4/2 MAN : PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



was followed by the advent of the Romans on the ruins of the 



Carthaginian empire. The Romans have certainly 



Elements in left distinct traces of their presence, and some of 



the Aures highlanders still proudly call themselves 



Rumaniya. These Shawias (" Pastors ") form a numerous group, 



all claiming Roman descent, and even still keeping certain Roman 



and Christian feasts, such as Bu Ini, i.e. Christmas ; lunar or 



January (New Year's Day) ; Spring (Easter), &c. A few Latin 



words also survive such as urtho hortus ; kern'ish = quercus 



(evergreen oak); milli = milliarium (milestone). 



After the temporary Vandal occupation came the great Arab 

 invasions of the yth and later centuries, and even these had been 

 preceded by the kindred Ruadites, who had in pre-Moslem times 

 already reached Mauritania from Arabia. With the Jews, some of 

 whom had also reached Tripolitana before the New Era, a steady 

 infiltration of Negroes from Sudan, and the recent French, Spanish, 

 Italian, and Maltese settlers, we have all the elements that go to 

 make up the cosmopolitan population of Mauritania. 



But amid them all the Berbers and the Arabs stand out as the 

 immensely predominant factors, still distinct despite 



Arab and . . . 



Berber Con- their common Hamito-Semitic origin and later inter- 



+ t*o cfc 



minglings. The Arab remains above all a nomad 

 herdsman, dwelling in tents, without house or hamlet, a good 

 stock-breeder, but a bad husbandman, and that only on com- 

 pulsion. "The ploughshare and shame enter hand in hand into 

 the family," says the national proverb. To find space for his 

 flocks and herds he continues the destructive work of Carthaginian 

 and Roman, who ages ago cleared vast wooded tracts for their 

 fleets and commercial navies, and thus helped to deteriorate the 

 North African climate. 



The Berber on the contrary loves the sheltering woodlands ; 

 he is essentially a highlander who carefully tills the forest glades, 

 settles in permanent homes, and often develops flourishing in- 

 dustries. Arab society is feudal and theocratic, ruled by a 

 despotic Sheikh, while the Berber with his Jemaa, or " Witenage- 

 mot," and his Kanun or unwritten code, feels himself a freeman ; 

 and it may well have been this democratic spirit, inherited by his 

 European descendants, that enabled the western nations to take 



