Mohammedans, regard women as a very inferior

race, created to serve them with unconditional submission. Wives are obliged to stand and wait upon their husbands while they are eating, and must be content with whatever food the men choose to leave. When a European expressed his surprise at such customs, they answered, "Why should such inferior creatures be allowed to eat and drink with us? If they commit faults, why should they not be beaten? They were made to bring us children, pound our rice, make our oil, and do our drudgery; these are the only purposes to which their degraded natures are adapted."

Precisely the same arguments for abusing the defenceless are urged by Christian slave-owners! Among the Moors, masters and their Mohammedan slaves eat together; but if the slave be a Christian, he must eat by himself, and even the women and children will not touch the food he leaves. Illiberal and barbarous as this custom appears to us, they no doubt would regard as still more absurd the customs of the United States, which render it an abomination for two people of different complexions to eat at the same table. Their own superstitious abhorrence is inculcated by the Mohammedan creed, which they regard as sacred; but our prejudice is in direct opposition to the maxims of that religion, which we profess to reverence. In this respect, we must yield to the Algerine in point of sincerity and consistency.

Moorish daughters receive no portion of their father's property, and have no dowry at the time of

their marriage. When a man dies, his wife takes her young children and goes to live with her mother. The daughters are dependent on their elder brother. If the children are quite young, the chief of the tribe takes possession of the property, until the boys are old enough to have it divided among them. If there is no male child, the brother of the deceased is his heir.

The Moorish women, like the men, are exceedingly ignorant, covetous, and gluttonous; but they are not, like them, universally licentious; for they are taught that virtuous wives will become celestial beauties in another world, while all who fail in this duty will be forever annihilated. An unfaithful wife is punished with immediate death. A man has as many wives and female slaves as he can maintain.

Although the inhabitants of Fezzan are Mohammedans, their women are seen a great deal in public, and are remarkable for wanton manners. Some of the customs of the Moors seem at variance with their

habitual contempt of women. The wives of chiefs are always appointed to conduct negotiations for peace; and a feminine voice of entreaty will arrest the uplifted scimetar just ready to fall on the head of an enemy. In common with the Bedouins, they consider the female apartments as a sanctuary, which protects even the murderer. In some tribes, where the women never appear before the men, the criminal, if he gets within hearing of their dwellings, calls out, "I am under the protection of the harem!" The inmates, without showing themselves, cry aloud,

"Fly from him! Fly from him!" and even if the man were condemned to death by the prince himself, he is from that moment free to go where he pleases.

It would be considered a great breach of politeness for a Moor to enter his neighbor's tent. If he wishes to see him, he calls him out; and the wife, hearing his voice, immediately veils herself. It would likewise be improper for a husband, when he entered the female apartments, to recline upon the mat which his wife was accustomed to use.

The Mongearts are an agricultural tribe, less intelligent, and more mild, than their neighbors. Their wives perform the greater part of the labor, but are not treated with so much harshness as among the other tribes. They have a simple method of preventing disputes when they divide the spoils taken in war or hunting. They separate the booty into as many lots as there are men; then each one puts some article into a bag, which is well shaken up, and the first woman or child they see, is called upon to take an article out of the bag, and lay it upon one of the lots. Each one recognizes what he put into the bag, and is obliged to rest satisfied with the lot on which it happens to be placed.

The Monselemines are said to be even more avaricious than other Moors. Every thing with them is settled by money. Among the other tribes, if a Mohammedan woman were known to have a Christian lover, she would be killed, and the man must change his religion to avoid death; but the Monselemines throw the woman into the sea, and allow the Christian

to atone for his crime with money. The talbes, or Moorish priests, take as many wives as they can support. The women, as in other Mohammedan countries, do not go to the mosques, but perform their devotions at home, with their faces turned toward the east.

The Moors have extraordinary ideas concerning female beauty. They fancy an oily skin, teeth projecting beyond the lips, pointed nails an inch long, and a figure so corpulent, that two persons putting their arms around the waist could scarcely make their fingers touch. A woman of moderate pretensions to beauty needs a slave under each arm to support her as she walks; and a perfect belle carries weight enough to load a camel. Mothers are so anxious to have their daughters attain this unwieldy size, that they make them eat a great quantity of kouskous,* and drink several bowls of camel's milk every day. Mungo Park says he has seen a poor girl sit crying for more than an hour with the bowl at her lips, while her mother stood over her with, a stick, and beat her whenever she perceived she was not swallowing.

Still there are some girls of fourteen or fifteen, who have what Europeans would consider a very graceful shape, with a fine glow of health flushing their brown cheeks. Their teeth are regular, and always very white, owing to the constant practice of rubbing them with a little stick of tamarind wood.

The Moors marry at a very early age. Wives

* A kind of pudding made of millet.

are always purchased; and the father of the girl cannot refuse an offer, unless there is some stain upon the young man's character. The bridal tent is adorned with a small white flag, and the bridegroom's brow is encircled with a fillet of the same color. The bride is conducted to the tent by her parents, where her lover presents her with garments and jewels, according to his wealth. A grand entertainment is given, and the young women dance all day to the sound of instruments, while the spectators regulate their motions by clapping hands. These dances are not very decorous.

The next day the young wife is bathed by her female relations, who braid her hair, stain her nails

red, and put on a new dress. She visits in the camp all day, and in the evening is conducted back to her husband's tent. If her father be destitute, his son-inlaw generally assists him with a willing heart; and if the bridegroom be poor, her father does all he can to enable him to increase his flocks and herds. If a wife does not become the mother of a boy, she may be divorced with consent of the elders of the tribe, which is always granted; in this case she is at liberty to marry again. The mother of many sons is held in the highest respect, and is never suffered to perform any menial office. If a woman is very unhappy with her husband, she goes back to her parents; and though he may try to persuade her to live with him again, he cannot compel her to do it. If she persist in her dislike, she is even at liberty to marry another. But if she has a child, especially if