In
Some Of Their Inland Towns, The Arabs And Azanbaji Use Small White
Porcelain Shells, Or Cowries; Which Are Brought From The Levant To Venice,
And Sent From Thence Into Africa.
These are used for small purchases.
The
gold is sold by a weight named _mitigal_, which is nearly equal in value
to a ducat. The inhabitants of the desert have neither religion nor
sovereign; but those who are richest, and have the greatest number of
retainers and dependents, are considered as chiefs or lords. The women
are tawny, and wear cotton garments, which are manufactured in the
country of the Negroes; but some of them wear a kind of cloaks, or upper
garments, called Alkhezeli, and they have no smocks. She who has the
largest and longest breasts, is reputed the greatest beauty; on which
account, when they have attained to the age of seventeen or eighteen, and
their breasts are somewhat grown, they tie a cord very tight around the
middle of each breast, which presses very hard and breaks them, so that
they hang down; and by pulling at these cords frequently, they grow
longer and longer, till at length in some women they reach as low as the
navel. The men of the desert ride on horseback after the fashion of the
Moors; and the desert being everywhere very hot, and having very little
water, and extremely barren, they can keep very few horses, and those
they have are short lived. It only rains in the months of August,
September and October.
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