Ouled Nail Culture
Sources of information on the Ouled Nail (pronounced "ooooled nile") are few and far between. But what is certainly clear is that the women of the Ouled Nail (or Nayl) were famed for their belly dancing.
They were Arab Bedouins who mixed with Berber tribes and had an animal based religion predating Islam. Tribal villages of the Ouled Nayl extended from Biskra to Jelfa in Algeria. The tribe made its living out of its daughters, who from the age of 13 became dancers and courtesans in the cafes of Bou Saada and other Algerian oasis towns, collecting gold coins with which they would adorn their costumes. When they reached their 20s, and were considered to have lost some of their charm, they returned to their tribal homeland where their fiancés awaited to turn them into respectable wives and mothers.
Due to the pressures originating from Algeria's colonization by France in the 1830's, their once legendary dances and the dances' meanings have all but disappeared. The name Ouled Nayl means "Children of Nayl". Nayl was a saint whose tribal descendants called themselves "Nayliyat".
There is a book by Lawrence Morgan entitled "Flute of sand: Experiences with the mysterious Ouled Nail" but it appears to be out of print.
There also appears to have been an article and photographs in the January 1914 edition of National Geographic.
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