THE MEDITERRANEAN PEOPLES—FISCHER. yal 
and especially well-watered valleys. All the settlements, however, 
are inaccessible and fortress-like, perched on an incline or a cliff 
in a commanding position and visible from a distance. The little 
low stone dwellings are generally built in a circle with their backs 
abutting on each other, so that they may form the surrounding wall 
of the little fortress, which is entered by a single gate. Even the 
more recent villages of the Fahcya around Tangier are built on this 
plan and with this sort of construction. They consist of nothing but 
hittle high lying groups of tiny straw-covered houses or huts woven 
of twigs (Gurbi). Three of these generally form an enclosed court, 
and the whole village is surrounded by a circular or rectangular 
wall made up of the back of the houses or of a thick, impenetrable 
hedge of opuntias or cacti. It is the same way in the Berber moun- 
tain nests of central Tunis, Bargu, and Kessera. Among the Fahgya 
there generally stands in the plaza in the interior the one-storied 
white-tinted house of the Moqaddem or magistrate, generally the 
wealthiest man of the village. In front of this house, under the 
shade of a tree, the Jemaa, or town council, is convened. Here also 
is situated the mosque, when present, generally nothing but a hut, 
where school is also held. It serves, too, as a sleeping place for 
Moslem guests. 
I found the Berber villages in the plains of southern Morocco also 
built in a circle and fortified by an impenetrable wall of thorns 
(Zizyphus Lotus Lu.) with only one entrance, which was closed at 
night also by a gate of thorns. It would not be an easy thing to 
storm one of these fortresses. Sometimes the lay of the country does 
not allow such a construction; then the little houses and courts ascend 
the slopes or terraces like an amphitheater and are generally perched 
on top of as steep declivities as possible. This method of settlement 
has put the Berbers in a position peculiarly syited to perpetuate their 
language and customs. The Romans were never able to conquer 
Jurjura, the so-called greater Kabylia, and therefore named it “ mons 
ferratus,” and the French have succeeded in doing this only after 
twenty-seven years of hard struggle. The Morrocan Atlas and Rif 
mountain regions are one great fortress of this kind. It is to be 
further remarked that the mountain Berbers generally build strong 
castles with stone or mud walls to which they bring all their stores 
and valuables, each family having a separate room. These castles 
serve as a place of refuge in war times. All the heights on the edge 
of the high Atlas Mountains to the south and east of Marrakesh, 
especially in Demnat and Entifa, are crowned with such strong- 
holds, resembling the ruined castles of Germany. These are called 
Tirremt. The strongholds in the upper Muluya region are like this 
also. They at once reminded me of the church fortresses of the 
