es not forget a kindness, and is a man whom one can respect. Yet it
is strange how soon a little power, and the need for satisfying the
demands of his superiors, will corrupt the mildest of them; and the
worst are to be found among families which have inherited office. The
best officials are those chosen from among retired merchants whose
palms no longer itch, and who, by intercourse with Europeans, have had
their ideas of life broadened.

The greatest obstacle to progress in Morocco is the blind prejudice
of ignorance. It is hard for the Moors to realize that their presumed
hereditary foes can wish them well, and it is suspicion, rather than
hostility, which induces them to crawl within their shell and ask to
be left alone. Too often subsequent events have shown what good ground
they have had for suspicion. It is a pleasure for me to be able to
state that during all the years that I have lived among them, often in
the closest intercourse, I have never received the least insult, but
have been well repaid in my own coin. What more could be wished?

[Illustration: _Photograph by Dr. Rudduck._

A BERBER VILLAGE IN THE ATLAS]

IV

THE BERBER RACE

"Every lion in his own forest roars."

_Moorish Proverb._

Few who glibly use the word "Barbarian" pause to consider whether the
present meaning attached to the name is justified or not, or whether
the people of Barbary are indeed the uncivilized, uncouth, incapable
lot their name would seem to imply to-day. In fact, the popular
ignorance regarding the nearest point of Africa is even greater than
of the actually less known central portions, where the white man
penetrates with every risk. To declare that the inhabitants of the
four Barbary States--Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Tripoli--are not
"Blackamoors" at all, but white like ourselves, is to astonish most
folk at the outset.

Of course in lands where the enslavement of neighbouring negro races
has been an institution for a thousand years or more, there is a
goodly proportion of mulattoes; and among those whose lives have been
spent for generations in field work there are many whose skins are
bronzed and darkened, but they are white by nature, nevertheless, and
town life soon restores the original hue. The student class of Fez,
drawn from all sections of the population of Morocco, actually makes
a boast of the pale and pasty complexions attained by life amid the
shaded cloisters and covered streets of t