ing ten or twelve cups of coffee and smoking their pipes, often without uttering a single word. Sometimes however there arise conversations among select parties; many play in pairs, particularly in the establishment we have just mentioned, at the French game of draughts. The players are always surrounded by spectators, who take great interest in the game.

"Other places of assembly much frequented by the Moors, particularly by those who are inquisitive and who meddle with politics, are the barbers' shops, which are very numerous. Tradesmen's shops, not only at Algiers, but in all the towns of Barbary I have visited, are holes in the wall about two metres deep and one wide, which are almost entirely occupied by the dealers when squatted inside. But those of the barbers are more extensive, being four or five metres long and two or even three wide, surrounded by a seat or benches for the accommodation of customers. They are kept tolerably clean, ornamented by all the instruments of the vocation hung about the walls, and by paintings executed in Barbary, representing the most glorious sea-fights of the Algerine corsairs.

"All day long these shops are filled by those who come to have their heads shaved or their beards combed, and by a great number of idle people who come thither only to kill time and to hear news. They are seen gravely seated on the benches, listening very attentively to the barber, who tells what he knows and often much more, at the same time shaving somebody's head, or strutting about and gesticulating if he has no work under his hands. Several plots for the extermination of the French were organized at the barbers' shops, and from thence was sent the information of our movements to the bey of Titerie, before he was taken prisoner."vol. iii. p. 60.

Our author reckons the population of the city of Algiers, before the arrival of the French, at not more than 30,000 persons, of which number, after its conquest, about a third had migrated. As nearly as could be calculated, this population was composed of 4000 married Turks or Janissaries, about 2000 negroes, 5000 Jews, 18,000 Moors and Coulouglis, and 1000 Berbers, Arabs, and others. The Jews here, as in all Mahometan towns, form a distinct, in some measure proscribed, and certainly the most despised part of the population, particularly since the Turks obtained the government. Here, also, as elsewhere, they are chiefly occupied in brokerage. Many of them patrol the streets as pedlars, with muslins, cambrics, and other things, which they sell to the Moorish ladies. They are forbidden, on pain of severe punishment, to enter the house of a Mussulman, or even to knock at the door. The mode of trading with them is, therefore, as follows. When the women hear the peculiar cry which they constantly repeat as they pass along the streets, they descend to the door, and send a slave to call them: when the pedlar arrives, the door is opened just enough to make room for the hand of the

slave or of a little child, who passes the merchandise to the lady; the money is returned in the same manner, and the Jew departs without having even seen his customer. The Moorish dames are not always honest in their dealings with the Jews. Sometimes they take his merchandise, and then shut the door in his face, without paying for it. In this case, as he dare not knock at the door, he begins to shout with all his might and to stamp with his feet, and if in the end the money is not thrown to him, he runs to make his complaint to the Cadi, and even there he is by no means sure of obtaining justice. The Jewish population of Algiers was originally formed by the refugees from persecution in Spain, and they were once on a much more respectable footing in the town than at present. They still relate a strange legend of their first arrival from Europe.

"Whilst the Moors were in possession of Spain, they had allowed the Jews to establish themselves there and to occupy themselves in commerce. The people of Israel did there as in Egypt; they multiplied fast, and in a short space of time became extremely numerous. They had their magistrates, their temples, and the free exercise of their religion. When the Christians had driven the Mussulmans from Spain and reconquered that fine country, they permitted the Jews to continue to dwell there and to carry on their commercial speculations, on condition of their submitting to the laws of the new state. To the great riches which they had amassed under the empire of the Moors, they added still more, until at last the Christians became extremely jealous of them, In 1390, the chief rabbi of Seville (Simon-ben-Smia), a man of firstrate capacity, who possessed great wealth, was seized and thrown into prison by order of the king of Spain, with sixty of the principal heads of Jewish families and many Moors who had remained in that city. Immediately after this arbitrary act, the Spaniards subjected the Jews and Moors established in the kingdom to all kinds of exactions. Soon after the imprisonment of the rabbi, the king ordered him and all who had been shut up with him to be put to death. On the evening which preceded the day appointed for the execution, at the moment when all his companions in misfortune were abandoning themselves to despair and grief, Simon took a bit of coal and drew the figure of a ship on the wall. Then turning to those around him who were weeping, he said, 'Let all those who believe in God, and who are willing to quit this place immediately, put their finger with me on this ship.' They all did so, and in an instant the ship sketched with coal became a real ship, which put itself in motion; the wall opened to give a passage; it traversed Seville, to the great astonishment of the inhabitants, without running against any of them or even touching their houses, and went with all its crew direct to the sea. We are not told if the rabbi took the helm, or if his companions served as sailors; but this we are assured that the vessel never stopped till it suddenly anchored in the bay of Algiers, a town then only inhabited by Mahometans, Moors, and Arabs. The rabbi, having despatched in all haste some of his companions to the Algerines, to tell

