Their Chief Commerce Of This Kind Is With The French
Traders On The Senegal River.
The Moors are rigid Mohammedans, and possess, with the bigotry and
superstition, all the intolerance of their sect.
They have no
mosques at Benowm, but perform their devotions in a sort of open
shed, or enclosure, made of mats. The priest is, at the same time,
schoolmaster to the juniors. His pupils assemble every evening
before his tent; where, by the light of a large fire, made of
brushwood and cow's dung, they are taught a few sentences from the
Koran, and are initiated into the principles of their creed. Their
alphabet differs but little from that in Richardson's Arabic
Grammar. They always write with the vowel points. Their priests
even affect to know something of foreign literature. The priest of
Benowm assured me that he could read the writings of the Christians:
he showed me a number of barbarous characters, which he asserted
were the Roman alphabet; and he produced another specimen, equally
unintelligible, which he declared to be the Kallam il Indi, or
Persian. His library consisted of nine volumes in quarto; most of
them, I believe, were books of religion - for the name of Mohammed
appeared in red letters in almost every page of each. His scholars
wrote their lessons upon thin boards, paper being too expensive for
general use. The boys were diligent enough, and appeared to possess
a considerable share of emulation - carrying their boards slung over
their shoulders when about their common employments. When a boy has
committed to memory a few of their prayers, and can read and write
certain parts of the Koran, he is reckoned sufficiently instructed;
and with this slender stock of learning commences his career of
life. Proud of his acquirements, he surveys with contempt the
unlettered negro; and embraces every opportunity of displaying his
superiority over such of his countrymen as are not distinguished by
the same accomplishments.
The education of the girls is neglected altogether: mental
accomplishments are but little attended to by the women; nor is the
want of them considered by the men as a defect in the female
character. They are regarded, I believe, as an inferior species of
animals; and seem to be brought up for no other purpose than that of
administering to the sensual pleasures of their imperious masters.
Voluptuousness is therefore considered as their chief
accomplishment, and slavish submission as their indispensable duty.
The Moors have singular ideas of feminine perfection. The
gracefulness of figure and motion, and a countenance enlivened by
expression, are by no means essential points in their standard.
With them corpulence and beauty appear to be terms nearly
synonymous. A woman of even moderate pretensions must be one who
cannot walk without a slave under each arm to support her; and a
perfect beauty is a load for a camel. In consequence of this
prevalent taste for unwieldiness of bulk, the Moorish ladies take
great pains to acquire it early in life; and for this purpose many
of the young girls are compelled by their mothers to devour a great
quantity of kouskous, and drink a large bowl of camel's milk every
morning. It is of no importance whether the girl has an appetite or
not; the kouskous and milk must be swallowed, and obedience is
frequently enforced by blows. I have seen a poor girl sit crying,
with the bowl at her lips, for more than an hour, and her mother,
with a stick in her hand, watching her all the while, and using the
stick without mercy whenever she observed that her daughter was not
swallowing. This singular practice, instead of producing
indigestion and disease, soon covers the young lady with that degree
of plumpness which, in the eye of a Moor, is perfection itself.
As the Moors purchase all their clothing from the negroes, the women
are forced to be very economical in the article of dress. In
general they content themselves with a broad piece of cotton cloth,
which is wrapped round the middle, and hangs down like a petticoat
almost to the ground. To the upper part of this are sewed two
square pieces, one before, and the other behind, which are fastened
together over the shoulders. The head-dress is commonly a bandage
of cotton cloth, with some parts of it broader than others, which
serve to conceal the face when they walk in the sun. Frequently,
however, when they go abroad, they veil themselves from head to
foot.
The employment of the women varies according to their degrees of
opulence. Queen Fatima, and a few others of high rank, like the
great ladies in some parts of Europe, pass their time chiefly in
conversing with their visitors, performing their devotions, or
admiring their charms in a looking-glass. The women of inferior
class employ themselves in different domestic duties. They are very
vain and talkative; and when anything puts them out of humour they
commonly vent their anger upon their female slaves, over whom they
rule with severe and despotic authority, which leads me to observe
that the condition of these poor captives is deplorably wretched.
At daybreak they are compelled to fetch water from the wells in
large skins, called girbas; and as soon as they have brought water
enough to serve the family for the day, as well as the horses (for
the Moors seldom give their horses the trouble of going to the
wells), they are then employed in pounding the corn and dressing the
victuals. This being always done in the open air, the slaves are
exposed to the combined heat of the sun, the sand, and the fire. In
the intervals it is their business to sweep the tent, churn the
milk, and perform other domestic offices. With all this they are
badly fed, and oftentimes cruelly punished.
The men's dress, among the Moors of Ludamar, differs but little from
that of the negroes, which has been already described, except that
they have all adopted that characteristic of the Mohammedan sect,
the turban, which is here universally made of white cotton cloth.
Such of the Moors as have long beards display them with a mixture of
pride and satisfaction, as denoting an Arab ancestry.
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