478 
MORAL AND POLITICAL 
and derision, and may be insulted and injured by 
any one with impunity. The immense profits, how- 
ever, which they make, by monopolizing all the 
money transactions, which they alone are qualified 
to conduct, induces them to remain and to endure 
this oppression. 
Such are the inhabitants of the towns of Bar- 
bary. The country districts are occupied by the 
Arabs, a name not perhaps confined to the original 
conquerors of this region, but applied to all who 
follow the same rude, simple, and migratory life. 
They dwell in douars, or moveable villages, con- 
sisting of a number of tents woven of camels' hair 
and the fibres of the palm tree. These are arranged 
in circles ; the interior of which forms at night a 
pface of shelter for the cattle. Having exhaust- 
ed the territory in which the douar is situated, 
they remove with their families and all their cattle 
to another ; the women and children being con- 
veyed on the backs of the camels. The Arabs are of 
a deep brown or copper colour, which they endea- 
vour to embellish with puncturing and tattowing. 
The females, when young, are handsome, but soon 
become flabby and overgrown. The internal go- 
vernment of these communities is administered by 
a Sheik and Emirs, who generally own the supre- 
macy of the Moorish sovereign, and pay a regular 
tribute ; but on all occasions of anarchy or weak- 
ness, take the opportunity of acting for themselves, 
and giving a loose to their predatory habits. All 
