functional females (Wheeler). Small “males” are in some species constantly associated with large hermaphrodites, but according to Beard there are in some cases true dwarf males, comparable to the complementary males described by Darwin in the Cirripedia. The embryology of Myzostoma has been studied by Metchnikoff and Beard. Cleavage leads to the formation of an epibolic gastrula and ciliated embryo which hatches as a free-swimming larva remarkably like that of a Polychaete worm (D). The larva is provided with postoral and perianal ciliated bands, and on either side with a bunch of long provisional setae. The mesoderm becomes segmented, and the parapodia subsequently develop from before backwards; but almost all internal traces of segmentation are lost in the adult. The structure and development of the Myzostomida seem to show that they are nearly related to Polychaeta (see Chaetopoda), though highly modified in relation to their parasitic mode of life.
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Authorities.—L. v. Graff, Das Genus Myzostoma (Leipzig, 1877); and “The Myzostomida,” Challenger Reports (1884), vol. x.; E. Metchnikoff, Zeit. Wiss. Zool. (1866), vols. v., xvi.; J. Beard, Mitth. Z. St Neapel (1884), vol. v.; W. M. Wheeler, ibid. (1896), vol. xii. (E. S. G.)
MZABITES, or Beni-Mzab, a confederation of Berber tribes,
now under the direct authority of France. Of all the Berber
peoples the Mzabites have remained freest from foreign admixture.
Their own country is a region of the Algerian Sahara,
about 100 m. south of El-Aghuat. It consists of five oases close
together, viz. Ghardaia, Beni-Isguen, El-Ateuf, Melika and
Bu Nura, and two isolated oases farther north, Berrian and
Guerrara. The total population numbered at the 1906 census
45,996, of whom about 100 were Europeans and a very small
proportion Arabs and Jews. The Mzabites are of small and
slender figure, with very short necks and under-developed legs.
Their faces are flat, with short nose, thick lips and very deep-set
eyes, and their complexion pale. Their dress is a shirt of thick
wool, usually many-coloured. They are agriculturists, and are
also famed as traders. The butchers, fruiterers, bath-house
keepers, road-sweepers and carriers of the African littoral from
Tangier to Tripoli are nearly all Mzabites. Their industries, too,
are highly organized. The Mzabite burnouses and carpets are
found throughout North Africa. Their commercial honesty is
proverbial. Nearly all read and write Arabic, though in talking
among themselves they use the Zenata dialect of the Berber
language, for which, in common with other Berber peoples,
they have no written form surviving. They are Mahommedans,
of the Ibadite sect, and are regarded as heretics by the
Sunnites.
According to tradition the Ibadites, after their overthrow at Tiaret by the Fatimites, took refuge during the 10th century in the country to the south-west of Wargla, where they founded an independent state. In 1012, owing to further persecutions, they fled to their present quarters, where they long remained invulnerable. After the capture of El-Aghuat by the French, the Mzabites concluded with the Algerian government, in 1853, a convention by which they engaged to pay an annual contribution of £1800 in return for their independence. In November 1882 the Mzab country was definitely annexed to Algeria. Ghardaia (pop. 7868) is the capital of the confederation, and next in importance is Beni-Isguen (4916), the chief commercial centre. Since the establishment of French control, Beni-Isguen has become the dépot for the sale of European goods. French engineers have rendered the oases much more fertile than they used to be by a system of irrigation works. (See also Algeria.)