how they had been brought to their coast, and to solicit an asylum, the latter answered that it was no concern of theirs, but that they would consult Sydi-Ben-Yousef, a famous marabout who dwelt at Meliana. Immediately a party of horse set off at full gallop and soon arrived at the residence of Sydi-Ben-Yousef, whom they informed that certain Jews and Moors, who had escaped miraculously from Spain, had arrived in the port of Algiers, begging to be received as inhabitants of the town. 'Receive them and treat them in the best manner possible,' was the answer of the marabout. The messengers hastened back with the order of the holy man, and it was immediately announced to the Rabbi that he might land with all his companions. The inhabitants of the town, with the chiefs of religion and of the law at their head, marched out to meet them, and offered them every thing of which they were in need. They gave them lodgings in the town, where they settled."-vol. iii. p. 210.

The most interesting and remarkable objects in the environs of the town are the fountains and the marabouts or hermitages. The marabout, or divine, amongst the Moors as well as the Berbers, is a person who exercises great influence, and who is believed to receive immediate inspiration from the Deity. He is consequently, among a superstitious people, consulted on every occasion, and his advice is never rejected. He is not even subject to the ordinary laws of society, and the person who has experienced at his hands any violence or injustice throws himself on his face and thanks God that he has thus deemed him worthy of his peculiar notice. His attributes resemble those of the wise men of some of our country villages, who, for a small consideration, pretend to indicate the possessors of lost or stolen property, tell fortunes and the like. In like manner the marabout is generally approached with presents, and, not content with this, when he wants anything he sends to demand it of any one whom he knows to possess it, and the latter hardly dares to refuse. He enters people's gardens, or shops, or houses, and takes what he likes, and the person who is thus robbed, instead of being angry, considers it a presage of good fortune. The most remarkable of the numerous sanctuaries of these men in the neighbourhood of the capital, which are also called marabouts, is that of Sydi-AbderrahA little further from the town, on the sea coast, is one not less famous amongst the people, particularly the Jews, that of Sydi-Yakoub, of the ceremonies at which, apparently bearing some analogy with the worship of wells so prevalent in all countries during the dark ages, an amusing account is given by Captain Rozet:

man.

"To the north-west of the powder-mill rises a rock of schistus, on the top of which stands the marabout of Sydi-Yakoub, under the shade of a magnificent olive-tree, which spreads out its branches like a cedar. This

marabout is much esteemed, not only by the Mussulmans, but by the Jews also, for the numerous cures which are operated there. Below it, on the west side of the rock, is a great fountain covered by a circular vault, to which we are assured that Sydi-Yakoub gave the property of curing all kinds of diseases.

"Every Wednesday pilgrims repair to the fountain of Sydi-Yakoub, and sometimes in such numbers that they block up the road. One Wednesday, as I walked out of the town on this road, about six o'clock in the morning, I saw some negroes and a great number of Jews proceeding in this direction; totally ignorant of their design, I followed them, not doubting that some very interesting ceremony was to be performed; I joined two whole Jewish families, men, women, and children. When we reached the fountain, the men stopped; but the women took off their shoes, and, taking the baskets which their husbands had placed on the ground, they very devoutly approached the fountain. Each drew from her basket an earthen pot, in which she made a fire with tinder and a little coal; they then lighted small yellow tapers, and placed them on a stone beside a little hole, whence issued a jet-d'eau, crying You, you. After this they returned, threw some grains of incense into their fires, and carried the pots in their hands several times about the fountain. They then returned to their baskets; some of them took eggs, boiled beans, and bread; others, the feathers and blood of a chicken, &c., which they threw into the basin, crying You, you; after which they placed themselves on the step nearest to the water, washed their face and hands, drank the water, and made their children drink it, and then returned to their husbands, who were waiting for them at the place where they first halted. I saw also several negroes and negresses performing similar ceremonies, but, by their hurry and want of devotion, it was easy to see that they were not doing it on their own account.

