Arabs, to avoid the vengeance of the relations of the deceased; but not feeling himself secure even there, he performed a pilgrimage to Mecca: returning about nine years afterwards, with the sacred character of a Hadjee, he immediately proposed a reconciliation with the friends of the deceased; they attempted to seize him, but the fleetness of his horse favoured his escape to Mogadore; they pursued him to this place, and notwithstanding the attempts of the governor to effect a reconciliation, the fugitive was put in prison. They then hastened to Morocco to demand justice of the emperor, who was interested in the fate of the prisoner; and offered a pecuniary compensation for the loss of their friend, which was strenuously rejected. They returned to Mogadore with the emperor's order for the delivery of the prisoner into their hands; they conveyed the unhappy man without the walls of the town, where one of the party loaded his musket before the face of his victim, placed the muzzle to his breast, and shot him through the body; then, drawing his dagger, stabbed him to the heart. The calm intrepidity,' says Mr. Dupuis, with which this unfortunate Shilluh stood to meet his fate could not be witnessed without the highest admiration; and, however much we must detest the blood thirstiness of his executioners, we must still acknowledge that there is something closely allied to nobleness of sentiment in the inflexible perseverance with which they pursued the murderer of their friend to punishment, without being diverted from their purpose by the strong inducements of self-interest.'Appen. to Adams's Narrative. The Arabs, strictly speaking, compose the most numerous class of the population. They are scattered over every part of Northern Africa, and are found even in the great desert to the confines of Soudan. Those of the plains, who dwell in tents, may be considered as the unmixed offspring of the Saracen invaders of the country. They are a fine race of men, tall and musculine, with good features and intelligent countenances, the eye large, black, and piercing, the nose somewhat arched, the teeth regular and white as ivory, the beard full and bushy, and the hair strong, straight, and universally black, the colour of the skin in the northern parts a bright clear brunette, darkening gradually into perfect blackness, but still without the Negro features, as we approach the country of Soudan, They are cultivators of the earth and breeders of cattle. They live invariably in tents made of a coarse stuff of camel or goat's hair, and the fibrous root of the palmeta, in families that vary in number from ten or twelve to a hundred. They all belong to their respective tribes, each having its own sheick or chief, who explains the Koran, administers justice, and settles disputes, in the same way as the patriarchs of old, and as is still the case on the plains of Asia, from which they originally came. At each encampment is a tent set apart for religious worship and the reception of strangers the Mehman Khanu of the Belooches. An Arab encampment on the plains of Morocco is thus described by Keatinge. Let any one who has travelled in Ireland call up in his mind the imagery of a vast tract of bog there in an arid sun-burnt season, and an intense summer's day, without a cloud in the horizon, with here and there remotely dispersed groups of about twenty stacks of piled turf placed irregularly together; or let them fancy themselves placed in a circle round a central one, with a great herd of cattle not remote, and hardly a human being visible, and he may thus convey the general idea of an Arab country.' An Arab family moves from place to place as the land becomes exhausted and the pasturage fails; as they increase, and their flocks and herds become too numerous for the food which the country affords, they separate, like Abraham and Lot, one proceeding to the right and the other to the left. When they march, the women sit in a group, perhaps of three, on the back of the camel; the younger animals, such as children, lambs, kids, and so forth, are allotted their places in the panniers on each side. The fowls, whose forecast and vigilance predicts the approaching movement of the menage in due time, flock to secure themselves a settlement wherever a projecting point of the lean frame of the quadruped affords them a promise of security. Thus, guarded by a few men ou horseback, with their muskets rested across their pummels, and the rest driving their herds, they are met in their migrations.'-Keatinge, p. 329.) Impatient of restraint, and fondly attached to independence, few Arabs are found in any of the towns; but they bring their produce to market, pitching their tents on the nearest spot where grass and water are met with. They are almost always at war, either with one another, or with the Berebbers, or, like these people, with the troops of their respective Moorish sovereigns, who are sent to collect the taxes; and their hostilities are carried on with the most savage brutality, sparing neither age nor sex. War may be said to be the wandering Arab's trade, and plundering his revenue; when they have neither quarrels among themselves nor their neighbours, they usually seek for hire among the deys, or bashaws, as auxiliary troops. One common sentiment of hatred to Christians seems to pervade the whole community. More violent than the Moor or the Berebber, he is, however, less treacherous, and seldom conceals his antipathy. The hospitality of an Arab is proverbial, but it exerts itself no farther than the little circumference of the plain of which his encampment is the centre; beyond this he feels no compunction in plundering or murdering the guest whom he had fed, lodged, and protected, the preceding night. We shall extract an anecdote from the 'Narrative,' strongly characteristic of the savage hospitality of this warlike people. "A chief of a party of the Bey's (of Tripoli) troops, pursued by the Arabs, lost his way, and was benighted near the enemy's camp. Passing the door of a tent that was open, he stopped his horse and implored assistance, being almost overcome and exhausted with fatigue and thirst. The warlike Arab bid his enemy enter his tent with confidence, and treated him with all the hospitality and respect for which this people are so famous. The highest among them, like the heroes of old, wait on their guest. A man of rank, when visited by a stranger, quickly fetches a lamb from his flock and kills it, and his wife superintends her women in dressing it in the best manner. With some of the Arabs the primitive custom of washing the feet is yet adopted, and this compliment is performed by the head of the family. Their supper was the best of the fattest lamb roasted, their dessert, dates and dried fruit; and the lady of the tent, to honour more particularly her husband's guest, set before him a dish of bosseen of her own making. It was flour and water kneaded into a paste, and left on a cloth to rise while the fire was lighted; then throwing it on the embers, and turning it often, it was taken off half-baked, broke into pieces, and kneaded again with new milk, oil, and salt, made into the shape of a pudding and garnished with madeed, which is small bits of mutton dried and salted in the high est manner. 