22 Proceedimj^ of the Royal Irish Academij. 



had a city on the Niger, and their influence extended across the Sahara, they 

 must have been more civilized in the sixth century B.C. than their present 

 representatives, whom we must look on as the remnant of a decadent race 

 rather than the beginnings of a ne^. The traditions and customs, the 

 symbology and beliefs of the people of the twin kingdoms of Kongo and 

 Kakongo, the relation of the two kingdoms to each other, their many titles 

 and customs on making and burying kings, and the spuitual headship of the 

 king of Kongo, as shown by Mr. E. E. Dennett in his book, " At the Back of 

 the Black Man's ilind," all seem to point towards a northern origin or influence. 

 These people, from the earliest we know of them, have been much given to 

 cannibalism, and have suffered perhaps more than any others from slave raids. 



The Libyans, then strangers to the desert, found it habitable and fertile ; 

 and their numerous herds and extensive clearings decreased the already none 

 too liberal supply of moisture, so that in their progress they left behind vast 

 uninhabitable sand plains, which, on aecoimt of their flocks, forced them ever 

 onwards, transforming them from a settled people into groups of nomadic tribes. 



The other portion of the Libyans maintained themselves side by side with 

 their kinsmen, who had been driven from farther east, until they in their 

 turn were pushed back from the coasts of Morocco by the invading Vandals 

 towards the end of the fifth century. Deserting the sea, some took to the 

 Atlas Mountains, where we find theii' descendants in the valleys of Kabyle to 

 this day; while others followed their brethren by the desert and sea-coast 

 routes to the south. At the time of the Arabian invasion, Libyan and Arab 

 joined in their attacks on Europe; and when, after three centuries, they were 

 finally driven out of Spain, the Moors (as the mixed people, partly Libyan, 

 with an infusion of Arab, Ibei-ian, and Teutonic bloods, were now called), 

 returned to Morocco to find the country of their fathers in the hands of the 

 Arabs : and being forced to prolong their exodus, they too followed the 

 Atlantic border and became nomads in their turn. 



These Libyan people represent the autochthonous populations of Medi- 

 terranean Africa, of Morocco, Tunis, and IVipoli, and include all those 

 white people whom we know under the names of Touaregs in the Sahara, 

 Kabyles in Algeria, Moors in Morocco and Senegal, and Fullas in their 

 wanderings across the Soudan and into Nigeria and the coast regions. In the 

 neighbourhood of Oulata (anciently kuowu as Ghana, Gana, and Ganta, in 

 the Arabic texts, and Birou by the Soughois) and Timbuctoo, they bear with 

 them a name which leaves no doubt as to their origin. "They are," says 

 !M. Dubois, " called Andalusians to this day."' 



- '• Timbuctoo the ilvsterious." 



