136 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION. 



Coast, especially the Mulattoes, are said to be a 

 most abandoned set of people. The men are 

 drunkards, levva, thievish, an 1 treacherous, and 

 the women are the most abandoned prostitutes, 

 sacrificing themselves at al! times, and to all 

 sorts of men, without the least degree of re 

 straint.* The natives of _&amp;lt;4/Jsico, which borders 

 on Angola, live by plundering all who happen to full 

 in their way, some of whom they kill, and others 

 they keep as slaves, j &quot; The Boshemen are land 

 pirates, who live without laws and without disci 

 pline ; who lurk in thickets, to watch the passage 

 of travellers, and shoot them with poisoned ar 

 rows, in order to seize their cattle. J &quot; The ne 

 groes of Congo, (says M. do la Brosse in his 

 Travels along the coast of Angola, in 1738,) are 

 extremely treacherous and vindictive. They 

 daily demanded of us some brandy for the use of 

 the king and the chief men of the town. One day 

 this request was denied arid we had soon reason to 

 repent it; for all the English arid French officers 

 having gone to fish on a small lake near the sea- 

 coast, they erected a tent for the purpose of dress 

 ing and eating the fishes they had caught. When 

 amusing themselves after their repast, seven or 

 eight negroes, who were the chiefs of Loango, 

 arrived in sedans, and presented their hands ac 

 cording to the custom of the country. These ne 

 groes privately rubbed the hands of the officers 

 with a subtle poison, which acts instantaneous 

 ly : and, accordingly, five captains and three sur 

 geons died on the spot.&quot; 



The Moors are characterized by Mr. Park as 

 having cruelty and low cunning pictured on their 

 countenances. Their treachery and malevo 

 lence are manifested in their plundering excur 

 sions against the Negro villages. Without the 

 smallest provocation, and sometimes under the 

 fairest professions of friendship, they will seize 

 upon the Negroes cattle, and even on the inha 

 bitants themselves. The Bedouins are plun 

 derers of the cultivated lands, and robbers on the 

 high roads; they watch every opportunity of re 

 venging their enemies, and their animosities are 

 transmitted as an inheritance from father to chil 

 dren. Even the Egyptians, who are more civil 

 ized than the tribes to which I have now alluded, 

 art characterized by excessive pride, vindictive 

 tempers, inordinate passions, and various species 

 of moral turpitude. There is a trait in the cha 

 racter of the women of this country, pointedly 

 adverted toby Sonini, in his &quot; Travels in Egypt,&quot; 

 which is particularly odious and horrible. On 

 discovering any partiality in their husbands for 

 other females, they are transported into an un 

 bounded and jealous fury. Such are their deceit 

 and cruelty on these occasions, that they instil 

 into the blood of their faithless husband, a slow 

 and mortal poison. Their revenge is meditated 



Cooke s Universal Geography, To!. I. p- 447. 

 Lfcid 1 Valiant s Travels. 



in silence, and they indulge the diabolical satis 

 faction of taking off an unhappy being by a linger 

 ing death. It is said, with confidence, that their 

 own persons supply the horrid means of perpe 

 trating their malicious designs on their husbands, 

 and that they mix with their aliment a certain 

 portion of an ingredient of a poisonous nature, 

 which infallibly induces a slow langour and con 

 sumption, and in time brings the wretched vic 

 tims to the grave. The symptoms are dreadful. 

 The body desicates, the limbs become excessive 

 ly weak, the gums rot, the teeth loosen, the hair 

 falls off, and, at length, after having dragged a 

 miserable and tortured existence, for a whole year 

 or more, the unhappy beings die in the most ex 

 treme torment. 



If we pass from Africa to the regions of Asia, 

 we shall find similar depraved principles and 

 practices pervading its several tribes, and the 

 various ranks of its population. Here, tyranny, 

 in all its degrading and cruel forms, reigns su 

 preme and uncontrolled over a superstitious, a 

 deluded, and an idolatrous race of mankind, of 

 which the following recent instances, in relation 

 to a petty despot of Persia, may serve as a spe 

 cimen. &quot; The governor Zulfecar Khun is pro 

 nounced to be a cruel and unprincipled tyrant; 

 unfortunately for the people, he has the ear of the 

 sovereign, and they have no resource against his 

 rapacity. He pays to the crown 7000 tornauns 

 a year, but it is asserted, that he collects from 

 the district 100,000. His oppression was so 

 grievous, that the inhabitants, wearied out, went 

 in a body to the king to complain ; but his ma 

 jesty only referred them back to their tyrant, who, 

 exasperated at their boldness, wreaked upon them 

 a cruel vengeance. It is said, that he maimed 

 and put to death upwards of a thousand of both 

 sexes, cult ing off the hands, putting out the eyes, 

 and otherwise mutilating the men, and cutting 

 off the noses, ears, and breasts of the women. 

 The people, desponding and brokenhearted after 

 this, paid, in as far as they were able, the rapa 

 cious demands of their oppressor, and the na 

 tural consequence, ruin and desolation has en 

 sued. ^ 



Sir John Chardin gives us the following ac 

 count of the inhabitants of Mingrelia, particu 

 larly of the women. &quot; The people are generally 

 handsome, ihe men strong and well-made, and 

 the women very beautiful ; but both sexes are 

 very vicious and debauched. The women, 

 though lively, civil, and affectionate, are very 

 perfidious; for there is no wickedness which 

 they will not perpetrate, in order to procure, to 

 preserve, or to get rid of their gallants. The 

 men likewise possess many bad qualities. All 

 of them are trained to robbery, which thev study 

 both as a business, and as an amusement. With 

 great satisfaction they relate the depredation* 



Frazer s Journey to Khorasan, 1823 



