5 
MOROCCO, 
•cover fuch a phyfiognomlcal difference as is apparent be¬ 
tween the females of Fez and thofe of Mequinez, the 
former being generally of a fallow or pale complexion. 
The Moors may be diftinguifhed into thofe who lead a 
paftoral life, and thofe who inhabit the cities. 
The Moors of the country live in tents $ and, that they 
may allow their ground a year’s reft, they annually change 
the place of their encampments, and go in fearch of frefli 
palturage. Their encampments, which they call douhars, 
are compofed of feveral tents, and form a crefcent; or. 
they are ranged in two parallel lines, and their flocks, 
when they return from pafture, occupy the centre. The 
tents, viewed in front, are of a conical figure; they are 
from eight to ten feet high, and from twenty to twenty- 
five feet long; like thofe of high antiquity, they refemble 
a boat reverfed. They are made of cloth compofed of 
goats’ and camels’ hair, and the leaves of the wild palm, 
by which they are rendered impervious to water; but at 
a diftance their black colour gives them a very difagree- 
able look. Thus encampe'd, they live in the greateft fim- 
plicity, and exhibit a faithful pi&ure of the inhabitants 
of the earth in the firft ages of the world. The nature 
of their education, the temperature of the climate, and 
the rigour of the government, diminilh the wants of the 
people, who find in their plains, in the milk and wool of 
their flocks, every thing neceflary for food and clothing. 
Polygamy is allowed among them ; a luxury fo far from 
being injurious to a people who have few wants, that it 
is a great convenience in the economy of thofe focieties, 
becaufe the women are entrufted with the whole care of 
the domeftic management. In their half-clofed tents, 
they are employed in milking the cows for daily ufe; and, 
when the milk abounds, in making butter, in picking 
their corn, their barley, and pulfe, and grinding their 
meal, which they do daily in a mill compofed of two 
Jltones about eighteen inches in diameter, the uppermoft 
having a handle, and turning on an axis fixed in the un¬ 
der one. See the article Mill, vol. xv. p. 383,4. and the 
correfponding figures. Their bread they make every day, 
which they bake between two earthen plates, and often 
upon the ground after it has been heated by fire. Their 
ordinary food is the coofcoofoo; which is a pafte made 
with meal in the form of fmall grains, like Italian 
pafte. This coofcoofoo is drefledin the vapour of boiling 
foup, in a hollow difti perforated with many fmall holes 
in the bottom, and the difti is enclofed in a kettle where 
meat is boiled ; the coofcoofoo, which is in the hollow 
difti, grows gradually foft by the vapour of the broth, 
with which it is from time to time moiftened. This Am¬ 
ple food is very nouriftiing, and even agreeable w'hen one 
has got the better of the prejudices which every nation 
entertains for its own cuftoms. The common people eat 
it with milk or butter indifferently ; but thofe of higher 
rank, fuch as the governors of provinces and lieutenants, 
who live in the centre of the encampments, add to it fome 
fucculent broth, made with a mixture of mutton, poultry, 
pigeons, or hedgehogs, and then pour on it a fufficient 
quantity of frefli butter. 
The women are alfo employed in preparing their wool, 
fpinning, and weaving in looms hung lengthways in their 
tents. Thus they make their haicks, which, without 
drefling, milling, or dyeing, are immediately applied to 
rife. This is the conftant country-drefs of the Moors, 
without either fhirts or drawers, linen being deemed a 
luxury fit only for the court and city. The finery of 
which the country-women are moft defirous confifts of 
large ear-rings, in the ftiape of a crefcent, or filver rings, 
with bracelets and rings for the fmall of the leg. They 
alfo wear necklaces of fmall coloured glafs-beads, or 
clove-grains ftrung on a filken thread. They alfo paint 
the face, neck, bofom, and almoft the whole body, with 
the forms of flowers and ornaments; making impreftions 
with models in which are the points of needles, that 
flightly raife the fkin, under which a blue colour is in¬ 
terred, or gunpowder pulverized, which is never effaced. 
Vol. XVI. No. 10SS. 
