The secret soon transpired.  He was a renegade, who had apostatized for the sake of marrying a pretty girl.  His heart is always with his brethren, and the authorities good-naturedly allow him to be master of the ceremonies at these and other feasts, to preserve order, or rather to prevent the Jews from being insulted by the Mahometans.

There are always a few Jewish renegades in large Moorish towns, just enough, I imagine, to convince the Mahometans of the superiority of their religion to that of other nations; for whilst they obtain converts from both Jews and Christians, and make proselytes of scores of Blacks, they never hear of apostates from Islamism.  The manner, however, in which these renegades abandon their religion, is no very evident proof of the divine authority of the Prophet of Mecca.  Here is an instance.

A boy of this town ran away from his father, and prostrated himself before the Governor, imploring him to make him a Mussulman.  The Governor, actuated by the most rational and proper feeling, remarked to the boy, “You are a child, you have not arrived at years of discretion, you have not intellect enough to make a choice between two religions.”  The boy was kept confined one night, then beaten, and sent home in the morning.

Another case happened like this when the boy was admitted within the pale of Islamism.  Jewish boys will often cry out when their fathers are correcting them, “I will turn Mussulman!” A respectable Jew, who related this to me, observed, “were I to hear any of my sons cry out in this manner, I would immediately give them a dose of poison, and finish them; I could not bear to see my children formed into Mussulman devils.”

It really seems the vulgar opinion among the Jews and Moors of this place, that females have no souls.  I asked many women themselves about the matter; they replied, “We don’t care, if we have no souls.”  A Rabbi observed, “If women bear children, make good wives, and live virtuously and chastely, they will go to heaven and enjoy an immortal existence; if not, after death, they will suffer annihilation.”

This appears to be the opinion of all the well-educated.  But a Jewish lady who heard my conversation with the Rabbi, retorted with spirit:  “Whether I bear children or not, if my husband, or any man has a soul, I have one likewise, for are not all men born of us women?”

All, however, are well satisfied with this life, whatever may happen in the next; male and female Jews and Mussulmen hold on their mutual career with the greatest tenacity.  I made inquiries about suicides, and was told there were never any persons so foolish as to kill themselves.

“We leave it to the Emperor to take away a man’s life, if such be the will of God!” and yet the Moors are habitually a grave, dreamy and melancholy people.  No doubt the light, buoyant atmosphere keeps them from falling into such a state of mental prostration as to induce suicide.