black and piercing, their noses gently arched; their beards full and bushy, and they have invariably good teeth.  The colour of those who reside in Barbary, is a deep, but bright brunette, essentially unlike the sallow tinge of the mulatto.  The Arabs of the desert are more or less swarthy, according to their proximity to the negro states, until, in some tribes they are found entirely black, but without the woolly hair, wide nostril, and thick lip, which peculiarly belong to the African negro.

The Arabs are universally cultivators of the earth, or breeders of cattle, depending on agricultural pursuits alone for subsistence.  To use a common proverb of their own, “the earth is the Arab’s portion.”  They are divided into small tribes or families, each separate tribe having a particular patriarch or head, by whose name they distinguish themselves, and each occupying its own separate portion of territory.  They are scarcely ever engaged in external commerce; they dislike the restraints and despise the security of residence in towns, and dwell invariably in tents made of a stuff woven from goats’ hair and the fibrous root of the palmeta.  In some of the provinces, their residences form large circular encampments, consisting of from twenty to a hundred tents, where they are governed by a sheik or magistrate of their own body.  This officer is again subordinate to a bashaw or governor, appointed by the emperor, who resides in some neighbouring town.  In these encampments there is always a tent set apart for religious worship, and appropriated to the use of the weary or benighted traveller, who is supplied with food and refreshment at the expense of the community.

The character of the Arab, in a general view, is decidedly more noble and magnanimous than that of the Berrebber.  His vices are of a more daring, and if the expression may be used, of a more generous cast.  He accomplishes his designs rather by open violence than by treachery; he has less duplicity and concealment than the Berrebber, and to the people of his own nation or religion, he is much more hospitable and benevolent.  Beyond this, it is impossible to say any thing in his favour.  But it is in those periods of civil discord, which have been so frequent in Barbary, that the Arab character completely develops itself.  On these occasions, they will be seen linked together in small tribes, the firm friends of each other, but the sworn enemies of all the world besides.  While these dreadful tempests last, the Arabs carry devastation and destruction wherever they go, sparing neither age nor sex, and even ripping open the dead bodies of their victims, to discover whether they have not swallowed their riches for the purpose of concealment.  Their barbarity towards Christians ought not to be tried by the same rules as the rest of their conduct, for although it has no bounds but those which self-interest may prescribe, it must almost be considered as a part of their religion;