This last is still in force among the Touaregs of the Sahara, and I have previously spoken of the great independence which their women enjoy, and especially the rich and noble ladies. At Rhât, for example, by inheritances and by the accumulation of productions, it has come to pass that nearly the whole of the real property has fallen into the hands of the women.[1058] We know that in ancient Egypt, where the Berbers were largely represented, the women also enjoyed a very similar position. As a consequence of this _régime_, the rights and pretensions of the Berber ladies have become so inconvenient for the men, that many of them prefer to marry slaves.[1059] The family among the Touaregs will surely evolve, as it formerly did in Egypt, and as it has done with the Kabyles, where the most rigorous patriarchate has at length replaced the ancient maternal family. In Kabyle, however, traces of the ancient organisation, anterior to Rome and to Islamism, still exist. The Kabyle village has, in its tribe, a political personality which strongly recalls the clan. Many customs, indeed, are evident survivals of an ancient communal organisation. Thus, with the Kabyles, mutual assistance between fellow-citizens is a strict duty. Even in a foreign land the fellow-citizen must be helped, at the risk of all interests and at the peril of one’s life. Whoever fails in this duty incurs public contempt; he is even punished with a fine, and made responsible for the losses suffered by the deserted compatriot. Even the Kabyle of another tribe must, at need, be succoured, or his tribe may bring a plaint before the _djemâa_ of the tribe to which the egoist belongs, and the latter is punished or reprimanded. In a Kabyle village, when an individual erects a building, he has a right to the assistance of all the inhabitants. In the same way the greater part of the field labour is performed by mutual assistance.[1060] But all this refers to the men; for women there remains no trace either of the maternal family or of the more or less serious advantages which it generally confers on wives and mothers. One custom, however, and one only, still recalls ancient manners; this is “the right of rebellion,” of which I have spoken elsewhere. We are acquainted with the date at which the last seal was placed on the subjection of the Kabyle woman. It was only a hundred and twenty years ago that the men refused henceforth a legal position to women in the succession of males.[1061] At present the Kabyle woman, whether married or not, no longer inherits.[1062]