430 TRAVELS IN AFRICA, 
Social intercourfe is thus rendered lefs vivacious and amufing, 
but numberlefs inquietudes are avoided. They who affirm, 
however, that nothing is fought from women, among the 
people of the Eaft, but fenfual gratification, feem to err. Why 
fhould a man, by having feveral women, neceiTarily become 
infenfible to what is amiable or eftimable in any individual 
among them ? Or is individual charadter rendered abfolutely 
indiftindt by their being afTociated together ? 
They are equally in error who aflert, that women in the 
Eaft are flaves. Perhaps it might correctly be faid that they 
are treated as children ; but, fuppofmg this to be true, do not 
tendernefs and affection operate towards children ? 
They hold not the fame rank as in Europe ; and if they 
did, the intrigues carried on in the harem, would render their 
hufbands and themfelves miferable. In their prefent ftate, 
accidents of this kind are not without ill effeds, but, in general, 
ferve rather to minifter a caufe of diverfion, than to produce any 
very ferious evil. Of courfe they give much lefs difturbance 
than in Europe. 
The fpirit of Chivalry, foftered by the Crufades, changed, 
in the heated imagination of the youthful hero, the lovely 
objed of his defires, into a deity that was to be adored. The 
vifible nature of the divinity fanned the flame of devotion; 
Whether the fair benignly fmiled, or fcornfully averted her 
countenance from the humble votary, her perfedions were 
equally the fubjed of his eulogies, and her will of his propitia- 
tion. 
