68 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



however, are of far less importance at present than 

 when the Saracens made this place the chief 

 medium of their intercourse with Africa. This 

 connection of Tarifa with the Moors, seems to have 

 left some traces even in the physiognomy of the 

 inhabitants. Their complexion and features are 

 said to resemble the Arabian more than those of 

 the other inhabitants of Andalusia. The beauty 

 of the women of Tarifa is particularly celebrated, 

 the charms of which they contrive to heighten, by 

 improving their form with the black silk garment, and 

 increasing the lustre of their ardent eyes by letting 

 one of them peep through the veil which envelops 

 their face. The Romans were already acquainted 

 with the importance of this place, and peopled the 

 town, which they called Julia Joza or Traducta, 

 with colonists of Punic origin from Tingis (Tangier). 

 At present the place being tliinly peopled and 

 without trade, has no general interest, except from 

 its situation on the strait, from which it lies about 

 a quarter of a league distant, with sandhills and 

 sandbanks intervening. 



From the towers of the town may be seen the 

 opposite coast of Africa. Alcazar el Ceguer, a 

 seaport of some importance under the Moors, but 

 now deserted, is only three miles distant from 

 Tarifa ; to the east and west the strait becomes 

 broader. The southern pillar of Hercules, Mons 

 Abyla (Kynegetica, in some passages of the an- 

 cients), or the Mountain of Monkeys, at the foot 



