my various observations on the
religion, manners, usages, &c. of a people, who are very little known,
and who, for that reason, may become very interesting. Fatal experience
has put it in my power to represent them. The reader may rest assured,
that I will be no less guided by truth, in the description which I am
now to lay before him, than I have been in the preceding recital of my
particular adventures.

The Arabs of the Desert follow the religion of Mahomet; but they have
entirely disfigured it by the grossest superstitions. They live
constantly wandering in the midst of the dry sands of Africa. There are
certain colonies of them who traverse continually the borders of the
sea, without having any fixed dwelling. They are distributed into
tribes, more or less considerable. Every tribe is divided into hordes,
and every horde encamps in the districts which appear most likely to
furnish pasturage for the support of their cattle, and that in such a
manner, that one tribe is never wholly united. They are thus frequently
intermixed with certain villages of the tribes of the Ouadelims,
Labdesseba, La Loussye, Lathidium, Chelus, Tucanois, Ouadelis, &c. The
two first are the most formidable--they carry their ravages to the very
gates of Morocco. It is not therefore without reason that the Emperor
fears them. They are in general tall, handsome, stout and vigorous men.
They have commonly bristled hair, a long beard, a furious look, large
hanging ears, and their nails as long as claws; they always use their
nails in the wars wherein they are almost constantly engaged with their
neighbours. The Ouadelims, in a particular manner, are fierce, arrogant,
warlike, and given to plunder; they carry terror and dread with them
wherever they go. However, like the other Arabs, their courage commonly
fails them, when they have not a decided superiority.

All these colonies lodge by families, in tents, covered with a thick
cloth made of camels hair. It is the women who spin their cloth, and
weave it upon a loom, so small, that they work it sitting upon the
ground. The furniture of their dwellings, consists of two large leather
sacks, which answer the purpose of keeping all their old clothes, and
any pieces of old iron; of three or four goat-skins (if they can procure
as many), in which they keep their milk and water; of some wooden
dishes, some pack-saddles for their camels, two large stones for
grinding their barley, a smaller one to drive i