are common to several literatures, even when the principal person bears
another name.

The popular poetry consists of two great divisions, quite different as to
subject. The first and best esteemed bears the name of Klam el Djedd, and
treats of that which concerns the Prophet, the saints, and miracles. A
specimen of this class is the complaint relative to the rupture of the Dam
of St. Denis of Sig, of which the following is the commencement:

"A great disaster was fated:[9]
The cavalier gave the alarm, at the moment of the break;
The menace was realized by the Supreme Will,
My God! Thou alone art good.
The dam, perfidious thing,
Precipitated his muddy Legions,
With loud growlings.
No bank so strong as to hold him in check.

"He spurred to the right,
The bridges which could not sustain his shock fell
Under his added weight;
His fury filled the country with fear, and he
Crushed the barrier that would retain him."

[9] Delphin et Genis. Notes sur la Poesie et la musique Arabes dans le
Maghreb Algerien, pp. 14-16. Paris, 1886.

As to the class of declamatory poems, one in particular is popular in
Algiers, for it celebrates the conquest of the Maghreb in the eleventh
century by the divers branches of the Beni-Hilal, from whom descend almost