PREFACE

IT has been more than once suggested that among the
reviews of a new pubHcation there should be one from
the pen of its author, but that privilege is assured to him
already in a measure by the preface, which affords him
scope for the expression of his object and his principles,
and of the degree of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with
which he regards his completed task.

The chapters to which these lines are prefixed grew
out of an attempt to acquire some knowledge of the
antecedents of the Moors, the better to understand them
as they are to-day. Originally intended to form one
section only of a comprehensive volume, they have been
reduced to the narrowest possible limits, and all facts not
vital have been cast aside. The extreme compression
rendered necessary also by the crowded lives of pre¬
sumptive readers has precluded unimportant detail and
elaboration, so that instead of a word being added to
spin out the tale, a single epithet must frequently convey
the spirit of a well-digested chapter, or a few lines express
an opinion sifted from many volumes. The dual task
before me was of no slight difficulty, for it has been
my endeavour throughout to present in a popular form
a picture of sufficient detail accurately reproduced to
satisfy the student.

Those who seek for polished diction, or the swing of
a continuous narrative, must suffer disappointment. The
fact that the subject is almost new to English literature,