PUNISHMENT OF THEFT. 
87 
Africa, and their wives would not permit them even to have 
concubines. The king himself has, like his subjects, only 
one wife. 
On the 25th of November, an hassane stole some oxen 
belonging to a marabout of our camp, which caused a great 
bustle; every body was on foot all the evening, and two 
friends of the injured man went to the hassane's camp to 
demand the oxen. I was told that if the king had been there 
the thief would have been severely punished. The same 
evening Mohammed -Sidy-Moctar arrived ; I expected to see 
his family very joyful upon the occasion, and was surprised 
that nobody went out to meet him. He entered his tent, 
and saluted them all ; his greeting was very coldly returned ; 
his daughter alone rose, and laid her hands respectfully upon 
his head, without any demonstration of affection. I have 
never seen the Moors embrace each other ; even a lover does 
not kiss his mistress ; he lays his hand on her lips, and then 
puts it to his own, no doubt to convey to it the kiss which 
she has impressed on it. The next day the marabouts who 
went to demand the oxen returned ; but without success. 
On the 28th, the grand marabout went himself to claim 
them, and they were given up ; he had much difficulty in 
prevailing, and did not return till the 6th of December ; the 
oxen arrived shortly after him. 
The Moorish laws are very severe against theft, but they 
are hardly ever enforced. If the thief is taken in the king's 
presence, the king may order him fifty or sixty stripes on the 
back, or have his ears cut off, without any form of trial. 
Capital punishment is sometimes inflicted upon the tributaries, 
but never upon hassanes or marabouts. By the law of Ma- 
homet, a thief is to have his hand cut off ; but every body 
has an interest in mitigating this clause, for the Moors would 
all be one-handed if it were rigorously enforced. The law 
does not apply to those who pillage christians ; on the 
