288 
TRAVELS IN NORTHERN AFRICA. 
CHAP. VII. 
The psalms of David, the Pentateuch, the books of Solomon, and 
many extracts from the inspired writers, are universally known, and 
most reverentially considered. The New Testament translated into 
Arabic, which we took with us, was eagerly read, and no exception 
made to it, but that of our Saviour being designated as the Son of 
God. St. Paul, or Baulus, bears all the blame of Mohammed's name 
not being inserted in it ; as they believe that his coming was foretold 
by Clu'ist, but that Paul erased it ; he is, therefore, called a Kaffir, 
and his name is not used with much reverence. 
SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 
In IVIorzouk about a tenth part of the population are slaves, 
though many have been brought away from their countries so young 
as hardly to be considered in that light. With respect to the 
household slaves, little or no difference is to be perceived between 
them and freemen, and they are often entrusted with the affairs of 
their master. These domestic slaves are rarely sold, and on the 
death of any of the family to which they belong, one or more of 
them receive their liberty, when, being accustomed to the country, 
and not having any recollection of their own, they marry, settle, and 
are consequently considered as naturalized. All slavery is for an 
unhmited time, unless when a religious feeling of the master induces 
him to set a bondsman free on any great festival, on the occasion of 
a death, or, which not unfrequently happens, from a wish to show 
his approval of the slave's services. 
It was, when the people were more opulent, the custom to 
liberate a male or female on the feast of Bairam, after the fast of 
Rhamadan. This practice is not entirely obsolete, but nearly so. 
The slaves are procured from the inland traders, or on those lawless 
expeditions I have already mentioned. 
