134 TRAVELS IN THE 
heads, and exhibiting various feats of activity and horsemanship, 
seemingly to display their superior prowess over a miserable 
captive. 
The Moors are certainly very good horsemen. They ride 
without fear ; their saddles, being high before and behind, afford 
them a very secure seat ; and if they chance to fall, the whole 
country is so soft and sandy, that they are very seldom hurt. 
Their greatest pride, and one of their principal amusements, is 
to put the horse to his full speed, and then stop him with a 
sudden jerk, so as frequently to bring him down upon his 
haunches. All always rode upon a milk-white horse, with its 
tail dyed red. He never walked, unless when he went to say 
his prayers ; and even in the night, two or three horses were 
always kept ready saddled, at a little distance from his own 
tent. The Moors set a very high value upon their horses ; for 
it is by their superior fleetness that they are enabled to make 
so many predatory excursions into the Negro countries. They 
feed them three or four times a day, and generally give them 
a large quantity of sweet milk in the evening, which the horses 
appear to relish very much. 
April 3d. This forenoon a child, which had been some time 
sickly, died in the next tent ; and the mother and relations im- 
mediately began the death howl. They were joined by a 
number of female visitors, who came on purpose to assist at 
this melancholy concert. I had no opportunity of seeing the 
burial, which is generally performed secretly, in the dusk of the 
evening, and frequently at only a few yards distance from the 
