d each occupying its own separate portion of territory.
They are scarcely ever engaged in external commerce; they dislike the
restraints and despise the security of residence in towns, and dwell
invariably in tents made of a stuff woven from goats' hair and the
fibrous root of the palmeta. In some of the provinces, their
residences form large circular encampments, consisting of from twenty
to a hundred tents, where they are governed by a sheik or magistrate
of their own body. This officer is again subordinate to a bashaw or
governor, appointed by the emperor, who resides in some neighbouring
town. In these encampments there is always a tent set apart for
religious worship, and appropriated to the use of the weary or
benighted traveller, who is supplied with food and refreshment at the
expense of the community.

The character of the Arab, in a general view, is decidedly more noble
and magnanimous than that of the Berrebber. His vices are of a more
daring, and if the expression may be used, of a more generous cast.
He accomplishes his designs rather by open violence than by
treachery; he has less duplicity and concealment than the Berrebber,
and to the people of his own nation or religion, he is much more
hospitable and benevolent. Beyond this, it is impossible to say any
thing in his favour. But it is in those periods of civil discord,
which have been so frequent in Barbary, that the Arab character
completely develops itself. On these occasions, they will be seen
linked together in small tribes, the firm friends of each other, but
the sworn enemies of all the world besides. While these dreadful
tempests last, the Arabs carry devastation and destruction wherever
they go, sparing neither age nor sex, and even ripping open the dead
bodies of their victims, to discover whether they have not swallowed
their riches for the purpose of concealment. Their barbarity towards
Christians ought not to be tried by the same rules as the rest of
their conduct, for although it has no bounds but those which
self-interest may prescribe, it must almost be considered as a part
of their religion; so deep is the detestation which I they are taught
to feel for "the unclean and idolatrous infidel." A Christian,
therefore, who falls into the hands of the Arabs, has no reason to
expect any mercy. If it be his lot to be possessed by the Arabs of
the desert, his value as a slave will probably save his life, but if
he happens to be wrecked on the coa