the barbarians of Africa. No insult, indig nity, or oppression, prevents the Israelite from domiciliating himself wherever he hap pens to fix his abode. He is a plant that seems to be suited to every soil, and generally thrives best where the pruning knife is most applied. Among the Moors he is made to suffer beyond what any nature but that of a Jew could bear; yet such is the ignorance of the ruling powers, and their Moorish subjects, that the affairs of state could hardly be carried on without him. Most of the trades and professsions are exercised by Jews: they farm the revenues; act as commissaries, and custom-house officers; as secretaries and interpreters; they coin money; furnish and fabricate all the jewellery, gold and silver ornaments and trappings, for the sultans, beys, and bashaws, and their respective harems; and in return for all this, they are oppressed by the higher ranks, and reviled and insulted by the rabble. They live chiefly in the great towns, confined to a particular quarter, in miserable mud-built hovels, surrounded with filth; but this appearance of poverty does not save their purses: they are subject to arbitrary imposi tions, and pay a capitation tax from a cer tain age. If the period of payment be disputed, a string is put round the lad's neck, and afterwards doubled in length and put in his mouth; if then and thus it pass over his head, he is deemed an object of taxation;-each Jew appears in person to pay his quota; and this being done, a Moor touches him on the head with a switch, and says jump;" whereupon the Jew goes his way. Black being a hated colour among the Moors, is the only one permitted to the Jews. In walking the streets, they are subject to every kind of insult, even from children: should the Jew raise his hand in self-defence it is lopped off; but if a Jew be murdered by a Mussulman, the life of the latter is not in the least danger. A Moor had murdered a Jew merchant, and thrown him into the shafts or ventilators of the aqueduct. The Jews by a sedulous search discovered the murderer, who was seized and thrown into prison, where he was to undergo the bastinado; but the Jews being impatient, collected in crowds round the palace, and clamoured for

justice. The sultan, thus assailed, ordered his guards to drive the infidels to their quarters; and imposed a heavy fine on them for their audacity.

A Moor may enter a Jew's house, disturb. the family at unseasonable hours, and insult the women; yet the Israelite dares not insinuate to him the slightest hint that his walking out as soon as it suited his convenience would be any way acceptable. In passing a mosque they must pull off their slippers, and walk bare-footed: the task of burying executed criminals devolves on the Jews; the wild beasts in the menagerie are fed and cleaned by them. It is frequently necessary, in some of the western parts of Morocco, to carry Europeans wishing to land through the surf of the Atlantic; it would be degradation in a Moor to carry a Christian, and he is therefore hoisted on the shoulders of an Israelite. He can neither shift his place of residence without special permission, nor ride a horse, nor wear a sword. under all these vexations and degrading circumstances, a Jew renegado is not known: they are allowed the free exercise of their religion, and it would seem as if this indulgence was considered as a compensation for all their sufferings. Some, however, possessing claims on our confidence, say that they do sometimes become converts to the Mahomedan faith, but meet with little encouragement on that account; and no respect.

Yet

Though the Jews must appear in black clothing in the streets, yet, in their own quarters, they dress in splendid but oddly assorted finery. Their friendly meetings are generally held on the house-top; where, on the sabbaths and holidays, the men appear in velvet, and laced like Spanish admirals, with a greasy night cap on the head just barely shewing that they had been white; surmounted by a great three-cocked hat, with a broad goldlace. The ladies too are loaded with jewels, and the daughters of Israel in this part of Africa possess the true characteristics of female beauty, which are not, however, much improved by the free use of paint. The young Jewess is not permitted to go out without her face muffled up in the manner of the Moors, but the matrons may appear in public unveiled; and though the elderly ladies are exceedingly

strict with regard to the conduct of the younger ones, they are said to be by no means averse to a little gallantry on their

own account.

