THE TUAREGS 237 mother," they say, " but not of one's father. That is why a race less noble than our own have adopted the custom of inheritance from uncle to nephew. They are sure that in the veins of the latter flows the blood of the former."

The rest of the Tuaregs, however, who have always been noted for their gallantry, date the origin of the so-called Beni-Omia law from Gheres, the father of the Kel Gheres.

Gheres, they say, had a wife named Fatimata Azzer'a, and a sister called Gherinecha. Each of them had a son ; the child of the former was called Ituei, that of the latter, R'isa.

Now Gheres, feeling old age gaining on him, wished to prove his wife. He pretended he was ill, and went to consult an old sorcerer who dwelt in a hut on a lofty dune, from which he never came down into the plains. There was no well there, and the sorcerer had neither sheep nor oxen nor camels, none knew what he drank or what he ate.

On his return to his camp after his visit to the sorcerer, Gheres sent for his wife and said to her — " Woman, thou alone canst cure me. My days are numbered unless I can anoint my body with magic ointment made from the brains of a child. Give me thy son."

" My son is mine," replied Fatimata ; " I have had the trouble of bearing and rearing him. It is true I love thee next to him, but even if thy life depend on it, I will not have him die."

The chief then sent for Gherinecha and made the same demand of her as he had of his wife.

" After thee, my brother," she said, " I love R'isa best. But if God inflicts on me the anguish of choosing between thee and him, I choose. Take thou the child, do as the sorcerer bids thee, and may Allah protect thee."

So Gheres hid his nephew in the bush, killed a kid, took its brains, rubbed his body with them and returned to his