The Camel Is,
Therefore, The Only Beast Of Burthen 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 manifested 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. The
enterprising boldness of the Moors, their knowledge of the country, and,
above all, the superior fleetness of their horses, make them such
formidable enemies, that the petty Negro states which border upon the
Desert are in continual terror while the Moorish tribes are in the
vicinity, and are too much awed to think of resistance.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 183 of 546
Words from 49463 to 49734
of 148366
