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and interest, than by right; and it is because all the poorer class of Moors put themselves under the protection of the kings and princes, that the latter acquire importance and authority; but notwithstanding their rank, and the riches they may possess, they are forced to be economical, and very cautious as to their conduct; they are compelled to make continual sacrifices, and to divide a part of the presents they receive, in order to support their authority over men independent and deceitful, and who, being naturally faithless and unconscionable, are always inclined to insubordination and revolt.

"A king, prince, or chief, can neither undertake nor conclude any treaty without the permission of the other great men; nor even without that of the mass of the nation; and if he enters into any stipulation for the general good, he is forced to communicate all the circumstances of the negotiations to the people at large.

"These perfidious men are always tortured by suspicion, and continually imagine they are cheated. The only point which they never dispute with their kings and princes, is the right, when a war breaks out, of marching at the head of the tribe, and commanding on the day of battle.

"In the camps and ordinary residences, in the oases, even the kings and chiefs have no personal distinction, being equally as dirty, and as badly clothed, as the poor est Moors. Nothing indicates their superior rank; but, on extraordinary occasions, as, for instance, when they are in treaty with the Europeans relative to some object of general interest, then they are escorted by princes, chiefs, and warriors, and accompanied by a

great number of pretended secretaries and interpreters. They affect to use an air of authority, and even of despotism, towards their subjects, whom they never address but in a tone of great superiority, and even with disdain; but all this appearance of authority is necessary, for supporting in the presence of the whites the importance of the chief, who, on returning amongst his tribe, is obliged to resume his ordinary dress, and to bear without a murmur the importunate and insolent familiarities of those who, a short time before, had suffered him to treat them like slaves. In their camps and oases, the most vulgar of these savages insolently seats himself by the side of a king, assumes the right of taking the pipe from his mouth and smoking it himself, of dipping his hand into the same dish, and, on every occasion, of treating him exactly like his equal.

"In the oases, as well as on the banks of the river, these Moors live in tents, made either of tanned oxhides, or of woven camels' hair, which forms a thick kind of covering, completely water-proof. The women prepare, card, and spin the camels' hair, and manufacture this stuff in looms of a singular simplicity.

"These tents are in general either oval or round; those of the kings, princes, and chiefs, are sometimes square; they are supported by stakes, divided into partitions, and one side of the tent, according to the direction of the sun, always remains open.

"In this hovel live, all together, the father, mother, children of every age, with the horses, sheep, and goats; and such a general harmony subsists between the men and animals, that their horses, which

they

they consider as a part of the family, pass and repass among the children, even in a state of infancy, whom they caress, but never do them the smallest injury.

"I am incessantly obliged to limit the number of details that I could give on the subjects of which I treat, and I am not enabled to insert all the information I possess concerning the private manners of these savages; I must, nevertheless, give a few of the most particular traits in their character.

"They have in their oases a number of palm-date-trees. It is known that this tree grows to a very great height, and delights in sandy soils, and that it is unisexual, that is to say, that the flowers and the fruits grow on different plants: the fruits, which hang from the top of the tree, form a sort of cluster, denominated régime (diet); a date-tree, at its full maturity, bears a dozen of these clusters, each of which contains a hundred dates. This fruit, when fresh and at maturity, is a very wholesome aliment: the Moors of the Zahara assert, that nothing is more nourishing and proper for fattening the body than fresh dates. In the oases, the women, princes, and rich people, prepare from the dates, for their only nourishment and constant use, a liquid similar to honey, which they express from the fruit by squeezing it between two boards. After confining themselves to this diet for a few months, they become enormously corpulent, which, in the opinion of the Moors, is the supreme degree of feminine beauty.

"The more fat a woman is, the more certain she is of pleasing, and she who has fifty pounds of additional flesh, always obtains the preference. The princes, in particular, are passionately fond of women

of a prodigious rotundity. The lady whom Hamet-Moktar seduced from Hilly-Koury, and who in 1784 was the cause of the war between the Trarshazians and Brachknazians, was of such an enormous size, that in Europe she would have been considered a monster.

"The ordinary food of these men is afforded by oxen, goats, milch cows, the milk of mares and camels, millet, either dry, or made into kouskou, maize, dates, and gum; and their sobriety and abstinence would be inconceivable, if that of their camels were not far more incomprehensible.

