ess and urbanity from the sea-bear with
whom I sailed in the North Sea; nor the honest Hamburgher, who
appeared to have an equally beloved wife in every land and in every
place we came to; nor the would-be dandy, who lit cigars innumerable,
and invariably flung them overboard after the first puff; nor the
priests, who seemed to possess the gift of invisibility, so rarely did
they show themselves; nor the hundred thousand events and personages
that flash upon our path for a moment on our journey through life, and
then linger in the memory only as the dim phantoms of a dream that has
passed away.

Algiers, seen from the sea, presents the appearance of a vast
triangular cone, situated on the slope of a mountain. Like all the
inhabitants of Northern Africa, the Algerians were at an early period
Christians, and it was only after several battles that the Mahometan
religion was finally established all over the coast of Barbary. Before
the French occupation, the Algerian ladies, like the females in all
Mussulmen countries, were kept in the strictest seclusion. The wife of
a rich Moor never left her home except to go to the baths, and even
that expedition was undertaken only at night. When it became
absolutely necessary that ladies should go abroad in daylight, their
faces were covered, and the whole figure so concealed by a redundancy
of wrappings, that a stranger would be puzzled to find out what the
moving bundles were. The luxury of the bath is greatly used by them.
There are public as well as private baths. They consist of three
apartments. The first is a large hall, for dressing and undressing; in
the second, the visitors perspire; and the third is for bathing
proper, or otherwise, as tastes and opinions somewhat differ. After
the bath, those of the male sex repair to the first room for lemonade
or coffee, or for a pipe. The modern Mahometan ladies of Algiers have
almost abandoned this seclusion. They are seen gadding about
everywhere, and are reported as being by no means particular or
difficult in their conquests. French ideas and morals have percolated
them considerably. Excessive obesity is regarded among Mahometans as
the perfection of beauty; so that, instead of using powders and other
nostrums to reduce themselves, like some of my friends at home, they
devour seeds and _couscous_, the national dish, especially employed
for fattening people. Some young ladies are crammed to such a degree
that they die under the oper