The women of fome Moorith tribes bear on the forehead, 
or on the chin, a crofs, denoting probably that they are 
the defcendants of thofe who were formerly fubje&ed to 
the Chriftians of Africa, and who, to avoid paying taxes 
like the Moors, thus imprinted erodes upon their Ikins, 
that they might pafs for Chriftians. The country Moors 
regard their wives more as ftaves than as companions, and 
compel them to fubmit to every drudgery, except that of 
tilling the ground. The flcin of the country-women is 
tanned, as they walk unveiled; and in fome places they paint 
their cheeks, and every-where ftain their hair, their feet, 
and their fingers-ends, with an herb called henna, (fee 
Lawsonia,) which produces a deep faffron colour. In 
their douhars, which are fcattered over the country, and 
commonly fixed near fome rivulet or well, there is a tent 
for the reception of travellers, where they find poultry, 
milk, and eggs, and forage for their horfes. Over the 
tents of travellers there is a guard, left any of the Moors, 
who are naturally thievilh, Ihould attempt to commit a 
robbery. The douhar is refponfible for all thefts com¬ 
mitted in its vicinity, during the day, or in fight of its 
encampment. To facilitate barter, there is a public mar¬ 
ket held every day, except Friday, in various quarters of 
each province. Here the neighbouring Moors aflemble 
to buy or fell cattle, corn, vegetables, dried fruit, carpets, 
haicks, and all the productions of their country. On the 
outfide of the market they have ufually fliows, buffoons, 
fingers, dancers, and merry-andrews. On one fide is 
the place of the barbers or furgeons, to whom they 
bring their fick to be cured of Itrains, diflocations, or 
other accidents. 
The Moors of the cities differ but little from thofe who 
live under tents ; but they affeCl a fuperiority, of which 
they are vain. They are of the fame general origin ; 
unlefs we fuppofe that the former are intermixed with 
the defcendants of thofe Moors of Spain, who, after their 
expulfion, preferred a city to a rural life. Their houfes 
have in general few conveniencies: they have no win¬ 
dows, and they are feldom more than fixteen feet high. 
They have all terraces on the roof, which are formed of 
earth and mortar; their furniture chiefly confifts of mats, 
carpets, fome chairs, a cheft, a table, and a bed which is 
concealed by curtains. The inhabitants of cities have 
only one wife 5 but they have female negroes, whom they 
may take as concubines. In their drefs they are diftin- 
guiftied from the country Moors by wearing a ftiirt and 
linen drawers, and an upper garment of cotton in fummer, 
and of cloth in winter, which they call a caftan. Obliged 
as they are to conceal their riches, the Moors wear no 
jewels; very few of them have fo much as a ring, a watch, 
or a filver fnuff-box. 
The Moorifti women of the cities feldom leave the 
houfe, and they are always veiled. Thofe of the fouth 
are the handfomeft; and they are fo referved, or fo guard¬ 
ed,, that their relations do not enter their houfes, nor 
their tents. The females of the cities are, as in other 
nations, more addicted to ftiow and finery in drefs than 
thofe of the country; but, as they generally leave the 
houfe only one day in the week, they feldom drefs them- 
felves. Not allowed to receive male vifitors, they remain 
at home employed in their families, and fo totally in 
dilhabille, that they often wear only a ftiift, and another 
coarfer ftiift over that, tied round their waift, with their 
hair plaited, and fometimes with, though often without, a 
cap. When drefled, they wear a fine linen ftiift, the 
bofom embroidered in gold; a rich caftan of cloth, ftuff, 
or velvet, worked in gold ; and one or two folds of gauze, 
ftreaked with gold and filk, round the head, and tied 
behind fo as that the fringes, intertningled with their 
treffes, defcend as low as the waift; to which fome add 
a ribband of about two inches broad, worked in gold or 
pearls, that encircles the forehead in form of a diadem. 
Their caftan is bound round their waift by a crimfon 
velvet girdle, embroidered in gold, with a buckle of 
gold or filver, or elfe a girdle of tamboured fluff", manu- 
C factored 
