THE HELOT.
Three days which I spent at Dar el Baida were occupied in a hot contest
with my soldiers, and every person in the town seemed to have got
involved on the one side or the other. They insisted on my returning
straight by the sea-road to Rabat. The ingenuity and perseverance they
displayed was of the highest order, considering that every step they
took was a failure. Their object was to get back as soon as they could;
but, as they dared neither leave nor constrain me, I successfully
opposed the _vis inertiæ_ to all their devices. At last they gave in,
declaring they were ready to accompany me when, where, and how I liked;
but, just as we were setting forth, and were all assembled on horseback
near the only gate, I discovered a fresh plot to frustrate a boar-hunt,
which I had fixed for the following day.
I slipped off my horse, and gliding round a corner, and otherways
deceiving their vigilance or observation, I got away without being
observed by any one, for the whole of the inhabitants were collected to
see the start. There was but this one gate; but in my archæological
researches I had discovered a part of the wall which was scalable: I
made for it, got over, and dropped on the other side. After sitting on
their horses’ backs for better than an hour, and fatiguing their poor
necks, they got alarmed, instituted a search, ransacked the town, and
were at their wits’ end, when a gardener entered the gate with his ass,
bearing a load of mussels, which, he informed them “the Nazarene” had
gathered on the rocks off the “point.” They now started in pursuit,
accompanied by every person in the place who could muster a horse or
mule. I was seated on the top of the promontory as they galloped up. I
was prepared for a frantic scene, but the first glimpse, as their faces
came in sight over the cheek of the hill, satisfied me that they had
passed into a new phase. I had entered on the hereditary privileges of
a saint or madman. I was adjured and entreated, and suffered myself to
be lifted on the horse brought for me, and from that hour experienced
nothing but affability, and the readiest assent to whatever I proposed.
At the boar-hunt next day they mustered on foot, stripped off their
sulams and haïks, ready to join in the sport, and one of them sent a
bullet through a boar’s heart.
After a few days spent in hunting, we were at our last bivouac before
entering Rabat; and again amongst the Ziaïda, we entered a douar
without parley, trusting to Sheik Tibi’s authority, but were bluntly
told that they had “no room.” After some talk, our men marched out of
the circle, and commenced unloading the camels fifty yards off. I
was delighted at the thought of a quiet night away from the cattle,
dogs, and “Lancasterian method;” but this was only a ruse. Presently
a chief came out, and seized in his arms the pole, with the pendant
roof ready to be stretched. Our people, after a simulated attempt to
pitch, yielded, and tent and baggage were carried into the centre. Some
of the tribe inquiring who and what we were, a grotesque attendant,
with a face like a mask, and a mouth like a cavern, replied instantly,
“This,” pointing to me, “furnishes the Sultan with guns, gunpowder, and
balls, for he is a great friend of his. This,” pointing to Mr. Sernya,
“is the representative of the seven kings of Christendom, and I am Abd
Rachman of Sus.” I asked how it could come into his head, to say that I
furnished guns and gunpowder to the Sultan? He answered, “I wished to
make them know that it was good for us that you were here, and I spoke
what they could comprehend.”
Here was a living hieroglyphic, exactly the manner in which the old
Egyptians took, to figure things in lines and drawings. What they
looked to, was the phantasm produced upon the mind. Hanno, in his
Periplus, the moment he turned Cape Spartel, comes upon flocks of
pasturing elephants, and these elephants were unknown to the Egyptians,
as they were unknown amongst the Greeks, until Alexander sent one home.
Consider then the enormous prices paid for ivory; how completely the
Phœnicians kept the ancients in ignorance of the sources of the supply
even in their neighbourhood. But I refer to this, not on account of
the ancient quadruped population of Mauritania, or the commerce of the
Mediterranean, or the traffic of the Phœnicians, but as illustrating
the hieroglyphic method of introducing me by my Breber attendant. The
first notice that we have of the elephant, is amongst the Ethiopian
tribute to Tothmas the Third; that is to say, I find there the
elephant, though there are no signs of it in the figures. There are
two bulls with curious little heads of Blackamoors between the horns,
which at the extremity are divided as if they were antlers.[79] Now in
this I read “Elephant.” The tusk in all ancient languages was called
_horn_, the trunk _hand_. The painter had to represent a “bull with
horns and hands.”[80] But as bulls had already horns, there was nothing
remarkable therein. How to give a bull a hand was a matter of some
difficulty. By placing the little human head upon the centre of the
forehead, the symbolical character of horn and hand was achieved.
