MOORISH IDEAS OF BEAUTY. 
131 
The women are treated by the Moors with the most sovereign 
contempt ; they never take the names of their husbands, nor do 
the children even bear the names of their fathers. Amongst al- 
most all the hordes they admit only of four or live different 
names. The men are distinguished by that of their tribe, and 
have some kind of surname. 
Although the women in question are so badly used, and though 
they are very indecent in their manners and gestures, they are 
faithful to their husbands. An instance to the contrary seldom 
occurs ; but when it does, the offender is driven from the house 
of her lord, and his relations generally revenge themselves by 
her blood, for the disgrace which she has brought upon their 
family. 
The Moors consider the women as an inferior race of beingfs, 
created solely for their pleasure and caprice. With respect to 
female beauty they have singular ideas. An elegant shape, ma- 
jestic walk, a mild and expressive physiognomy ; in short, all the 
charms which delight our eyes, are to them without attraction. 
They must have women particularly fat ; for with them corpu- 
lence seems to be every thing. Hence those women who only 
require the assistance of two slaves to help them to walk, can 
have but modei ate pretensions ; but those who cannot stir, and 
who are obliged to be conveyed upon camels, are considered 
perfect beauties, particularly if they have long teeth projecting 
out of the mouth. 
This taste of the Moors for massive beauties induces the 
women to take the greatest care to make themselves fat. Every, 
morning they eat an enormous quantity of cuscus, and drink se- 
veral jugs of camel's milk. The girls are obliged to take this 
food, whether they have an appetite or not ; and when they re- 
fuse they are beaten to compliance. This forced diet does not 
occasion indigestion or any other disease ; on the contrary, it 
induces that degree of fatness which passes for perfection in the 
eyes of the Moors. The Moorish girls are in other respects 
little attended to ; and their education is totally neglected. 
These people think nothing of moral qualifications; for vo-* 
luptuousness, submission, and corpulence are all that the Moors 
admire. 
The boys are better treated ; they are generally taught to read 
and write the Arabic language ; and as soon as they begin to 
grow up, they are respected by the Moorish women, and even 
by their mothers, who no longer eat with them. At aii early 
period they are accustomed to use the poniard adroitly, and to 
tear out with their nails the bowels of their adversaries : they 
are taught to give a lye the semblance of truth j are^ in shorty 
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