In regard to the moorish character, especially the female, which Mr. Park had frequent opportunities of studying during his captivity at Benown; it appears that the education of the women is neglected altogether, they being evidently regarded merely as administering to sensual pleasure.  The Moors have singular ideas of feminine perfection.  With them, gracefulness of figure, and an expressive countenance, are by no means requisite.  Beauty and corpulency are synonymous.  A perfect moorish beauty is a load for a camel and a woman of moderate pretensions to beauty requires a slave on each side to support her.  In consequence of this depraved taste for unwieldiness of bulk, the moorish ladies take great pains to acquire it early in life, and for this purpose, the young girls are compelled by their mothers to devour a great quantity of kouskous, and drink a large portion of camel’s milk every morning.  It is of no importance whether the girl has an appetite or not, the kouskous and milk must be swallowed, and obedience is frequently enforced by blows.

The usual dress of the women is a broad piece of cotton cloth wrapped round the middle, which hangs down like a petticoat; 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 a bandage of cotton cloth, a part of which covers the face when they walk in the sun, but frequently, when they go abroad, they veil themselves from head to foot.  Their employment varies according to their situation.  Queen Fatima passed her time in conversing with visitors, performing devotions, or admiring her charms in a looking-glass.  Other ladies of rank amuse themselves in similar idleness.  The lower females attend to domestic duties.  They are very vain and talkative, very capricious in their temper, and when angry vent their passion upon the female slaves, over whom they rule despotically.

The men’s dress differs but little from that of the negroes, except that they all wear the turban, universally made of white cotton cloth.  Those who have long beards display them with pride and satisfaction, as denoting an Arab ancestry.  “If any one circumstance,” says Mr. Park, “excited amongst the Moors 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 great desert of Jarra bounds Ludamar on the north.  This vast ocean of sand is almost destitute of inhabitants.  A few miserable Arabs wander from one well to another, their flocks subsisting upon a scanty vegetation in a few insulated spots.  In other places, where the supply of water and pasturage is more abundant, small parties of Moors have taken up their residence, where they live in independent poverty, secure from the government of Barbary.  The greater part of