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Life in Morocco and Glimpses Beyond by Budgett Meakin
page 60 of 396 (15%)
that this remarkable feature represents the All-seeing Eye, so often
used as a charm, but from the scanty information I could gather from
the people themselves, I believe that they have lost sight of the
original idea, though some have told me that variations in the
pattern mark clan distinctions. I have ridden--when in the guise of a
native--for days together in one of these cloaks, during pelting rain
which never penetrated it. In more remote districts, seldom visited by
Europeans, the garments are ruder far, entirely of undyed wool, and
unsewn, mere blankets with slits cut in the centre for the head. This
is, however, in every respect, a great difference between the various
districts. The turban is little used by these people, skull-caps
being preferred, while their red cloth gun-cases are commonly twisted
turban-wise as head-gear, though often a camel's-hair cord is deemed
sufficient protection for the head.

Every successive ruler of North Africa has had to do with the problem
of subduing the Berbers and has failed. In the wars between Rome and
Carthage it was among her sturdy Berber soldiers that the southern
rival of the great queen city of the world found actual sinews enough
to hold the Roman legions so long at bay, and often to overcome her
vaunted cohorts and carry the war across into Europe. Where else did
Rome find so near a match, and what wars cost her more than did those
of Africa? Carthage indeed has fallen, and from her once famed Byrsa
the writer has been able to count on his fingers the local remains of
her greatness, yet the people who made her what she was remain--the
Berbers of Tunisia. The Ph[oe]nician settlers, though bringing with
them wealth and learning and arts, could never have done alone what
they did without the hardy fighting men supplied by the hills around.

When Rome herself had fallen, and the fames of Carthage and Utica were
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