66

"Taking a turn round the fountain, I found sitting on a stone an old Moor, covered with dirt, who presented to me a bit of paper which he held in his hand: it was a billet signed by the general-in-chief of the French army, which authorized him, a marabout, to post himself on Wednesdays and Thursdays at the holy fountain of Sydi-Yakoub, to receive the offerings of the pilgrims. I returned him his paper, and asked him if the offerings he received were numerous. No,' said he, I scarcely receive anything; this place is visited by more Jews than Mussulmans.'

"As I was going away I heard a great noise on the sea-shore; I went to see what it might be, and was not a little surprized to find there many Jewish families drinking and eating, uttering from time to time cries of joy, and singing at the utmost extent of their voice. I approached them to learn what they were doing, and immediately several men arose, begged me to partake of their repast, and, in spite of all my refusals, obliged me to eat a small apple, and to drink with them a glass of anisette. I then learnt that, after coming to seek the protection of Sydi-Yakoub, it was proper to pass the whole day in drinking, eating, and amusing themselves, with their relatives and friends, in the open air. In the evening I returned to see if my companions of the morning had

punctually fulfilled their duty, and I found in the fields, all along the road conducting to Sydi-Yakoub, numerous assemblies of several families, in which every body was drunk. Several musicians had come to increase the uproar, and the guests accompanied them by singing, or rather howling, all at once. Men, women, and children, unable to support themselves any longer, rolled one over another, without any regard to modesty, and we may thank the drawers which the Jewesses wear that this was not altogether violated. I have often heard talk of the Sabbath, where, they say, the witches meet the devils, and deliver themselves to all sorts of orgies, and I never saw anything which gave me a more complete idea of them than the farce of the Jews who perform the pilgrimage to Sydi-Yakoub.

66

Salomon, to whom I related all I had seen, told me—' Sydi-Yakoub is a very powerful marabout, whom we worship as well as the Mussulmans. He cures all manner of diseases, and drives the devil out of the body of him who seeks his aid. If any one is ill, he goes to seek the Xine, or he sends another person if he cannot go himself. When she has heard attentively the recital of the patient's sufferings, she takes a handful of wheat and throws it on a sieve; after contemplating the grains of wheat, sometimes for half an hour, she pronounces almost always that the sick person is possessed by the devil, and that he must visit the fountain of Sydi-Yakoub, or send some one thither in his stead. The Xine then orders him to kill two chickens, one white and the other black, or one single black and white chicken; to collect the blood, and rub with a part of it the arms and legs of the sick person, and to carry the rest, with the feathers, to the fountain, and throw them in, with some orange flowers; to eat the chicken on the sea-shore, to throw the bones into the sea, and to pass the rest of the day in amusement, in sign of the cure which you have obtained, or which, at all events, you will obtain.'” -vol. iii. p. 136.

We have chosen more readily the foregoing extract, because it presents a picture, by no means exaggerated, of superstitions and observations which still prevail among the lower orders of the Catholic population of Ireland.

Prince Pückler-Muskau tells a story of a marabout buried among the ruins near Cape Matifou, which we are tempted to give, as a very fair specimen of Mussulman legends. The prince was attended, in this short excursion, by a necessary escort of the Chasseurs d'Afrique :

"We rested some time among the ruins of Torre Tschika, and examined the remains beside the monuments of the holy marabout, and his friend the Spaniard, whom he had converted in this very place. The story of this event is as follows:-The Spanish captain had landed with the marabout, whom he had brought hither, when both, overcome by the heat, yielded to slumber. The Spaniard awaking first, tempted by the evil one, resolved to take advantage of the deep sleep of his passenger, and to sail home with his property. He immediately put out to sea, but he could not find his way out of the bay, for a magic wind