During the discussion respecting our admission to the douar, the word
“Helot,” was shouted out by a sharp lad, who insisted on taking me
under his protection. This was the gist of the matter--we were Helots,
and I wondered if it was some Spartan mode of expressing contempt. It
was the very Spartan word, and the Helots of Laconica and the Kabyles
of Algeria are derived from the distinction--of which I was now made
aware--between the Ziaïde _el Gaba_ and the Ziaïde _Helots_, and which
I suppose would be more accurately rendered Ziaïde _el Gabal_ and
Ziaïde _el Loto_.
Marmol speaks of them as a tribe; he says, “The whole country between
Fez and Morocco is peopled with Beribas and Helots, who are a mixture
of Africans and Arabs, besides other powerful Arab tribes who possess
the country, and pasture their flocks between Fez and the sea. The two
most powerful races of Mauritania and Tangitana, are the Ibue Maliks
Sophean, and the Helots. They furnish 11,000 horse to the Sultan.”
In our boar-hunting expeditions, we constantly stopped to gather
blackberries from a tree between the olive and the myrtle, which,
afterwards, when I had the opportunity of consulting authorities, I
found to be the very _Lotus_.[81]
Add to Loto the Arabic article, and you have at once Heloto, Helot.
Unless I had been particular in my inquiries, I should have imagined
that Heloto was the name of a people. A descriptive term derived from
the tree may have therefore been applied in Greece, and mistaken by
travellers in Sparta, or commentators at Athens, just as this has been
mistaken by Marmol and Bochart.
The turpentine-tree had also the same name, _eloth_, and it is curious
that the same learned critic has derived the names of the two Jewish
roots, from exactly the same distinction as that which prevails between
the two branches of the Ziaïde. Eloth from the tree, Ezion Gaber from
the rocky nature of the country.[82] He traces the etymology by a
different process, which I will not follow. I content myself with the
coincidence of results.
There was a plant of the name as well as a tree. The Egyptian Lotus was
a stock that came up by the water with a head like a poppy, containing
grains like millet. They were allowed to ferment, and then dried and
pounded. It was the lightest and pleasantest of bread when eaten warm;
but, like Indian corn, became heavy and indigestible when cold. Those
who lived on it suffered from no diseases of the stomach. It was
therefore considered a cure for all these.
The tree was the object of religious veneration, and was brought
to Italy at a very early age.[83] It was planted in the temenas of
temples. The deities so distinguished were those peculiarly Asiatic.
One at the temple of _Diana Lucina_, was four hundred and fifty years
old in the time of Augustus: it was called Capellata, because the
_Vestal Virgins_ brought them and concentrated their hair. Another,
equally remarkable for its enormous roots, stood by the temple of
Vulcan. The word lotophagoi was derived from the tree, not the plant,
for Pliny applies to the tree what Homer has said of the lotus and
its fruit. The plant has played a part in nomenclature, such as no
other can aspire to, not even the laurel, cedar, myrtle, platanus, or
oak--giving its name to a people in Homeric time, and continuing to do
so after thirty centuries. It may not therefore be so extravagant to
look for traces of the name, to the north of the Mediterranean, whither
not only the Phœnician rites, but the tree itself had been transplanted.
The origin of the Helots is a mystery: the Doric conquerors of Laconia
subjugated the original inhabitants, and these are distinguished
into two classes, the Perioikoi, and the Helots; the Perioikoi, or
“Dwellers around,” was a general term applying to the Messenians, and
Laconians. The Helots being distinguished from them, must have been of
a different race.[84]
The fables, which strangers coming to Sparta report of their manners,
and their introduction into public festivals, preserves to us distinct
features and characters which, as Müller suggests, identify them with
those people of Asia Minor who worshipped the Great Mother.
Such a connexion might in some degree account for that very
extraordinary event, the colonization of Cyrena by Spartans, which is
the reverse of the current of ancient colonies. It furnishes also a
key to the idea of the people of Judæa, of their relationship with the
Spartans. When the Jews sent ambassadors to Rome, they directed them to
go and salute their brethren at Sparta.
Commentators and etymologists have endeavoured to explain the fact
away, but the shout of the child in this sheepfold, while pointing,
“There Helots;”[85] and “Here El Gaba!” seems to me to throw light
upon portions of Greek history, which Thucydides has not elucidated,
and which Potter and Fuller have not explained, and on passages of the
Maccabees and Josephus, which Michaelis has amended and explained into
nonsense and confusion. As to the name Helot, we are left equally in
the dark. That it was not their own name for themselves is shown by the
etymology suggested, and no one would accept it, but because he can
find no other. The derivation from the town _Helos_ is ungrammatical,
and would only shift the difficulty of admitting its derivation from
the participle of the verb “to capture;” the word, however, occurs in
another shape. There was a festival called Heloteia--the Helotean--the
festival of the Loto. It was held in Crete (a Phœnician settlement).
