They Sit Cross-Legged Upon Cushions, And
Devour Their Food Very Greedily And Without The Least
Ceremony.
Although sobriety is strictly enjoined by the Mahometan law,
yet the Moorish inhabitants of the principal towns in Barbary make
free with most excellent wines and spirits of their own manufacture.
The revenues of the Emperor have of late augmented prodigiously. He
receives a tenth part of all the property of his Mahometan subjects;
and he compels every Jew residing in his dominions to pay a poll-tax
of six crowns annually. The number of Israelites subject to the
Emperor of Morocco exceeds one hundred thousand. They are strictly
guarded, and cruelly oppressed, and are not permitted to quit the
states without a special leave from the Emperor, to obtain which they
are obliged to pay down a large sum of money.
The authority of the Emperor is unlimited, as is that of his
Governors, who possess a power of life and death. No rank nor
condition of Moors is exempt from taxation, excepting the immediate
princes of the blood, and the _Xeriffes_, which are the only degrees
of nobility the Moors have. The Xeriffes are the descendants of their
monarchs, and their titles are hereditary: but the title of _Sheik_ is
temporary; so that the respect paid to the Sheiks on account of their
high situations expires with them.
Coaches, carriages, and palanquins are used only by the Emperor. I
have seen some, both here and at Fez, which are really elegant; they
are for the use of his ladies when they go to spend the day in any of
the Imperial gardens.
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