68 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FRANCIS ARAGO. 
take; there was one other; that was, to go in the com- 
pany of a French “lazarist” of seventy years of age, 
and whose name, if my memory serves me, was Father 
Joshua; he had lived in this country for half a century. 
This man, of exemplary*virtue, had devoted himself with 
admirable self-denial to the service of the slaves of the 
Regency, and had divested himself of all considerations 
of nationality ;—the Portuguese, Neapolitans, Sicilians, 
all were equally his brethren. 
In the times of plague he was seen day and night car- 
rying eager help to the Mussulmans ; thus, his virtue had 
conquered even religious hatreds; and wherever he 
passed, he and the persons who might accompany him 
received from multitudes of the people, from the janissa- 
ries, and even from the officials of the mosques, the 
most respectful salutations. 
During our long hours of sailing on board the Algerine 
vessel, and our compulsory stay in the prisons at Rosas, 
and on the hulk at Palamos, I gathered some ideas as to 
the interior life of the Moors or the Coulouglous, which, 
even now when Algiers has fallen under the dominion of 
France, would perhaps be yet worth preserving. I shall, 
however, confine myself to recounting, nearly word for 
word, a conversation which I had with Rais Braham, 
whose father was a “ Zure jin,” that is to say, a Turk 
born in the Levant. 
“ How is it that you consent,” said I to him, “to marry 
a young girl whom you have never seen, and find in her, 
perhaps, an excessively ugly woman, instead of the 
beauty whom you had fancied to yourself?” 
“We never marry without having obtained informa- 
tion from the women who serve in the capacity of ser- 
vants at the public baths. The Jewesses are moreover, 
in these cases, very useful go-betweens.” 
