31 
These musicians generally assist at all marriages, cir- 
cumcisions, compliments of felicitation, and the Easter 
holydays; they are not admitted into the mosques, and 
their art forms no part of divine worship. 
There is no kind of public amusement or society at 
Tangier. The idle Moor goes out of his house in the 
morning; and sits down on the ground at the market, or 
some other public place; others passing casually by do 
the same; and thus they form circles, where they talk all 
day long. 
My house, during all my stay at Tangier, was the 
only place for the meeting of the fakihs. They came 
there to drink tea. The consuls, and other Europeans 
keep among themselves, They form a sort of republic, 
entirely distinct from the Mussulmen, and take their 
turns in having their evening circles and conversations. 
The women being totally excluded from the society 
of men, have no other part left them to play at the public 
feasts, than to show their presence by most shrill and 
penetrating cries, which they utter from their envelop- 
ing hhaiks. 
When a child has finished his studies, which consists 
only of learning to read and write, the sum of all the 
knowledge of a Moor, he is paraded on horseback 
through the street, with the same ceremony as at their 
circumcision. His family gives feasts, which the wo 
men always accompany with their shrieking cries. They 
utter these in honour of the king's presence; and when 
I became of some consideration among them, they con- 
ferred these compliments on me. As this exertion is 
considered as a kind of talent, and is the result of art, 
they seize every opportunity of making it, and endea- 
vour to excel each other in it, as well in the shrillness as 
in the length of the sound. Sometimes I heard theni 
