a wedding in Kabylie, late 19th century, Algeria

In the past, some weddings in Kabylia were celebrated with a pomp that fascinated European travelers. The festivities could last on average three days. To give the wedding all its splendor, large sacks of wheat (for couscous), live lambs (soon sacrificed and cooked) were brought. Traveling singers and musicians used to come and perform admirable love songs and made the women dance (for the scarf dance) and the men dance (for the stick dance).
This engraving is the work of late 19th-century travelers, linked to colonial interests, who wanted to showcase this part of the French Empire.