36 
active enough in placing themselves in the humble at* 
titude prescribed on them by the Mahometan tyranny. 
Notwithstanding these inconveniencies, the Jews car- 
ry on a considerable trade at Morocco, and have even 
several times farmed the custom-house; but it happens 
almost always that in the end they are plundered by the 
Moors, or by the government. On my arrival, I had 
two Jews amongst my servants: when I saw that they 
were so ill treated and vexed in different ways, I asked 
them why they did not go to another country; they an- 
swered me, that they could not do so because they were 
slaves of the sultan. 
The Jews are the principal artizans at Tangier. They 
work hard, though much worse than the most clumsy 
European. One may from this form an idea of the coarse- 
ness of the Moorish manufactures. As the Jews have 
a particular skill in thieving, they indemnify themselves 
for the ill treatment they receive from the Moors, by 
cheating them daily. 
The Jews have synagogues at Tangier; they have 
even saints or sages, who live, and live well, at the ex- 
pense of others, as we find many in all sects do. The 
Jewesses are in general pretty, and some of them even 
.very handsome; it happens very often that they become 
the mistresses of the Moors, and this contributes some- 
times to the diminution oJ the hostility of the two hos- 
tile sects: these women in general have a beautiful com- 
plexion. The Moorish women are generally of a dead 
white, like marble statues, either from their sedentary 
life, or because, being always shut up, or closely wrap- 
ped when they walk out, their faces are scarcely ever 
exposed to the open air. 
There is no kind of lineary measure known at Mo- 
rocco but that of the elbow, which is called draa; it is 