It was to commemorate the rape of the Phœnician Europa. Here is a new
puzzle. Again is introduced the easy expedient of the participle; then
it is supposed that the Phœnicians called a virgin Helotes. Bochart
exposes the absurdity of these suggestions, and remarks that Europa
was no longer a virgin when she came to Crete. He derives it from
_Halloth_, Hebrew for _epithalamium_, forgetting his own objection of
the minute before, and moreover that her marriage could not well be
celebrated after her death; besides, there was another festival called
Heloteia at Corinth, where there was no question of “virgin,” or of
“capture,” or of “marriage.” It was held to commemorate the staying
of a plague. Having then swept away all these suppositions, let us
see what the Heloteia was. It was a festival in honour of Europa. The
_boves_ were carried in procession, and surrounded by an _enormous
wreath_ or garland, thirty feet in circumference. This garland had a
name: it was _Hellotis_, Ἑλλωτίς [Hellôtis].
It was not uncommon to designate festivals after the garlands which
surrounded the objects of veneration. That for the return of the
Heraclidæ was called _Stemmataïa_, from the garlands round the figure
of the rafts upon which they came into Peloponnesus. It is said,
indeed, that the Hellotis was a garland of myrrh. The Loto is very like
myrrh. The Greeks adopted the myrrh itself from the Easterns. It was
appropriated to funeral ceremonies. It is mentioned by Nehemiah as one
of the four trees used in the festival of the tabernacles, and classed
with the palm, the olive, and the fir. In the traditions of Arabia,
Adam fell from Paradise with three things--“A branch of myrrh, a date,
and an ear of corn.”
The word is found, little altered, scattered all over Greece. There
is the district of Elatea in Epirus, Elatea city of Phocis, Helos in
Laconia, Helos again in Macedonia, Laitæ on the Sperchius, and Hellopia
is so often repeated, that it must have been a generic term. It applies
to one third of the island of Eubœa. It is also a town there. It is
found again to the south-east of the Pindus, and it is the name given
to the district of Dordona. But it does not stand alone. The multitude
of Phœnician and Hebrew names could never have been found there,
unless it had been inhabited some time by tribes speaking the one or
the other language; as for instance, the Laleges, the Bryges, and the
Helots. The twin term to Loto has played a not less important part. It
has penetrated into all the languages of Europe, and is spread over a
large portion of what to the ancients was the known world. It is still
to be traced in the name of the mountains, which were the limit between
the Phœnician and Celtic races. We have it in Gabii of the Etruscans;
we have it in the centre of Africa; we have in the Holy Land, _Gaba_,
_Geba_, _Gabala_, _Gibeon_,[86] _Gibbethon_, _Gibeah_,[87] _Gebal_,[88]
the _Gabenes_. The Solymi in Asia Minor (who we are told spoke Hebrew)
are called by Strabo (Καβάλλεις [Kaballeis]) _Cabailes_,[89] from
the rugged nature of their country. Gabatha was a Hebrew term for
rugged countries,[90] also for stones, thence for building, and thence
_Gebil_ was builder; this was then used as an epithet of God--the
“master-builder.”[91] Thus, _Gavel-kind_[92] and _Gibelee_, tobacco
(lotchia), _Cybele_ with her crown of towers,[93] the _Gabelles_ of
France and _Cabals_, Caballus, Cheval, Cavalry, &c.; the strength of
the Cabyle is estimated at the number of horse.[94] As the Ziaïda are
called Heloto from the woody country, so were their cognate tribes in
Laconia; and as the Ziaïda are called Gaba from the rocky country,[95]
so were their cognate tribes, the Solymi, in Asia Minor.
The numbers of the tribes were given me as follows:
_Ziaïda et Gaba._
Tents.
Ouled Talca } 100
Ouled Califa }
Ouled Taninia } 700
Ouled Yahia }
Ouled Zada } 300
Ouled Hamed }
Druri Ouled Tarfea 300
Beni Oura 300
---- 1700
_Ziaïda Helota._
Ouled Arif } 500
Ouled Tirem }
Ouled Kidamia 150
----
650
----
2350
====
The province of Shonayea contains the
Ziaïda 2300
Mediuna 6000
Zien Usualem 8000
Herris }
Ali } 16,000
Emdacra }
Ensub 4000
Buris 36,000
------
72,300
======
The province pays 70,000 ducats. Tedlu pays the same, and is composed
of
Beni Heran.
