st not
be forgotten in considering the question. Almost all these tribes
in the troublous districts carry European arms, instead of the more
picturesque native flint-lock: and as not a single gun is legally
permitted to pass the customs, there must be a considerable inlet
somewhere, for prices are not high.

II

THE PRESENT DAY

"What has passed has gone, and what is to come is distant;
Thou hast only the hour in which thou art."

_Moorish Proverb._

Far from being, as Hood described them, "poor rejected Moors who
raised our childish fears," the people of Morocco consist of fine,
open races, capable of anything, but literally rotting in one of the
finest countries of the world. The Moorish remains in Spain, as well
as the pages of history, testify to the manner in which they once
flourished, but to-day their appearance is that of a nation asleep.
Yet great strides towards reform have been made during the past
century, and each decade sees steps taken more important than the
last. For the present decade is promised complete transformation.

But how little do we know of this people! The very name "Moor" is
a European invention, unknown in Morocco, where no more precise
definition of the inhabitants can be given than that of
"Westerners"--Maghribin, while the land itself is known as "The
Further West"--El Moghreb el Aksa. The name we give to the country is
but a corruption of that of the southern capital, Marrakesh ("Morocco
City") through the Spanish version, Marueccos.

The genuine Moroccans are the Berbers among whom the Arabs introduced
Islam and its civilization, later bringing Negroes from their raids
across the Atlas to the Sudan and Guinea. The remaining important
section of the people are Jews of two classes--those settled in the
country from prehistoric times, and those driven to it when expelled
from Spain. With the exception of the Arabs and the Blacks, none of
these pull together, and in that case it is only because the latter
are either subservient to the former, or incorporated with them.

First in importance come the earliest known possessors of the land,
the Berbers. These are not confined to Morocco, but still hold the
rocky fastnesses which stretch from the Atlantic, opposite the
Canaries, to the borders of Egypt; from the sands of the Mediterranean
to those of the Sahara, that vast extent of territory to which we have
given their name, Barbary. Of these but a small proportion re