Travels Of Richard And John Lander Into The Interior Of Africa For The Discovery Of The Course And Termination Of The Niger By Robert Huish
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In Regard To The Moorish Character, Especially The Female, Which Mr.
Park Had Frequent Opportunities Of Studying During His Captivity At
Benown; It Appears That The Education Of The Women Is Neglected
Altogether, They Being Evidently Regarded Merely As Administering To
Sensual Pleasure.
The Moors have singular ideas of feminine
perfection.
With them, gracefulness of figure, and an expressive
countenance, are by no means requisite. Beauty and corpulency are
synonymous. A perfect moorish beauty is a load for a camel and a
woman of moderate pretensions to beauty requires a slave on each side
to support her. In consequence of this depraved taste for
unwieldiness of bulk, the moorish ladies take great pains to acquire
it early in life, and for this purpose, the young girls are compelled
by their mothers to devour a great quantity of kouskous, and drink a
large portion of camel's milk every morning. It is of no importance
whether the girl has an appetite or not, the kouskous and milk must
be swallowed, and obedience is frequently enforced by blows.
The usual dress of the women is a broad piece of cotton cloth wrapped
round the middle, which hangs down like a petticoat; to the upper
part of this are sewed two square pieces, one before and the other
behind, which are fastened together over the shoulders. The head
dress is a bandage of cotton cloth, a part of which covers
the face when they walk in the sun, but frequently, when they go
abroad, they veil themselves from head to foot. Their employment
varies according to their situation. Queen Fatima passed her time
in conversing with visitors, performing devotions, or admiring her
charms in a looking-glass. Other ladies of rank amuse themselves
in similar idleness. The lower females attend to domestic duties.
They are very vain and talkative, very capricious in their temper,
and when angry vent their passion upon the female slaves, over
whom they rule despotically.
The men's dress differs but little from that of the negroes, except
that they all wear the turban, universally made of white cotton
cloth. Those who have long beards display them with pride and
satisfaction, as denoting an Arab ancestry. "If any one
circumstance," says Mr. Park, "excited amongst the Moors favourable
thoughts towards my own person, it was my beard, which was now grown
to an enormous length, and was always beheld with approbation or
envy. I believe, in my conscience, they thought it too good a beard
for a Christian."
The great desert of Jarra bounds Ludamar on the north. This vast
ocean of sand is almost destitute of inhabitants. A few miserable
Arabs wander from one well to another, their flocks subsisting upon a
scanty vegetation in a few insulated spots. In other places, where
the supply of water and pasturage is more abundant, small parties of
Moors have taken up their residence, where they live in independent
poverty, secure from the government of Barbary. The greater part of
the desert, however, is seldom visited, except where the caravans
pursue their laborious and dangerous route. In other parts, the
disconsolate wanderer, wherever he turns, sees nothing around him but
a vast indeterminable expanse of sand and sky; a gloomy and barren
void, where the eye finds no particular object to rest upon, and the
mind is filled with painful apprehensions of perishing with thirst.
Surrounded by this dreary solitude, the traveller sees the dead
bodies of birds, that the violence of the wind has brought from
happier regions; and as he ruminates on the fearful length of his
remaining passage, listens with horror to the voice of the driving
blast, the only sound that interrupts the awful repose of the desert.
The antelope and the ostrich are the only wild animals of these
regions of desolation, but on the skirts of the desert are found
lions, panthers, elephants, and wild boars. Of domestic animals the
camel alone can endure the fatigue of crossing it: by the
conformation of his stomach, he can carry a supply of water for ten
or twelve days; his broad and yielding foot is well adapted for
treading the sand; his flesh is preferred by the Moors to any other,
and the milk is pleasant and nourishing. On the evening of the 25th
of May, Mr. Park's horse and accoutrements were sent to him by order
of Ali. He had already taken leave of queen Fatima, who most
graciously returned him part of his apparel, and early on the 20th,
he departed from the camp of Bubaker, accompanied by Johnson and
Demba, and a number of moorish horsemen.
Early in the morning of the 28th of May, Mr. Park was ordered to get
in readiness to depart, and Ali's chief slave told the negro boy,
that Ali was to be his master in future; then turning to Mr. Park, he
said, the boy and every thing but your horse go back to Bubaker, but
you may take the old fool (meaning Johnson, the interpreter) with you
to Jarra. Mr. Park, shocked at the idea of losing the boy,
represented to Ali, that whatever imprudence he had himself been
guilty of, in coming into Ludamar, he thought he had been
sufficiently punished by being so long detained, and then plundered
of his property. This, however, gave him no uneasiness, compared to
the present injury. The boy seized on was not a slave, and accused of
no offence. His fidelity to his master had brought him into his
present situation, and he, as his protector, could not see him
enslaved without deprecating the cruelty and injustice of the act.
Ali, with a haughty and malignant smile, told his interpreter, that
if Mr. Park did not depart that instant, he would send him back
likewise. Finding it was vain to expect redress, Mr. Park shook hands
with his affectionate boy, who was not less affected than himself,
and having blended his tears with those of the boy, assured him he
would spare no pains to effect his release.
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