Ismala.
Beni Calif.
Ouled Efkar-Kiber.
Beni Efkar Segir.
Beni Zamia.
Ouled Smir.
Oniti Urbah.
Beni Mousa.
Beni Sepkdan.
Beni Melal.
Beni Madan.
Ducala without the Brebers pays the same.
[79] This group may be seen in plaster, full size,
in the British Museum.
[80] Heeren quotes the hand-like horns, in support
of a theory of his, that the Africans artificially
trained the horns of cattle, and he infers from the
absence of the elephant in this procession, that that
animal had not then been rendered serviceable to man.
“Long-horned cattle, whose heads are ornamented
with the hands and heads of Negroes, probably
artificial. They would scarcely have decapitated
their own people to adorn their offering to a foreign
prince.”--WILKINSON’S _Thebes_, vol. ii. p. 224.
[81] Ὁ δὲ καρπὸς ἡλικὸς κύαμος πεπαίνεται δὲ ὥσπερ
οἱ βότρυες, μεταβάλλων τὰς χροιάς. Φύεται δὲ καθάπερ
τὰ μύρτα παράλληλα, πύκνος ἐπὶ τῶν βλαστῶν, ἐσθιόμενος
δὲ ἐν τοῖς Λωτοφάγοις καλουμένοις γλυκὺς, ἡδὺς, καὶ
ἀσινής. [Ho de karpos hêlikos kuamos pepainetai de
hôsper hoi botrues, metaballôn tas chroias. Phuetai de
kathaper ta myrta parallêla, pyknos epi tôn blastôn,
esthiomenos de en tois Lôtophagois kaloumenois glykys,
hêdys, kai asinês.]--THEOPHR. l. iv. c. 4.
[82] “Nomen _Elath_ etiam _Eloth_ est a terebinthis,
quæ arbor est frequens, &c.”--CHANAAN, lib. i. c. 43.
“A vicinia talis alicujus ῥαχίας [rhachias] dicta
est _Azion Gaber_.”--Ibid.
[83] The wood was used for the handles of swords
and daggers, and for musical instruments; the bark
served to colour leather, the root to dye wool.--PLINY,
_Nat. Hist._ l. xxi. c. 21.
Virgil speaks of the myrtle as furnishing weapons
for war, and the Swiss still use it for dyeing and
tanning.
[84] By submitting to Spartan discipline, Helots
became Spartans.--ZELES _apud Stob. Florileg_, 40, 8.
In the Messinian war, a Helot was taken to replace
each Spartan who had fallen. They were called _Epunactæ_.
[85] Chrest. Arabe vii.-xi. p. 285.
[86] “A city situated on a hill.”--DENNIS.
[87] There were two places so called. “It is certain
there was a place called _Gibeah_ on a _hill_ near
Kerjath Jearim.”--ONNON.
[88] The same name occurs in Josephus: _Gibalene_--
Gabale--Pliny. From the same place Solomon had his stone
cutters, _Giblites_.--BROWN. See Wilson’s “Lands of the
Bible,” vol. ii. p. 40.
[89] Derived by Bochart from גבליה _Gabala_.
[90] Φοῖνιξ δὲ γλῶσσα Γάδαρα λέγει τοὺς λιθοστρώτους,
ὡς οἱ Ἑβραῖοι Γαβαθὰ τοποὺς λιθοστρώτους. [Phoinix de
glôssa Gadara legei tous lithostrôtous, hôs hoi Hebraioi
Gabatha topous lithostrôtous.]--TZETZES, _Chil._ 8 _Hist._ 216.
[91] Master-builder, algabil אלגאבל; whence Heliogabalus.
[92] _Gavel-kind_, a word Arabic and Teutonic,
signifying what it is, “tribe-children.”
[93] The name is attempted to be derived from κύπτω
[kyptô], because she made her followers bow their
heads. This is nonsensical. I have shown elsewhere that
_kupto_ and _tupto_ come from the Moorish term _tapia_.
_Gaballa_, in the old Spanish dictionaries, is given
for _market-place_. The _alcavala_ was ten per cent.
imposed at the market on all sales.
[94] From the Arabic we have _hack_, _nag_, and
_horse_. _Haca_, a camel in the seventh year; _naga_,
a she-camel; _hors_, an epithet of fleetness; whence
also, perhaps, _hoarne_.
[95] The country they _at present_ inhabit is
neither woody nor rocky. I at first took the word
_gaba_ for _garb_, west.