The day before Ramadan is cause enough to unleash the Berber mountain people off their highland shepherding fields and into the city to exploit the Muslim holiday. The Berbers are not Arab, and today in their numbers they are conspicuous in their bright uniforms and colorful hats, with their sheep and goats in tow.
The Mediterranean - more or less the center of the world - has always excelled at creating mutts. What divides, say, the Greeks from the Arabs is only their relative distribution of Caucasian, African and Asian blood. The Berbers, then, are a peculiarity in the Mediterranean, for they are distinctly Caucasian. Like the Aborigines of Australia, who evolved in the desert from their Asian heritage, their isolation has made them one of the most distinctive people on Earth.
“Hold on to your wallets,” Mohammed says, as I’m telling him we have to find the Berber goat cheese before it’s sold out.
Old American Legation, Tangier
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