Their Burial-Grounds Are Inclosed By
Cypress And Other Dark Lofty Trees, The Lower Parts Of Which Are
Interwoven With Odoriferous Shrubs And Creeping Plants, Forming An
Almost Impenetrable Hedge.
Some of their tombs are very curious,
though they exhibit specimens of the rudest architecture.
There are
also several saints' houses in their burying-places, which render
them doubly sacred; and no Christian or Jew is suffered to enter, on
pain of death.
Friday being their Sabbath, the day is kept perfectly holy; all the
Moors are employed in prayer, reading the Koran, or visiting the tombs
of their departed friends.
Curiosity prompted me to go and see an assemblage of fanatics, at a
celebrated saint's house, in the neighbourhood of this town. They
were to perform many wonderful things, such as tearing a live sheep in
pieces, and devouring the flesh, fighting with wild beasts, and
several other barbarous exhibitions. These people, called in Barbary
_Free Masons_, are nothing more than a set of canting, roaring
companions, surcharged with wine and other liquors, and assembled in
this holy place, for the sole purpose of giving free vent to their
brutal passions. This society is peculiar to itself, having no
connexion with our ancient or modern Free Masons. I have however
obtained a free access to their saints' houses and secret meetings,
with permission to go any where unmolested; but I always take the
precaution to go well armed, and escorted by the Emperor's guards, as
nothing can exceed the barbarous acts of this fanatic set of people.
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