The Moors, so called by Europeans, are a mixture of all nations who have at any time settled in north Africa; but the predominant character, physical or moral, is that of the Arab or Saracen. The name is unknown to themselves, and if, as it would seem, it is a corruption from that of Mauri, by which the Romans designated the people of a particular province, it has long ceased to be applicable to the present inhabitants. If you ask a Moor what he calls himself, he will answer, that he is a Mooslim, or believer his country, Bled Mooslimin, the land of believers. The Arabs distinguish them by the name of Medainien, or town's-people. Europeans, however, are in the habit of applying indiscriminately the term Moor, not only to the mass of population in northern Africa, but throughout all Asia, to the confines of China; it is in fact almost synonimous with Mussulman. The Moors of Africa are rigid disciples of Mahomet; they pray five times a-day with the face turned towards Mecca; perform their ablutions; circumcise their male children; believe that every man's destiny is pre-ordained, and written in the book of fate; hate and despise Christians and Jews; shut up their women; and eat COOSCOSO0. If they are generally found to be an indolent and inactive race, spending whole days in sitting cross-legged, with their backs against a wall, looking with invincible taciturnity at the passengers in the streets; if they are jealous, deceitful, and cruel, distrustful of their neighbours, and strangers to every social tie; if their hearts are so callous as to be incapable of one tender sentiment of love or friendship; if it be true that the father fears the son--the son the father, and that this lamentable want of confidence diffuses itself throughout the whole community, we are not disposed to ascribe those unfavourable treats of character to any particular defect of the organization in the mind of the Moor, but to moral and political causes; to the influence of a vile government, an absurd religion, and that gross ignorance which must prevail throughout all ranks of

people among whom the discovery of a printed book would be deemed a crime. Let us only recollect what these very same people were in Spain; where their political condition was but a few degrees better than in Africa. All the knowledge which Spain possessed, all the liberal arts and sciences, all the trades and professions, flowed from the intelligent and industrious Moors, and by them were exercised. In vain should we now look for a glimmering of that light, whose rays, darting from the desert plains of Arabia, illumined the dark ages of Europe. In vain should we search from one extremity of Africa to the other for the least trace of knowledge in any one branch of the arts or abstract sciences, or general literature. The Moor never laughs, and seldom smiles; his grave and pensive appearance wears the external characteristic of a thinking animal, but it is the mere result of habit; there is no heart, no mind, no curiosity, no ambition of knowledge; he exists in a perpetual languor, which seems only excited into enjoyment when, in total vacuity of mind, he is seen to stroke his beard. We say nothing at present of his harem: his domestic amusements can only be known to himself: but of his pleasures in public, next to the abstraction from all ideas, that of the bath seems to preponderate: few of any rank or opulence are without this luxury; but every large town has its public baths, which are generally annexed to some caravansera, or coffee-house; here the Moor gets himself well rubbed down, and his joints stretched or shampooed; here he sips his coffee, and here he is amused with wild tales of genii or fairies. The refinement of eating or drinking constitutes no part of the Moor's happiness; they have plenty of good and wholesome food; but cooscosoo is the standing dish: the manner of eating it is this:-The Mussulman, with his left hand, tears the meat to pieces, gropes into and rolls up the grain, combs the offal from his mouth with his fingers, through his long beard, and, with a notable regard to economy, throws it back into the dish, for a plastic hand to mould anew into a modifica tion for swallowing. While on this subject, our readers may, perhaps, be amused with the bill of fare of an imperial feast, sent to

the house of the English ambassador. It was brought by two men sweating under the load of a hand-barrow, the contents of which were an enormous China bowl, filled with the national dish, and pride of the kitchen, Cooscosoo. This being deposited, was followed by an entire sheep, skinned indeed, and bearing evidence of having undergone the process of the kitchen, but yet apparently possessing its intestines as in days of yore. The equivoque was, however, speedily solved; for, an incision being made, a bounteous discharge of contents extruded, ready dressed, in various fanciful forms of puddings, forced meats, minced meats, and indescribable et-ceteras, wherein it seemed as if this Arabesque taste had been trained to adhere to the modes of nature. The Moors are great observers of ill omens: what they most dread is the influence of an evil spirit, or an evil eye; to counteract which they wear charms round the neck, or carry in their stomach a portion of the Koran. The usual way of preparing this last preventive is to write down certain verses of the Koran, to burn them, and to mix the ashes with some liquid to be swallowed fasting; thus fortified, a Moor is proof against all the demons of Dom Daniel's cave. Among their superstitions may be reckoned their abhor rence of black; their mode of expressing the number five by four and one; their abstaining from mentioning the word death, which they avoid as cautiously as the courtly divine did the "mention of hell to ears polite." Spirits being supposed to walk abroad at night, he must be a Moor of no ordinary cast of mind who, unfurnished with the sacred periapt just noticed, would venture abroad in the dark: if a person should die suddenly he is struck by some local demon. Thirteen in company is an unlucky omen; but this superstition, like some of the others, is not confined to the Moors. Many a good English lady would not sleep comfortably, if by any misfortune her company at table consisted of thirteen. Among other superstitions an opinion prevails, we believe in all the four states, that it is ordained the Moors shall lose their country on a Friday, during the hour of prayer, by the invasion of a people, clothed in red; yet so inconsistent are they,

