ALGERINES. 
45 
us, from the light beauty of the girl to the mature graces of tlie 
matron, and the venerable dignity of advanced age : the face of a 
sylph becomes almost at once transformed into a gorgon’s head. In 
discussing this subject with Signor Lusieri, he assured me, that the 
fault lay not so much in the climate, as in the destructive habits of 
the Grecian females, more especially in the abuse of the bath, which 
they attend almost daily, remaining in its hot sudatories several hours 
at a time, where they discuss more scandal than circulates at an 
English tea-table in as many weeks : hence their colbur vanishes, and 
their fibres are relaxed ; hence they become languid, and unable to 
take wdiolesome exercise ; soon after the age of twenty, wrinkles 
begin to appear, and they suffer all the inconveniences of premature 
debility. Though the Grecian females are not accomplished, yet 
they possess a considerable degree of elegance in their address and 
manners ; their salutation is particularly graceful, consisting of a 
gentle inclination of the body, whilst the right hand is brought in 
contact with the waist: they are generally found by visitors reclining 
indolently on the sofas of the apartment, their silken robes bound 
round with a silver-clasped zone, their hair partly wreathed with 
flowers or adorned with pearls, and partly flowing in curls over their 
shoulders ; their eye-brow's carefully arranged, and tinged with 
surme, a powder of the blackest dye ; their nails stainedwith henna, 
and their complexion too often aided by artificial lustre ; exhibiting 
melancholy examples of the neglect of nature’s choicest gifts, the 
substantial graces of the mind. 
Algerines. 
The inhabitants of Algiers, a nation of pirates, who, in defiance 
of all the powers of Europe, have robbed and plundered the ships, 
and enslaved and murdered the subjects, of every Christian state in 
Europe and America, and for two centuries past, excepting only 
those of such as condescended to purchase their friendship or for- 
bearance by presents. These pirates, all along the sea coasts, are 
a mixture of different nations ; but chieffy Moors and Moriscoes, 
driven out of Catalonia, Arragon, and other parts of Spain. There 
are also great numbers of Turks among them, who come from the 
Levant to seek their fortunes, as well as multitudes of Jews and 
Christians taken at sea, and brought hither to be sold for slaves. 
The inland inhabitants of Algiers, distinguished by the name of 
Berebers, are some of the most ancient inhabitants of the country; 
and are supposed to be descended from the ancient Sabians, that 
nation of robbers, who plundered the patriarch Job, and who are 
said to have come to Algiers from Arabia Felix, under the conduct of 
one of their princes. Others believe them to be descended from the 
Canaanites, who were driven out of Palestine by Joshua. They are 
dispersed all over Barbary, and divided into a multitude of tribes 
under their respective chiefs : most of them inhabit the mountainous 
parts ; some range from place to place, and live in t^nts, or portable 
huts ; others in scattered villages, in which situation they have 
generally kept from intermixing with other nations. 
