Believing, Therefore, That I Should Certainly Find The Means Of
Escaping From Jarra, If I Should Once Get Thither, I
Now freely
indulged the pleasing hope that my captivity would soon terminate;
and happily not having been disappointed in this
Idea, I shall pause
in this place to collect and bring into one point of view such
observations on the Moorish character and country as I had no fair
opportunity of introducing into the preceding narrative.
CHAPTER XII - OBSERVATIONS ON THE CHARACTER AND COUNTRY OF THE MOORS
The Moors of this part of Africa are divided into many separate
tribes, of which the most formidable, according to what was reported
to me, are those of Trasart and Il Braken, which inhabit the
northern bank of the Senegal river. The tribes of Gedumah, Jaffnoo,
and Ludamar, though not so numerous as the former, are nevertheless
very powerful and warlike, and are each governed by a chief, or
king, who exercises absolute jurisdiction over his own horde,
without acknowledging allegiance to a common sovereign. In time of
peace the employment of the people is pasturage. The Moors, indeed,
subsist chiefly on the flesh of their cattle, and are always in the
extreme of either gluttony or abstinence. In consequence of the
frequent and severe fasts which their religion enjoins, and the
toilsome journeys which they sometimes undertake across the desert,
they are enabled to bear both hunger and thirst with surprising
fortitude; but whenever opportunities occur of satisfying their
appetite they generally devour more at one meal than would serve a
European for three.
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