"This animal is certainly the most precious and estimable of any which the Creator has formed for the benefit of mankind; from his large size, the burthens he is capable of carrying, and the fatigues and journies to which he is accustomed, he might seem to require a quantity of food; but, on the contrary, he is known to subsist on a very small portion of leaves, burnt up by the sun, which he only meets with at considerable intervals. He is known to suffer, for several days, a total want of food and drink, and always without seeming to complain, or appearing to be tormented by his necessities; in short, the many subjects of surprise, which are combined in this singular animal, will induce me to speak of him in a particular chapter.

"The Moors who annually establish their camps on the banks of the river, are composed of a selection from the tribes. Those who sell the gum are almost always of an advanced age, or else in the flower of youth; for, in general, we only observe men upwards of sixty, or youths under fourteen.

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OF THE RELIGION OF THE MOORS.

"Their religion is Islamism, and they are very zealous Mahometans; but superstition is always the appendage of depravity and a bad conscience; and they are ridiculously superstitious.

"Their priests, whom they call Marabouths, and who form among them an important cast, keep up this weakness, which, when carried to its greatest extremities, proves, that the torch of reason is extinguished, when it is not supported by morality, virtue, and a wise and incorrupt religion.

"These men, who are in every respect vicious, corrupted, inhuman, cruel, and ferocious, cover themselves with grisgris, which are a sort of amulets, or talismans, manufactured by their priests, and sold at a very high price. They have these articles ready prepared for all circumstances and occasions; they consist of certain sacred sentences taken from the Koran, and written upon paper; of hairs from the tail of an elephant, or an hyppopotamus; of the claws of a lion, panther, or tiger; and of certain grains of gold, or some other metal; on which are engraved inscriptions or hieroglyphics.

"These charms, or amulets, are various, and contained in little cases of Morocco, made with considerable ingenuity; they have some for the head, others for the eyes, and, in short, for all parts of the body; as well as for all diseases, dangers, and sorceries; they hang these charms in every corner of their tents; they cover with them their oxen, camels and horses; and distribute them about their persons with profusion.

ON THEIR COMMERCE, INDUSTRY AND ARTS.

"The commerce of these Moors extends to every object with which they can traffic, and to every thing that holds out a prospect of advantage: they are masters of the gum, they have salt-pits, and they raise a great number of oxen, camels, and horses, which being the principal objects of their trade, they sell at a very considerable distance from their residence. They have likewise goldsmiths, who refine the gold, silver, and iron, and manufacture them into rings, ear-rings, little bells, chains, bracelets, and other ornaments, which serve to decorate their princes, chiefs, and women, as well as the negresses on the banks of the Senegal and the Gambia; I have even seen the Moors from the Zahara sell these ornaments in the river Sierra Leone, and I have been assured that they frequently carry them to Congo: the common style of these trinkets is that of filligree, or fresco; they are a sort of pictures, which they form of little grains of gold almost imperceptible, applying and arranging them together with wonderful delicacy and art.

"They also make sabres and poniards, the handles of which are very ingeniously ornamented and inlaid; the scabbards are enriched with plates of gold.

"They completely prepare and tan the skins of their cattle, and even those of hyppopotami, leopards, panthers, and lions; they have the secret of preparing Mo rocco, and that of making lambskins almost as thin as paper, and of dyeing and polishing the surface of different colours: they employ these skins for ornaments, to cover the saddles of their horses, for the

sheaths

sheaths of their arms, as well as for making harness, boots, and other articles, which are executed with much taste and propriety.

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They manufacture all their stirrups and bridles: their stirrups are in the form of a wooden shoe, and contain about one half the foot, and the iron-work of their bridles is a single piece: their sandals and slippers are internally ornamented with drawings and figures; while every article which has a double use is distinguished by being differently shaped*; so that an article intended for the right side, can never be employed on the left: indeed the pre-eminence of the right over the left is very generally observed, as well amongst the Moors as amongst the negroes.

