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 five 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

it be a boy, this permission is not granted; should she stay with her parents more than eight days, under such circumstances, she would be liable to be put to death. Women do not take the name of their husbands, but always retain the one they received in infancy. The birth of a son is attended with the greatest rejoicings. The mother, by way of expressing her delight, blackens her face, for the space of forty days. On the birth of a girl, she blackens only half her face, for twenty days.

When a Moor sets out on a journey, his wife fol lows him about twenty paces from the dwelling; she then throws after him the stone used to drive the tent-pegs into the ground, and wherever it stops, she buries it until his return.

The Moors, like their Arab brethren, are exceed ingly hospitable. A traveller is always sure of some refreshment, for his host would rather go without food himself than refuse it to a guest. If the master be absent, his wife, or slave, goes out to meet the stranger, asks him to stop at twenty paces from the tent, brings milk for him to drink, sees that his camels are unloaded, and furnishes him with mats and awnings to erect a temporary shelter for himself. the guest be a man of rank, or one who has friends in the tribe, a sheep or an ox is killed in honor of his arrival. The wife cooks the meat, separating the fat, which is served up raw. The visiter's share is placed on a small mat, carried by a slave, but always handed to him by the master himself, if he be at home,

If

The Moors plunder all travellers except those who are protected by the sacred rites of hospitality. Even the law authorizes theft in the night time; and on this account the women are very careful to convey into the tents every article of property before dark. One of the greatest pleasures of Moorish women consists in visiting each other. Politeness requires that the guest should dress the provisions, make the butter, and cook the dinner, while her hostess entertains her with details of family affairs, and all the scandal and gossip of the tribe. On these occasions an unusual quantity of food is provided, and the master invites his neighbors to the repast. The more cooking the visiter has to do, the more she feels honored.

At funerals, the women howl and lament; a practice they continue at intervals, from the moment of decease till they return from the grave where their relative or friend has been deposited.

The Moors continually go out on predatory excursions to seize the negroes for slaves, to supply the insatiable market produced by Christian pride and avarice. Sometimes they lie in ambush round a village for days together, and when the helpless women and children come to the springs to get water, they seize them and carry them off. They place their captives behind them on horseback, holding one of their fingers between their teeth, ready to bite it off, if they give the least alarm.

Sometimes they set fire to a village at midnight, and seize the poor wretches that try to escape from