112 
ALBINOS, 
their horses. This last topic appears to occupy by far the greatest 
portion of their attention. These animals are seldom kept in stables 
in Morocco. They are watered and fed only once a day, the former 
at one o’clock at noon, and the latter at sun-set : the only mode they 
use for cleaning them is by washing them all over in a river two or three 
timesa week, and suffering them to dry of themselves. Notwithstanding 
the attachment which the Moors shew to their horses, they most cer- 
taily use them with great cruelty. Their highest pleasure, and one of 
their first accomplishments, is, by means of long and sharp spurs, to 
make the horse go full speed, and then to stop him instantaneously, and 
in this they certainly manifest uncommon dexterity. The iron work of 
their bridles is so constructed, that by its pressure on the horse’s 
tongue and lower jaw with the least exertion of the rider, it fills his 
mouth full of blood, and, if not used with the utmost caution, throws 
him inevitably on his back. The bridle has only a single rein, w'hich 
is so very long, that it serves the purpose of both whip and curb. 
The Mo*orish saddle is in some degree similar to the Spanish, but 
the pommel is still higher and more peaked. The stirrups, in which 
they ride very short, are so formed as to cover the whole of the foot. 
They either plate or gild them, according to the dignity, opulence, or 
fancy of the possessor. Their saddles, which are covered with red 
W'ooilen cloth, or, if belonging to a perspn of consequence, with red 
satin or damask, are fastened with a strong girt round the body, in the 
European style, and another round the shoulders. The Moors fre- 
quently amuse themselves by riding with the utmost apparent violence 
against a wall ; and a stranger would conceive it impossible for them 
to avoid being dashed to pieces, when, just as the horse’s head touches 
the wall, they stop him with the utmost accuracy. 
Albinos. 
The white Moors are thus denominated by the Portuguese. The 
Albinos are looked upon by the negroes as monsters. At a distance 
they might be taken for Europeans ; but, upon a near inspection, 
their white colour appears like that of a person affected with leprosy. 
— In Saussure’s “Voyages dans les Alpes,” is the following account 
of two boys, in Chamouni, who have been called Albinos. “ The 
elder, who was, at the end of the year 1785, about twenty or one-and- 
twenty years of age, had a dull look, with lips somewhat thick, but 
nothing else in his features to distinguish him from other people. The 
other, who is two years younger, is rather a more agreeable figure ; he 
is gay and sprightly, and seems not to want wit. But their eyes are 
not blue ; the iris is of a very distinct rose colour ; the pupil too, when 
viewed in the light, seems decidedly red ; which seems to demonstrate 
that the interior membranes are deprived of the uvea, and of that black 
mucous matter which should line them. Their hair, their eye-brows, 
and eye-lashes, the down upon their skin, were all, in their infancy, 
of the most perfect milk-white colour, and very fine : but their hair 
is now of a reddish cast, and has grown pretty strong. Their sight 
too is somewhat strengthened, though they exaggerate to strangers 
their aversion for the light, and half shut their eye-lids, to give them- 
