THE TUAREGS 233 others are locked in a murderous embrace, stabbing at each other with their daggers, or trying to crack each other's skulls with the stone amulet alluded to above.

At last one side wavers, inferior in strength or in numbers to the other. The warriors begin to flee, and the victors shout, " la ! ia ! Our adellin roiir' onen imzaden I " (" Ah ! ah ! There will be no violins for you ! ") And this sarcasm, which means that their wives will be angry and scorn them, often so stings the fugitives that they rally and go back to the struggle, eager to win the praises of their women on their return to their tents.

In these battles life is taken without pity or remorse ; but, as I have already said, when the victory is won the prisoners are spared. I have even been told by several very trustworthy authorities, that when peace is made on the request of one side or the other, the victors will entirely reclothe the prisoners taken before sending them home.

War, however, amongst the Tuaregs generally takes the form of raids, such as those in vogue with the Arabs.

Dangerous as are these raids, they offer the advantage of taking the enemy by surprise, and meeting him face to face instead of being attacked in the rear. Moreover, the profit if victorious is immediate, and the booty often considerable.

There is plenty of scope in them too for individual courage and for skill in stratagem, promptitude in attack, and for showing off what they greatly admire, the military virtues of endurance under privation, knowledge of the country to be traversed, and so on.

Here I must just add, by way of parenthesis, that one of the chief charges brought against the Tuaregs, that of being treacherous, is the result of this habit of theirs of falling unawares upon their foe. I really cannot blame them, however, for are not surprises and night attacks