This Being Always Done In The Open Air, The Slaves Are
Exposed To The Combined Heat Of The Sun, The Sand, And The Fire.
In
the intervals it is their business to sweep the tent, churn the
milk, and perform other domestic offices.
With all this they are
badly fed, and oftentimes cruelly punished.
The men's dress, among the Moors of Ludamar, differs but little from
that of the negroes, which has been already described, except that
they have all adopted that characteristic of the Mohammedan sect,
the turban, which is here universally made of white cotton cloth.
Such of the Moors as have long beards display them with a mixture of
pride and satisfaction, as denoting an Arab ancestry. Of this
number was Ali himself; but among the generality of the people the
hair is short and busy, and universally black. And here I may be
permitted to observe, that if any one circumstance excited among
them 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 only diseases which I observed to prevail among the Moors were
the intermittent fever and dysentery - for the cure of which nostrums
are sometimes administered by their old women, but in general nature
is left to her own operations. Mention was made to me of the small-
pox as being sometimes very destructive; but it had not, to my
knowledge, made its appearance in Ludamar while I was in captivity.
That it prevails, however, among some tribes of the Moors, and that
it is frequently conveyed by them to the negroes in the southern
states, I was assured on the authority of Dr. Laidley, who also
informed me that the negroes on the Gambia practise inoculation.
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