Occasionally Women Are Present, But Females Here Join
In Very Few Out-Door Amusements.
When a whole troop of cavaliers are
thus manoeuvering, galloping at the utmost stretch of the horses'
muscles, the men screaming and hallowing "hah!
Hah! hah!" the dust and
sand rising in clouds before the foaming fiery barb, with the deafening
noise and confusion of a simultaneous discharge of firelocks, the
picture represents in vivid colours what might be conceived of the wild
Nubian cavalry of ancient Africa. [16] Today there was a mishap; several
cavaliers did not keep up the line. The chief leading the troops, cried
out in a rage, and with the voice of a senator, "Fools! madmen! are you
children, or are ye men?" Christians or Jews standing too near, are
frequently pushed back with violence; and we were told "not to stand in
the way of Mussulmen."
These cavaliers are sometimes called _spahis_; they are composed of
Moors, Arabs, Berbers, and all the native races in Morocco. They are
usually plainly dressed, but, beneath the bournouse, many of them wear
the Moorish dress, embroidered in the richest style. Some of the horses
are magnificently caparisoned in superb harness, worked in silk and
gold. Fine harness is one of the luxuries of North Africa, and is still
much used, even in Tunis and Tripoli, where the new system of European
military dress and tactics has been introduced. The horse is the sacred
animal of Morocco, as well as the safeguard of the empire.
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