Close To The Sanctuary Is A Village, The Inhabitants Of
Which Are Held In The Highest Veneration, Their Huts And Tents Being
Consecrated To The Mahometan Devotion, And, As Well As The Sanctuary,
Forming Asylums For Malefactors, Which Are Never Violated Even By The
Emperor.
After this visit to the sanctuary, they attend an annual
meeting, where they feast for three days, amusing themselves with
dancing, fighting with wild beasts, and committing all kinds of excess
in the ancient Bacchanalian style.
Formerly saints sprang up in Barbary like mushrooms. A Moor, seized in
the night with a slight fit of insanity, was considered in the morning
as a new saint, and as such he was revered, and his name added to
their list of saints. In consequence of this, he was permitted to do
whatever his fancy directed, without suffering the smallest
molestation. Hence many worthless wretches feigned madness, in order
that they might, with impunity, gratify their avaricious and
revengeful passions, or their violent and ungovernable lust. The
number of these impostors a few years back was incredible, and they
literally held sovereign rule, from their numbers and great influence
over this superstitious and fanatic people; but since the accession of
Muley Solyman to the throne of Morocco, their influence and their
numbers have considerably decreased. The country has been in a great
measure swept and cleansed of imposters and other profligate persons,
and the rest approach more and more towards a tolerable degree of
civilization, under his paternal care and example.
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