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They have also weavers, who, with looms extremely simple and portable, and the different parts of which are far from being of a complicated construction, manufacture stuffs from goats and camels' hair, and others of wool and cotton, the width of which is never more than half an Egyptian

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OF

"The Moors possess a race of horses which have originated from those of Arabia, and have preserved most of their beauties and perfections; in their oases, they devote themselves to raising and perpetuating fine races of this animal; and, like the Arabs, they record their alliances and genealogy. These horses are too well known to render it necessary for

me to enter into details of their
perfections and good qualities. I
had some of them with me during
the journey which I made by land
in the year 1786, from the Sene-
gal to Goree, when I crossed the
Desert, proceeding over upwards
of fifty leagues of a soil of fine
and moving sand.

"A black horse, five years
old, possessed so much strength
and spirit, that before I could qui-
gallop
etly mount him, I was obliged
to make one of my negroes
him through the sands for up-
wards of an hour; and, after this
exercise, he was, for the remainder
of the day, full of activity and
impatience.

I am

"It would be easy to procure every year sixteen mares and four stallions of this race, which, when crossed with our Limosins and Norman kinds, would doubtless produce a beautiful race. also -of opinion, that we might succeed in transporting these fine Moorish stallions to the pastures of French Guiana, where they might be propagated by crossing them with American mares; and I do not doubt that, by properly attending to them, by putting them to grass in the dry season, and keeping them on dry food, we should obtain in Guiana a race of horses as valuable as useful.

"They have thought proper to increase the price of these Moorish horses, and in Africa they frequently sell for ten or twelve slaves. It is a fact, that the negro kings, to whom this sort of money costs nothing, have frequently given for a fine horse as many as twelve captives; but we' are not thus to infer that this is the

The meaning of the author, in this instance, being rather obscure, the translator is of opinion that the custom to which he alludes, is similar to that lately adopted in the metropolis of Britain, of making a pair of shoes upon separate lasts, &c."

1803.

I

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necessary price for a fine Moorish horse, because the real value of these slaves is, in the trade, about four hundred livres per head: thus, in a relative proportion, the price of a horse which is purchased for twelve captives would amount to the sum of four thousand eight hundred livres.

"However, after having conversed with a number of Moors, and particularly with Sydy-Mok tar, as to the price at which the finest of these horses might be purchased, in case we wished to buy a number of them at a time, for the purpose of dispersing them amongst our studs, I had an opportunity of convincing myself that I could obtain twenty choice animals at the rate of fifty pieces of Guinea per head, which would amount to a thousand pieces of Guinea at a time, and would be considered amongst the Moors in the Desert as a very valuable payment. It is therefore certain, that for twenty thousand francs we might every year receive from the oases of the Zahara twenty anihals, either stallions or mares, se lected from the most perfect kinds that might be offered by the Moors.

"The head and rump of these horses are not so handsome as those of the Arabian kind, but the legs are much finer, and the chest and body are more perfect in their proportions. I have seen some whose colour was uncommonly beautiful; many were of the most charming cream tint, others were of a slate colour, and had fine coats and black tails: there were also some of a most beautiful black.

"These horses are gentle and obedient; the Moors teach them a number of singular actions;

they kneel down in order to be mounted, even by children six years old; and when a child falls from the back of one of these animals, it not only stops in an instant, but caresses him, and solicits him to remount, at the same time giving him every assistance that can possibly be conceived.

"These horses are taught to bow the head at the will of their master; they bend their right knee to the ground, afterwards their left, and in this manner they walk at the word of command: they also make rapid evolutions with their heads turned toward their tails, and their gallop is at least equal to that of the finest English racers.

"When a Moor has ridden his horse for some hours, the animal's mouth and flanks are always covered with blood. These barbarians are, nevertheless, perfect horse, men; they raise their legs like the Cossacks; but they are so active, that we may see them, while at full gallop, adjust, and threw behind, the sort of lance called sagaye. They throw these lances with so much accuracy, that they never miss their mark; and it is by the strength and rapidity of their horses, that they stupify, run down, and overcome the ostriches, with which their oases are surrounded, and which they thus expel from their desert plains.

ON THEIR NUMEROUS FLOCKS AND HERDS.

"In these interior residences of the Zahara, which are the chief places of the tribes, the Moors also raise numerous flocks and herds of sheep, goats, and oxen; none of these animals are of the kind which have large and long

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