MRS. WILTON. "Well, my dear, I will not distress you by repeating the obnoxious word. We will start anew, and sail round the coast of Africa. We are a goodly party, and I dare venture to say, shall not lack for amusement during the voyage."
MR. STANLEY. "Then we are not to go so far south as Victoria Land, and see all the wonderful things Sir James Ross saw?"
MR. WILTON. "No: we have been in the cold long enough, and I am rejoiced that we have no more enormous icebergs to encounter—no more still ice-fields stretching away in every direction, or clashing and grinding under the influence of mighty storms—no more mountains cased in eternal ice; but we have really bid adieu to the wintry desolation of those frozen regions that
'Lie dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms.'"
MR. STANLEY. "I am glad to get into a more genial climate, and I perceive our next voyage commences in the Mediterranean; that is, if it be the intention of our young discoverers to call at the bays on the north of Africa."
DORA. "It is our intention, sir; and the first gulf, called Malillih, is on the coast of Morocco. Mrs. Wilton has kindly undertaken the land survey."
MRS. WILTON. "Morocco is now only the remains of a state, although at one period, when the Moors were in the zenith of their power, it was a splendid country. Still, however, the inhabitants entertain the loftiest ideas of themselves and their native land, and half-naked creatures as they are, they style the Europeans 'agein,' or barbarians, and hold them in contempt."
GRANDY. "But the Moors, although Mohammedans, are not destitute of virtues; and, as a peculiarly good trait in their character, a Moor never abandons himself to despair; neither sufferings nor losses can extort from him a single murmur; to every event he submits as decreed by the will of God, and habitually hopes for better times. We might learn something even from the Moors."
MR. STANLEY. "Ay! but we must keep at a distance if we wish the ladies of our party to learn; for the Moors would altogether object to teach them, as women are there regarded merely as tools—creatures without souls. They would not admire our ladies either, for their idea of female loveliness is most singular. Beauty and corpulence are synonymous. A perfect Moorish beauty is a load for a camel; and a woman of moderate pretensions to beauty requires a slave on each side to support her. In consequence of this depraved taste for unwieldy bulk, the Moorish ladies take great pains to acquire it early in life; and for this purpose, the young girls are compelled by their mothers to devour a great quantity of kous-kous and to drink a large portion of camel's milk every morning. It is no matter whether the girl has an appetite or not, the kous-kous and milk must be swallowed, and obedience is frequently enforced by blows."
DORA. "How very disagreeable! I scarcely know which is the worst stage of the affair, the cause or the effect."