When a Mooselmin is inclined to marry, he makes enquiry of some duena or confidential servant respecting the person of her mistress, and if he receive a satisfactory description of the lady, an opportunity is sometimes procured to see her at a window, or other place; this interview generally determines whether the parties are to continue their regards; if the suitor be satisfied with the lady, he seeks an occasion of communicating his passion to the father, and proposes to marry his daughter. The father’s consent being obtained, he sends presents to the lady, according to his circumstances, which being accepted, the parties are supposed to be betrothed, and marriage follows.
Of the marriage ceremony much has been said by various authors. The bridegroom is mounted on a horse, with his face covered, surrounded by his friends, and those of the parents, who run their horses, and fire their muskets at the feet or face of the bridegroom; the (Tabla) kettle drum, the (Erb’eb) triangle, an instrument similar to the Greek lyre, (having however but two strings,) and a rude kind of flute, form the band of music; whilst the friends of the married party dance and jump about, twirling their muskets in the air, and otherwise discovering their satisfaction. This ceremony being terminated, the parties go to the house of feasting, where the evening is passed in conviviality, till the bride and bridegroom retire to rest. The sheets are afterwards produced, somewhat indecently, as a proof of the virginity of the bride, and exhibited in triumph to the relations.
It is not expected that the woman should have a fortune or a settlement; but if the father be rich, he generally gives a dowry to his daughter, and a quantity of pearls, rubies, diamonds, &c. The dowry remains the property of the female, and in case of a divorce, by consent of the husband, is returned to her: these separations proceed from various causes, as barrenness, the disappointment of expectation, incapability of performing the domestic duties, or incompatibility of disposition. Separation, however, not originating in the above causes, is reprobated as immoral and disreputable. A plurality of wives is allowed in all Mohammedan countries; the lawful number is limited by the Koran to four, in addition to which they are allowed as many concubines as they can support; in this latitude of luxury, however, they seldom indulge. The Emperor, the princes, and some of the bashaws, have often four wives, but even with them this number encreases gradually; thus, the first wife, after having had a child, or when her bloom has passed, or the marks of age appear, makes way for a young one, who is taught to respect the former, who still remains mistress of the household; when the second lady loses her bloom, she is supplanted by a third, and the third by a fourth; so that the rich and independant Mooselmin, however old he be himself, has generally a young wife, or a young concubine,[143] to cherish him; and this, they say, enables them to enjoy life longer than the Christians; for they maintain, that as an old woman destroys the vigour of a man, a young woman encreases it; but these luxurious debauchees, these devotees to the pleasures of the fair sex, from their irregular excesses, are often, about the age of fifty, and sometimes before, totally incapable of performing the duties of the matrimonial contract; under these circumstances, stimulating drugs, and aromatic compositions are in vain resorted to, and the wretched man becomes at once the victim of inflamed desire, and impotency.
It must not, however, be imagined, that this insatiable desire for young females pervades the mass of the people; Mooselmin, in general, are satisfied with one wife, and, in a tract of country possessing a population of one hundred thousand souls, a hundred men will scarcely be found who keep four. Such is the state of polygamy in this country.
With regard to the (Kadeem[144]) concubines, they are generally black women, purchased originally at Timbuctoo; they reside in the house with the wives, performing the menial offices of the domestic establishment. The children of these concubines, when not the master’s offspring, are born slaves, and inherited by him, who either keeps them for the purpose of marrying them to some black slave of his own, or sells them in the public market; this latter mode of disposing of them, however, is seldom practised, except in cases of necessity; for although the law gives great latitude to masters having slaves, yet the children are generally brought up under the mother’s care, and become members of the family; by serving at an early age in domestic occupations, they earn their living by their work; for in a country where the necessaries of life are prohibited from exportation,[145] the expense of maintenance is inconsiderable: so that a large and numerous family is a blessing, and the more numerous the greater the blessing. Living on simple food, for the most part of the farinaceous kind, their appetites are easily satisfied: their wants are few, and their resources many.