'Though these two chiefs were opposed in war, they talked with candour and friendship to each other, recounting the achievements of themselves and their ancestors, when a sudden paleness overspread the countenance of the host. He started from his seat and retired, and in a few moments afterwards sent word to his guest that bed was prepared and all things ready for his repose; that he was not well himself and could not attend to finish his repast; that he had examined the Moor's horse and found it too much exhausted to bear him through a hard journey the next day; but that before sun-rise an able horse, with every accommodation, would be ready at the door of the tent, where he would meet him and expect him to depart with all expedition. The stranger, not able to account farther for the conduct of his host, retired to rest. 'An Arab waked him in time to take refreshment before his departure, which was ready prepared for him; but he saw none of the family till he perceived, on reaching the door of the tent, the master of it holding the bridle of his horse, and supporting his stirrups for him to mount, which is done among the Arabs as the last office of friendship. No sooner was the stranger mounted than his host announced to him, that, through the whole of the enemy's camp, he had not so great an enemy to dread as himself. "Last night, "said he "in the exploits of your ancestors, you discovered to me the murderer of my father. There lie all the habits he was slain in," (which were at that moment brought to the door of the tent,) "over which, in the presence of my family, I have many times sworn to revenge his death, and to seek the blood of his murderer from sun-rise to sun-set. The sun has not yet risen, the sun will be no more than risen when I pursue you, after you have in safety quitted my tent, where, fortunately for you, it is against our religion to molest you, after your having sought my protection, and found a refuge there; but all my obligations cease as soon as we part, and from that moment you must consider me as one dertermined on your destruction, in whatever part, or at whatever distance, we may meet again. You have not mounted a horse inferior to the one that stands ready for myself; on its swiftness surpassing that of mine depends one of our lives or both." After saying this he shook his adversary by the hand and parted from him. The Moor, profiting of the few moments he had in advance, reached the bey's army in time to escape his pursuer, who followed him closely as near the enemy's camp as he could with safety.'--(Narrative, p. 78.) Keatinge says, that' in the intercourse with the stranger, about whom they may take and feel an interest, that is, to cajole or to wrong, the countenance becomes suffused with the conciliatory pretext of the tiger when approaching the object of his fangs not yet within their reach :' if by this paraphrastic sentence be meant, that the Arabs are treacherous and smile only to betray, Mr. Keatinge is wholly ignorant of the true character of the Arab, which is severely sincere, and so faithful, that a traveller once admitted into his tent may sleep in perfect security. The Arab women are relieved from the drudgery of tilling the land, but they grind the corn in the primitive mill, consisting of a moveable stone with a handle turned round on a fixed one, and weave the coarse web with the simplest of all looms-two or three pieces of stick. They also prepare the cooscosoo, or granulated paste, in which is smothered any kind of animal food, a dish universally in use from Arabia to the shores of the Atlantic, and not unlike the pilaw of India, the granulated flour of wheat being substituted for rice. The women also milk the cattle, look after the poultry, and are generally employed in all the domestic concerns which fall to the lot of the weaker sex in the civilized countries of Europe. The whole family sleep in the same tent, generally on sheep-skins. Each parent furnishes his child, on marriage, with a tent, a stone hand-mill, a basket, a wooden bowl, two earthen dishes, and as many camels, cows, sheep, and goats as circumstances will allow. The Jews. The intolerance and oppression which this singular people suffered in Spain and Portugal drove vast multitudes of them to seek shelter among the barbarians of Africa. It has been loosely stated that 100,000 took refuge in Morocco, and about half that number in the other Barbary states. The stock, however, had long before that event taken root in this quarter of the world, and in all probability was transplanted together with the original settlers from Phoenicia. No insult, indignity, or oppression prevents the Israelite from domiciliating himself, wherever he happens to fix his abode. He is a plant that seems to be suited for 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 professions 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 jewelry, 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 impositions, and pay a capitation tax from a certain 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.'-(Keatinge.) 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 the Jew be murdered by a Mussulman, the life of the latter is not in the least danger. Keatinge says, that a few days before the embassy reached Morocco, a Moor had murdered a Jewish merchant, cut his body in pieces, and thrown them 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 quarter; 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 to 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 |