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that the crews of many foreign nations lying in their harbour have often been beaten for ringing. their bells.

Gaming is prohibited in the fame paffages of the Alcoran which prohibit the ufe of wine. The word, as it is there ufed, fignifies a particular mode of cafting lots by arrows according to the practice of the pagan Arabs. But the commentators agree, that under the name of lots are comprehended all games whatsoever which are fubject to chance or hazard, fuch as cards, dice, tables, &c. which are forbidden. All thefe games are deemed fo highly flagitious by the more rigid Mohometans, that they judge the evidence of him who plays at them of no validity in a court of justice.

The only game that is played in Algiers is chefs, and this the Mahometan doctors allow, (though others have doubted its legality) because it depends folely upon art and the fkilful management of the pieces ufed in playing. But it is

only allowed under certain reftrictions; for it is never fuffered to prevent the regular performance of their devotions, and perfons are never permitted to play for money, or things of the most trifling value.

In Algiers the men have no intercourfe with the women before marriage, and marriage contracts are entirely negociated by female confidants employed by the men, who tender the parents a certain fum of money according to their demand, and the lady is thus purchased as though the were an article of merchandize. Hence it feldom happens that marriages thus contracted are cemented with love, and by thus violating the law of nature, they lay a fure foundation for intrigue, jealousy, and the most boisterous paffions. When the marriage contract is conclud

ed,

ed, the principal nuptial ceremony confist in escorting the lady to her husband. A proceffion of her female friends and relations is formed about ten o'clock at night, attended by a number of black feimale flaves with burning torches in their hands, and as this proceffion moves along they make a ftrange kind of noife at intervals till they enter the house of the husband, who for the first time beholds his fair bride, whom his imagination had long perhaps portrayed as the paragon of all excellence. The company then retires, and the next day the marks of virginity are triumphantly difplayed upon the tops of their houfes, in the prefence of the bride's friends and relations; if this evidence of virtue cannot be produced, the husband returns his wife to her parents, and the marriage is diffolved without further ceremony.

The Algerine women are remarkably amorous, and though all intercourfe between them and the Chriftians is prohibited under penalty of death, yet it does not deter them from their attempts to circumvent every Chriftian flave who comes in their way, for whom they have a remarkable attachment. Numbers of thefe frail fair ones rove the streets every night for the purpose of intrigue, and they make the firft advances with great effrontery and adroitness; but fuch is the vigilance of the liberos, who are highly rewarded for every Chriftian that is detected, that those who are venturefome enough to undertake an amorous correfpondence, are every moment in imminent danger of falling a facrifice to their gallantry.

Some of the former deys had it in contemplation to incorporate the flaves with the citizens, and to permit their intermarriages, but the marabouts, who were apprehenfive that fuch a law would contami

nate:

nate the purity of Mahometan blood, remonstrated fo ftrongly against it, that all intercourfe between Chriftian flaves and Moorish women was made a capital crime.

The women lead a moft indolent life; they commonly amufe themselves with needle work or embroidery; but are never fubjected to domeftic drudgery, which is done by flaves, and whatever their condition may be, they are never engaged in any employment out of their houses.

In their drefs they difplay neither tafte nor judgment, and to an American or European they appear extremely uncouth. When they vifit or appear abroad the beauty of their perfons is entirely concealed. They wear a clumfy kind of pantaloons, and according to the phrafe of the American captives, they refemble a bundle of rags in motion, rather than women. Like the French ladies they are very fond of rouge; but instead of their cheeks they have a fingular fancy in painting their foreheads with a stripe of red, which extends above eyebrows.

their

Their difhabille, or rather the manner in which they drefs in their houfes, is very lafcivious. They wear a cap formed of threads of gold interwoven like net work, round which is tied a fine filk handkerchief, and their hair hangs confined in a fmall filken pouch. Their breafts, arms, and legs are naked, but the reft of their body is covered with a large filk mantle, which only reaches down to the knees, and is tied about their middle with a kind of fath. Their flippers are elegantly wrought with gold; and round their wrifts and ancles they wear bracelets fet with jewels. They ride concealed in a large fquare box covered with a kind of red baize, placed

placed upon affes or mules, and when they walk the ftreets they are always veiled. They are extremely cautious of difcovering their faces to strangers, particularly to Chriftian flaves, which they deem fo facred that they would fooner disclose any other part of their body. An American flave was ordered one day by a Turk, to carry fome bottles of wine from one of the bagnios to his house, and in paffing through one of the apartments he furprized the Turk's lady, whofe face was perfectly unveiled. The difconcerted fair one, overcome with astonishment at the fudden and unexpected appearance of a flave, immediately covered her face with her pettycoats, and in so doing disclosed thofe parts which were much more the object of the American's rifibility. There is not much difference, as we have before obferved, between the dress of the men and women. The men wear a kind of clumfy trowsers which reach down to the knees; fomewhat refembling the Roman habit. Their legs and arms are bear; bat in cold or wet weather they wear capoots, a kind of great coats which nearly cover the whole body.

The drefs of the marabouts is a kind of green coat, or gown which reaches down to the knees. The hats of fome of them, or rather the covering of their heads, refembles a large difh formed of linen drawn over a piece of circular pafteboard: others wear a high cap fomewhat in the form of a fugar-loaf with a small part of the top cut off. Some of the marabouts are to highly venerated by the Moors, that they run and kifs their hands as they pafs along the streets. The dey is confidered as the grand or fupreme marabout of his kingdom.

The drefs of the Jews does not differ much from that of the Turks, and the manner in which they

are

are principally diftinguifhed, confifts in the difference of colour, which is black, a diftinction they are obliged to obferve. There is alfo a difference in the form of their turbans, and their flippers which have fuch a fmall portion of upper leather, that they can fcarcely keep them on their feet; for they are not fuffered to wear fhoes without paying an exorbitant duty to the dey for the privilege.

They have few funeral ceremonies, and they never change their drefs when any of their relations die. They wash the dead with great care, and burn incenfe about them to drive away evil fpirits. They have no coffins, but bury them in a cloth open at top and bottom. Before the interment they expose their dead in the house, upon a bier, under a pall of different colours fringed with gold according to the quality of the perfon. The place of interment is without the walls of the town, and the corps is attended thither by four, or fometimes eight carriers. No women ever attend their funerals, but a few days after, the female relations vifit the grave, over which they weep and ftrew wreaths of flowers.

The Algerines believe that when the deceased is laid in the ground, two angels come, and make him get upon his knees to render an account of his actions. If he has lived a virtuous life, two angels as white as fnow, fucceed those who came to examine him, and entertain him with a full account of the pleafures he is to enjoy in the next world. But if he has lived a vicious life, two angels as black as jet are commiffioned to inflict the moft cruel tortures upon him. One, they fay, ftrikes him into the earth with a club, and the other pulls him up again with an iron hook; and thus they employ themselves

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