This system of prohibiting the exportation of provisions does not, however, as might be supposed, reduce their value; for it has been observed, in the reign of Seedy Mohammed ben Abd Allah, when the prohibition was enforced only when a scarcity was anticipated, that during the prohibition the price of corn rose; the Arab farmers, preferring a market and sale to Europeans for dollars, to the tardiness of sale for domestic consumption, kept their corn in their Matamores till an exportation was again permitted, and then brought it to market. Neither is there policy in the prohibition, (except the Mohammedan principle of policy be admitted, that of promoting the poverty of the people or community), for by it the agriculturists not having a sufficient market for the whole produce of his land, he cultivates but a third or a fourth part, leaving the remaining part fallow; and even this fourth part is found to produce quite as much as is necessary for the domestic consumption. The same argument applies to the other articles of produce, viz. sweet almonds, dates, raisins, figs, olive oil, &c. Accordingly, since their prohibition, the immense plantations of these articles in all the provinces, particularly in Suse, where they abound, have been neglected, and are gradually decreasing, the produce being more than the domestic demand, insomuch, that the price is insufficient to pay the labour of gathering; for among this abstemious and parsimonious people, it would be difficult to find the individual who would give two shillings for the same quantity of provision of one kind, that he could procure of another kind for one shilling.
The women are not so much confined as has been generally imagined; they frequently visit their relations and friends,[146] and have various ways of facilitating intrigues; thus, if a lady’s (rahayat) sandals be seen at the door of an apartment, the husband himself dare not enter; he retires into another room, and directs the female slave to inform him when her (Lela) lady is disengaged, which is known by the sandals being taken away. On the other hand when an ill-disposed husband becomes jealous or discontented with his wife, he has too many opportunities of treating her cruelly; he may tyrannize over her without control; no one can go to her assistance, for no one is authorised to enter his Horem without permission. Jealousy or hatred rises so high in the breast of a Moor, that death is often the consequence to the wretched female who has excited (perhaps innocently) the anger of her husband. The fate of those women who are not so fortunate as to bear a male child is too often to be lamented; those who do, are treated with extraordinary respect, the father being careful not to ill-treat the mother of his son or heir. A father, however fond of his daughter, cannot assist her, even if informed of the ill-treatment she suffers; the husband alone is lord paramount: if, however, he should be convicted of murdering his wife, he would suffer death, but this is difficult to ascertain, even should she bear on her the marks of his cruelty, or dastardly conduct, for who is to detect it? Instances have been known where the woman has been cruelly beaten and put to death, and the parents have been informed of her decease as if it had been occasioned by sickness, and she has been buried accordingly; but this difficulty of bringing the men to justice holds only among the powerful bashaws and persons in the highest stations; and these, to avoid a retaliation of similar practices on their children, sometimes prefer giving their daughters in marriage to men of an inferior station in life, who are more amenable to justice.
The etiquette of the court of Marocco does not allow any man to mention the word Death to the Emperor; so that when it be necessary to communicate to him the news of the decease of any Mohammedan, the courtiers thus express themselves: (Ufah Ameruh) he has completed his destiny or his period; to which the reply is (Allah eê erhammoh) God be merciful to him. When a Jew dies, the Moors express it by (Maat bel Karan), the son of a cuckold is dead. On the death of a Christian, if he bore a good character, they say (Maat Mesquin), the inoffensive man is dead; but if he was unpopular, or disliked, (Maat el Kaffer) the infidel is dead.
All persons at this court who have no faith in Mohammed being considered as infidels, a stigma is attached to their names when uttered before the Emperor; accordingly they say (Lihudi ashawk asseedi. El Kaffer ashawk asseedi.) He is a Jew, ashawk, Master. He is an Infidel, ashawk, Master. This term ashawk is an Arabic idiom, and signifies, “I beg pardon for mentioning so degraded or contemptible a name in my master’s presence.”
There is a ridiculous prejudice throughout this country, which extends as far as the Nile El Abeede, or Nile of Soudan, in considering the word five as indecorous; it is therefore never mentioned in the Emperor’s presence, nor even to any prince, bashaw, or powerful man: the speaker expressing himself thus (Arbat u Wahud) i.e. Four and one.