, though the use of pork and alcohol is strictly forbidden to all True Believers; they honor the fast of Ramadan in the breach rather than in the observance and seldom take the trouble to perform the ablutions required of good Mohammedans; and, though tattooing is prohibited by Koranic laws, all the women have a cross tattooed in dark blue on the forehead between the eyebrows, and most of the men bear the same symbol on the arm or the palm of the hand—a survival, it is asserted by some, of the days when North Africa was Christian and the cross was a token which exempted its wearer from certain forms of taxation. Alert, energetic, and enterprising, the Kabyle is immensely superior to the Arab in industry, as he is in honesty, reliability, and intelligence. He gives the impression, in short, of being, as he is, the descendant of men who have lived in sturdy independence, self-respecting, self-reliant, and self-governing. That he makes one of the finest soldiers in the world the French discovered to their cost during the great Kabylian revolt in 1871; indeed, he has never been fully subjugated, regarding with contemptuous indifference the grim French fort which now frowns down upon his villages from the mountains. The Kabyle is frequently found far afield—serving in the armies of France (on the battle-fields of the World War the Kabyle battalions covered themselves with German blood and glory), as a workman in the cities along the littoral, as a field-laborer in the Tell, as an itinerant trader or peddler laboriously earning the wherewithal to buy a bit of land and build himself a home in his native village. In their social tendencies the Kabyles are distinctly communistic; property is often owned by the family in common, and a man can call upon his fellow-villagers for assistance under certain circumstances, such as tilling a field or building a house. The Kabyle’s village is his state, the government being vested in an assembly composed of all adult males, the poorest inhabitants having as great a voice in village affairs as the richest. Kabylia consists, in short, of a great number of town democracies, each absolutely independent so far as its internal affairs are concerned, loosely bound together in a sort of confederation.