Worse still, the F.L.N. seemed to be switching their attacks from barracks and police stations to “softer” targets. Brutal murders of Muslim “friends of France”, from caids to humble village constables, multiplied, totalling eighty-eight in April alone, with a similar number hideously mutilated — as a terrible warning for the rest. At the same time the F.L.N. issued an edict enforcing a ban on Muslims smoking or drinking alcohol, as an economic blow against the pied noir tobacco- or vine-growers like Senator Borgeaud. Penalty for a first offence was the cutting off of lips or nose; for a second, égorgement — or what the army dubbed with black humour, “the Kabyle smile”. Most nations have their favourite unpleasant way of death; to the Algerians throat-slitting is associated with the killing of sheep, and therefore the most humiliating fate an enemy can be made to suffer.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 352