I did not wish to interrupt my narrative, as I thought it would be more proper, that it should be followed with my various observations on the religion, manners, usages, &c. of a people, who are very little known, and who, for that reason, may become very interesting. Fatal experience has put it in my power to represent them. The reader may rest assured, that I will be no less guided by truth, in the description which I am now to lay before him, than I have been in the preceding recital of my particular adventures.
The Arabs of the Desert follow the religion of Mahomet; but they have entirely disfigured it by the grossest superstitions. They live constantly wandering in the midst of the dry sands of Africa. There are certain colonies of them who traverse continually the borders of the sea, without having any fixed dwelling. They are distributed into tribes, more or less considerable. Every tribe is divided into hordes, and every horde encamps in the districts which appear most likely to furnish pasturage for the support of their cattle, and that in such a manner, that one tribe is never wholly united. They are thus frequently intermixed with certain villages of the tribes of the Ouadelims, Labdesseba, La Loussye, Lathidium, Chelus, Tucanois, Ouadelis, &c. The two first are the most formidable—they carry their ravages to the very gates of Morocco. It is not therefore without reason that the Emperor fears them. They are in general tall, handsome, stout and vigorous men. They have commonly bristled hair, a long beard, a furious look, large hanging ears, and their nails as long as claws; they always use their nails in the wars wherein they are almost constantly engaged with their neighbours. The Ouadelims, in a particular manner, are fierce, arrogant, warlike, and given to plunder; they carry terror and dread with them wherever they go. However, like the other Arabs, their courage commonly fails them, when they have not a decided superiority.
All these colonies lodge by families, in tents, covered with a thick cloth made of camels hair. It is the women who spin their cloth, and weave it upon a loom, so small, that they work it sitting upon the ground. The furniture of their dwellings, consists of two large leather sacks, which answer the purpose of keeping all their old clothes, and any pieces of old iron; of three or four goat-skins (if they can procure as many), in which they keep their milk and water; of some wooden dishes, some pack-saddles for their camels, two large stones for grinding their barley, a smaller one to drive in the pikes of their tents, an osier matting which serves for a bed, a thick carpet for a covering, and a small kettle. These are the pieces of furniture which distinguish the rich from the poor. Their flocks, by which their riches are estimated, consist of two or three horses, several camels, some sheep and goats. The less fortunate have goats and sheep only.
The principal part of their devotions, and that which they observe with the greatest attention, is prayer. There are different kinds of it: the first commences always before sun-rising. The Talbe is distinguished by the length of his beard, a piece of woollen cloth, half white and half crimson, which he leaves loose and flowing about his body, and under which appears a figure, exhausted by fasting, (the consequence of excessive laziness), and a kind of chaplet of an enormous size. He raises a sad and lamentable voice, which one would be ready to suppose to be that of a pious and contrite man, but which is, in fact, that of a hypocrite. Girt with a poignard, he seeks the place where his perfidious arm can, with assurance, aim the blow with which he wishes to pierce the heart of his neighbour, his friend, and often his brother. By his uncouth sounds, he calls his people to come and range themselves under his banner, to hear the praises of the Prophet. They all run up to him with a holy respect; but before the priest begins his prayer, they throw off a little coat, which they wear fastened to their girdle, and in which they are wrapped, as it is the drapery of which their clothing consists. The Talbe afterwards bows himself towards the ground. He removes with his hands that upon which his feet were placed; then takes up a handful of the sand which has not been dirtied, and in place of water, rubs with it his face, hands and arms up to the elbows, in order to purify himself from all his uncleanness. The people follow his example.
When the prayer is ended, they stop for some time, sitting squat-down behind, and trace different figures upon the sand with their fingers, and turn them round their head, as if sprinkling themselves with a holy unction. The savages, while thus employed, show as much exterior piety and respect as we can do in our churches. I do not believe, however, that it is possible to make a greater jest of religion than they do, when their prayers are ended. The women, who only attend the morning matins, and those which they go about at ten o'clock at night, place themselves at the gate of their tents, and keep themselves with their faces towards the east.