that at this hour all the gates of their cities are carefully locked, as if bars and bolts could oppose the decrees of fate. They are not, however, mere theorists in predestination, but submit to every change of fortune with humble resignation, passing from a state of opulence to that of misery without a`murmur; and when death approaches, the expiring man desires nothing more than that his face may be carefully turned towards Mecca, and, when assured of this position, he bears his sufferings with patience, and leaves the world in peace. When a person is thought to be dying, he is immediately surrounded by his friends, who begin to scream in the most hideous manner, to convince him that there is no more hope, and that he is already reckoned among the dead! The noise and horror of this scene cannot surely but serve to hurry the patient, worn down already by sickness, to his last state. If the person be in too much pain (perhaps in a fit) they put a spoonful of honey in his mouth, which in general puts him out of misery (that is to say, he is literally choaked); when, by being treated differently, or even left to himself, he might, perhaps, have recovered. Then, as according to their religion, they cannot think the departed happy, till they are under ground, they are washed instantly, while yet warm; and the greatest consolation the sick man's friends can have is to see him smile while this operation is performing, looking on that as a sign of approbation in the deceased of what is doing; not supposing such an appearance to be a convulsion occasioned by washing and exposing to the cold air the unfortunate person before life has taken its final departure.This accounts for the frequent instances that happen here of people being buried alive: many of the Moors say a third of the people are lost in this manner. The moment a death happens in a family, the alarm is given by the shrill screaming of the words coulliah woo, repeated incessantly by the relations and every body in the house. These cries, heard at a great distance, bring every female acquainted with, or dependent on the family, to scream over the dead, and mourn with the nearest relations of the deceased: and it strikes one with the greatest horror to see

the afflicted widow or mother, half-dead with grief for her loss, obliged (according to the custom of the country) to receive the visits of not less than a hundred different women, who come to condole with her. They each They each take her in their arms, they lay her head on their shoulder, and scream without intermission for several minutes, till the afflicted object, stunned with the constant howling, and a repetition of her misfortune, sinks senseless from their arms on the floor! They likewise hire a number of women, who make this horrid noise round the bier, placed in the middle of the court-yard of the mansion, over which these women scratch their faces to such a degree, that they appear to have been bled with a lancet at the temples; after the ceremony is over, they lay on a sort of white chalk to heal the wounds and stop the blood. The women are hired indifferently at burials, weddings, and feasts; at the two latter they sing the song-loo, loo, loo, and ex tempore verses. Their voices are heard at the distance of half a mile. It is the custom of those that can afford it, to give, on the evening of the day the corpse is buried, a quantity of hot dressed victuals to the poor, who come to fetch each their portion, and form sometimes immense crowds and confusion at the doors; this they call the supper of the grave. The dead are always dressed for interment; the ears, nostrils, and eyelids, are stuffed with a preparation of camphor and rich spices. An unmarried woman is ornamented as a bride, and bracelets are put on her arms and ancles. The body is wrapped in fine white linen, sanctified at Mecca, which is generally procured in their lifetime, and carefully preserved for their last dress. At the head of the coffin is placed a turban, if the deceased be a male, correspond

ing with his rank; if a female, a large bouquet of flowers-if a virgin, the loo, loo, loo, is sung by hired women, that she may not be laid in the ground without having had the benefit of the wedding song. On Fridays, the eve of the Mahommedan sabbatlı, the women visit the tombs of their deceased relations, under the idea that on that day the dead hover round to meet their friends, and to hold commerce with those that may be deposited near them; and on this account they conceive it to be the more necessary to dress the dead, that they may not, in such an assembly of ghosts, complain of the neglect of their relations. The tombs are neatly white-washed, and kept in constant repair; flowers are planted round them, and no weeds suffered to grow. Small chapels are generally built over the tombs of persons of rank, and decorated with flowers placed in large China vases. It is not surprising that a people so ignorant and superstitious should be alarmed at so awful a phenomenon as an eclipse of the sun-the effect of their terrors shews itself nearly in the same way as in China. When the eclipse is at its height, they run about distracted in companies, firing vollies of muskets at the sun, to frighten away the monster, or dragon, as they call it, which they suppose to be devouring it. At that moment the Moorish song of death, and woulliah woo, or the howl they make for their dead, not only resounds from the mountains and vallies of Tripoli, but is re-echoed throughout the continent of Africa. The women bring into the streets all the brass pans, kettles, and iron utensils they can collect, and striking on them with all their force, and screaming at the same time, occasion a horrid noise that is heard for miles.