On The Skirts Of The Desert,
Where Water Is More Plentiful, Are Found Lions, Panthers, Elephants,
And Wild Bears.
Of domestic animals, the only one that can endure the fatigue of
crossing the desert is the camel.
By the particular conformation of
the stomach he is enabled to carry a supply of water sufficient for
ten or twelve days; his broad and yielding foot is well adapted for
a sandy country; and, by a singular motion of his upper lip, he
picks the smallest leaves from the thorny shrubs of the desert as he
passes along. The camel is therefore the only beast of burden
employed by the trading caravans which traverse the desert in
different directions, from Barbary to Nigritia. As this useful and
docile creature has been sufficiently described by systematical
writers it is unnecessary for me to enlarge upon his properties. I
shall only add that his flesh, though to my own taste dry and
unsavoury, is preferred by the Moors to any other; and that the milk
of the female is in universal esteem, and is indeed sweet, pleasant,
and nutritive.
I have observed that the Moors, in their complexion, resemble the
mulattoes of the West Indies; but they have something unpleasant in
their aspect which the mulattoes have not. I fancied that I
discovered in the features of most of them a disposition towards
cruelty and low cunning; and I could never contemplate their
physiognomy without feeling sensible uneasiness. From the staring
wildness of their eyes a stranger would immediately set them down as
a nation of lunatics. The treachery and malevolence of their
character are manifest in their plundering excursions against the
negro villages. Oftentimes without the smallest provocation, and
sometimes under the fairest professions of friendship, they will
suddenly seize upon the negroes' cattle, and even on the inhabitants
themselves. The negroes very seldom retaliate.
Like the roving Arabs, the Moors frequently remove from one place to
another, according to the season of the year or the convenience of
pasturage. In the month of February, when the heat of the sun
scorches up every sort of vegetation in the desert, they strike
their tents and approach the negro country to the south, where they
reside until the rains commence, in the month of July. At this
time, having purchased corn and other necessaries from the negroes,
in exchange for salt, they again depart to the northward, and
continue in the desert until the rains are over, and that part of
the country becomes burnt up and barren.
This wandering and restless way of life, while it inures them to
hardships, strengthens at the same time the bonds of their little
society, and creates in them an aversion towards strangers which is
almost insurmountable. Cut off from all intercourse with civilised
nations, and boasting an advantage over the negroes, by possessing,
though in a very limited degree, the knowledge of letters, they are
at once the vainest and proudest, and perhaps the most bigoted,
ferocious, and intolerant of all the nations on the earth - combining
in their character the blind superstition of the negro with the
savage cruelty and treachery of the Arab.
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