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 Coulonglous, 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 " Turc 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." 



