The change in the costume of the natives made it clear that we had left the people of the plains and entered into the country of mountaineers, for the length of their garments was much curtailed about the legs, and instead of the draggling and mud-stained skirts of the Arab there appeared the sinewy limbs of the children of the mountains. But peculiar to the Atlas we noticed here for the first time in general use the _khanif_ or _haidus_, the strange black-hooded cloak with its eye-shaped pattern in yellow or red in the centre of the back, the object of which no tradition seems to make mention, and no history to hint at. All that we know for certain of this strange garment is, that while it is not found throughout Algeria, it crops up again in the mountains near Tripoli. Putting aside all speculation as to the origin of the design, it must be added that the material of which these cloaks are made is an excellent one, the closely woven black goat-hair being impenetrable to cold and rain, and therefore excellently suited to the mountaineers of the bleak heights of the Atlas range. A few words must be said as to the general difference of costume between the Berbers and the Arabs. While the former wear the _jelab_, a hooded garment closed down the front, it is never found amongst the [Illustration: _Berbers._] Berbers, whose one desire as to clothing seems to be absolute freedom of limb. The _haik_, or toga-like garment of the Arabs, is used amongst the better-class Berbers, but merely as a luxury. Their typical costume consists of the _chamira_, or long loose shirt reaching from the neck to below the knees, and the _haidus_ above, the open hooded cloak called by the Arabs _s’lham_. This in the case of the mountaineers takes the form of the black goat’s-hair article, and in that of the Berbers of the plains of a thick but finely woven garment of white wool. The one distinguishing mark in the costume of the two races, however, is the following: while the Arab loves to gird his waist with a sash or leather belt, the Berbers have the greatest objection to anything of the sort, and seldom, if ever, wear either. Some exception to these customs can always be found in the case of Berbers who have left their native lands to work in the Moorish cities, and here they can often be found in dress absolutely resembling in every detail that of the poorer class of townspeople; but this is owing far more to necessity than option, for the local Berber materials cannot be found, except rarely, in the Moorish towns.