"The first day of my arrival at the cloister I was assigned to Dom
Granger, and placed by him at work on the Atlas of Christianity. A
brief examination decided him as to what kind of service I was best
fitted to render. This is how I came to enter the studio devoted to
the cartography of Northern Africa. I did not know one word of Arabic,
but it happened that in garrison at Lyon I had taken at the Faculté
des Lettres, a course with Berlioux,--a very erudite geographer no
doubt, but obsessed by one idea, the influence the Greek and Roman
civilizations had exercised on Africa. This detail of my life was
enough for Dom Granger. He provided me straightway with Berber
vocabularies by Venture, by Delaporte, by Brosselard; with the
Grammatical Sketch of the Temahaq by Stanley Fleeman, and the Essai
de Grammaire de la langue Temachek by Major Hanoteau. At the end of
three months I was able to decipher any inscriptions in Tifinar. You
know that Tifinar is the national writing of the Tuareg, the
expression of this Temachek language which seems to us the most
curious protest of the Targui race against its Mohammedan enemies.
"Dom Granger, in fact, believed that the Tuareg are Christians, dating
from a period which it was necessary to ascertain, but which coincided
no doubt with the splendor of the church of Hippon. Even better than
I, you know that the cross is with them the symbol of fate in
decoration. Duveyrier has claimed that it figures in their alphabet,
on their arms, among the designs of their clothes. The only tattooing
that they wear on the forehead, on the back of the hand, is a cross
with four equal branches; the pummels of their saddles, the handles of
their sabres, of their poignards, are cross-shaped. And is it
necessary to remind you that, although Islam forbids bells as a sign
of Christianity, the harness of Tuareg camels are trimmed with bells?
"Neither Dom Granger nor I attach an exaggerated importance to such
proofs, which resemble too much those which make such a display in the
Genius of Christianity. But it is indeed impossible to refuse all
credence to certain theological arguments. Amanai, the God of the
Tuareg, unquestionably the Adonai of the Bible, is unique. They have a
hell, 'Timsi-tan-elekhaft,' the last fire, where reigns Iblis, our
Lucifer. Their Paradise, where they are rewarded for good deeds, is
inhabited by 'andjelousen,' our angels. And do not urge the
resemblance of this theology to the Koran, for I will meet you with
historic arguments and remind you that the Tuareg have struggled all
through the ages at the cost of partial extermination, to maintain
their faith against the encroachments of Mohammedan fanaticism.