The Arabs, Who Now Form So Considerable A Portion Of The Population Of Barbary, And Whose Race In The Sheriffe

Line has given emperors to Morocco ever since the conquest, occupy all the level country of the empire, and many

Of the tribes penetrating into the desert, have extended themselves even to the confines of Soudan. In person, they are generally tall and robust, with fine features, and intelligent countenances. Their hair is black and straight, their eyes large, black and piercing, their noses gently arched; their beards full and bushy, and they have invariably good teeth. The colour of those who reside in Barbary, is a deep, but bright brunette, essentially unlike the sallow tinge of the mulatto. The Arabs of the desert are more or less swarthy, according to their proximity to the negro states, until, in some tribes they are found entirely black, but without the woolly hair, wide nostril, and thick lip, which peculiarly belong to the African negro.

The Arabs are universally cultivators of the earth, or breeders of cattle, depending on agricultural pursuits alone for subsistence. To use a common proverb of their own, "the earth is the Arab's portion." They are divided into small tribes or families, each separate tribe having a particular patriarch or head, by whose name they distinguish themselves, and each occupying its own separate portion of territory. They are scarcely ever engaged in external commerce; they dislike the restraints and despise the security of residence in towns, and dwell invariably in tents made of a stuff woven from goats' hair and the fibrous root of the palmeta.

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