When the first part of their religious exercise is performed, their next business is the milking of the flocks. They begin with the she-camels, giving them a great many blows with their feet, until they make them rise. As soon as they are on their legs, they take off from their udder a kind of covering made of ropes worked together, which is intended to prevent the young camel from sucking. The young one then runs up to its mother, and, by its caresses, prepares her to yield her milk in greater abundance. The master and the keeper of the flock watch the moment when the lips of the young camel are covered with a white foam: they then separate it from its mother; and each resting his head on different sides against the animal's belly, they press the udder, from which they sometimes draw five pints of milk, when the rains have rendered the earth fruitful. The keeper of the flock, after taking a few draughts every time he milks, pours the rest into a vessel destined for that purpose, and placed close by the side of his mistress; for he is allowed no other nourishment than the milk which he draws from the last of the camels. When all the milk is thus collected, the mistress puts aside her part, which is never the least; then serves her husband and his children; and lays up the rest in a goat's skin, which she leaves exposed to the sun before the milk be made into butter. Three or four hours after, the young girls bring from the fields the sheep and the goats. The mother, who is always present at the last milking, mixes the milk procured by it with that of the camels; and when the sun has sufficiently warmed it, they separate the cream from it, in order to make butter. What remains, serves as drink for the rest of the day. When the butter is made, they put it into small skins, where it acquires a strong smell, which, according to the taste of these barbarians, adds to its value. The women use it for greasing their hair: without this they would think something deficient in their dress. One cannot believe to what excess they carry their coquetry. They dress their hair with great art. They keep it flowing in tresses upon their breasts, and fasten to it any thing they can find. I have seen some of them ornament it with shell-work, keys of chests, and padlocks, rings of umbrellas, and buttons of trowsers, which they have taken from sailors.
When their head-dress is thus so far prepared, they cover it with a greasy cloth, which surrounds their head, covers the one half of their nose, and ties below their chin. To give a brilliancy to their eyes, they comb the eye-lashes with a great copper needle, which they have rubbed upon a blue stone. Next comes the adjustment of their drapery; and here all the art lies in plaiting it neatly, and so as to keep the folds, in doing which they employ neither pins, cords, nor sewing. But that the work of the toilette may be complete, they paint the nails of their feet and hands with a reddish colour. A Moorish woman, who wishes to be considered as a beauty, must have long teeth shooting out of her mouth; the flesh from the shoulder to the elbow loose and flabby; their limbs, thighs and body, prodigiously thick; their gait slow and cramped. They have bracelets like the collar of great Danish dogs upon their arms and legs. In a word, they labour from their infancy to efface any beauties for which they are indebted to nature, and to substitute in their room ridiculous and disagreeable whims. They have no other dress in all their wardrobe than what I have described. To add to the inconveniences to which these women are subjected, let us only reflect, that the same linen on which they are delivered of a child, they receive its nastiness and blow their noses in; it is impossible to form an idea sufficiently disgusting, of the nastiness and horrid smell of the Moorish women.
Could one suppose that these hideous women are addicted to jealousy and evil-speaking? It is, however, a truth. One of them has, perhaps, occasion to go and borrow something from her neighbour. If she meets the husband, she veils her face, and presently with a trembling air enters the tent. But if the woman is by herself, she begins to speak all the evil she can of any neighbour who is better drest. This conversation goes on, when perhaps a third enters, who does not fail to lay in her word, in such a manner, as that the one half of the day is spent in evil speaking; and she very frequently goes away, probably without recollecting to seek what she came to borrow. Laziness and gluttony are also their favourite sins. They will expose themselves to numberless affronts, in order to procure a little camel or goat's flesh, when they know that it is dressing in any person's house. Their favourite morsel is the liver.
The men are addicted to almost the same vices. They commonly pass the whole day stretched out upon a netting to sleep, to smoke, or to clean themselves from vermin which torment them. The women have generally committed to their care those employments which the men would otherwise find no hesitation in doing reciprocally. There can be no cause of surprise that the whole country is infected with vermin. They content themselves with throwing them down, without taking the trouble to destroy them. Notwithstanding all my precaution, my beard was always filled with them, and I may safely say it was none of the least of my sufferings during my captivity.
The men meet together sometimes in the day time, to entertain one another with their warlike exploits. Every one recites the number of enemies whom he has conquered. A ridiculously false story is almost constantly followed by a charge of lying; a quarrel is the consequence; and the conversation is generally terminated with some blows of the poignard. They can never agitate even the most indifferent question, without having their eyes inflamed with rage. Fury is depicted in every the least motion, and they cannot even converse upon domestic affairs, without roaring and yelling hideously.