The Prehistoric Age. — The earliest inhabitants of North Africa were
certainly contemporary with the quaternary mammalia : the elephant, the
hippopotamus, the rhinoceros, the giraffe, the zebra, etc., a whole tropical
fauna, that has now disappeared. They then made use of stone weapons and
flint instruments, such as are still found in many places. Morocco possesses
many caves dug in the rocks and of difficult access, the slielter of prehistoric
man; scenes carved in stone show huntsmen, theii heads adorned with ostrich
feathers, and armed wilh bows and tomahawks; also dogs, elephants, oxen,
lions, panthers and ostriches. It is not easy give an opinion as to the date of
these carvings and grottoes, just as it is impossible to determine the age of
the megalithic monuments — dolmens, barrows and cromlechs — that are
also to be found in Morocco.

The Primitive Berbers. — We are still ignorant of the history and origin of
the early Berbers, the old inhabitants of North Africa, who are almost every¬
where the main element of the population, and whose race has remained un-
mingledin such regions as Aures and, the Jurjura Kabylia, in Algeria, the Rif,
the slopes of the Atlas and some Saharan parts of Morocco. As was stated
above, these Berbers spoke, and still speak, a language connected with those
of Egypt and Abyssinia : they had a peculiar alphabet, which is still used by
the Saharan THaregs : they held intercourse with the other Mediterranean
people and in the xiv and xiii c. B. C, they came near achieving the conquest
of Egypt, where they were known by the name of Lybians. Some were nomads,
others farmers : all were somewhat civilized, as their tombs, stone-carvings and
articles of furniture testify. On the other hand, their ethnic type is not per¬
fectly established; many of them, with their broad shoulders and narrow hips,
recall the natives of the valley of the Nile; but a great number of indi\iduals
of the tribes untainted with Arab blood resemble the inhabitants of Spain,
Italy, and Southern France, and belong to the same dark race, generally
small, energetic and vigorous; many, too, are fair. In short the Berbers
belong to a linguistic and not to an ethnic family. Berbers are spoken of in
Latin texts under the names of Numidians, Getulie, or Moors.

The Punic Period. — As early as the xii c. B. C, the Phoenicians founded
settlements on the African coasts. Foremost of these was Carthage, which
became a powerful State and whose conquest the Romans archieved only
after long and hard fights known as the Punic wars. Towards the middle of
the V c. the Carthaginians, under the leadership of Hannon, the famous peri-
plus, organised an expedition which reached Sierra Leone and on their way,
they founded colonies on the Moroccan coast. Like the rest of Barbary,
Morocco was then surrounded by Carthaginian trading factories ; Rusaddir
(Melilla), Tingis (Tangier), Lixiis (near Laraish), Sla (Salee), Anfa (Casa¬
blanca) are the best known. Methodic excavations will doubtless reveal
their real importance.

The Roman Period, — Rome, which took the place of Carthage, definitely
conquered in the ii c. B. C, long followed the same policy towards the natives,'