In General They
Content Themselves With A Broad Piece Of Cotton-Cloth, Which Is Wrapped
Round The Middle, And Hangs
Round like a petticoat almost to the ground:
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 commonly a bandage of cotton-cloth, with some parts of it
broader than others, which serve to conceal the face when they walk in
the sun; frequently, however, when they go abroad they veil themselves
from head to foot.
The employment of the women varies according to their degrees of
opulence. - Queen Fatima, and a few others of high rank, like the great
ladies in some parts of Europe, pass their time chiefly in conversing
with their visitors, performing their devotions, or admiring their charms
in a looking-glass. The women of inferior class employ themselves in
different domestic duties. They are very vain and talkative; and when any
thing puts them out of humour, they commonly vent their anger upon their
female slaves, over whom they rule with severe and despotic authority;
which leads me to observe, that the condition of these poor captives is
deplorably wretched. At daybreak they are compelled to fetch water from
the wells in large skins called _girbas_; and as soon as they have
brought water enough to serve the family for the day, as well as the
horses, (for the Moors seldom give their horses the trouble of going to
the wells,) they are then employed in pounding the corn, and dressing the
victuals. 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 Mahomedan 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
bushy, 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.
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