_Superior Manufacture of Gold-thread.--Imitation of precious
Stones.--Manufactory of Gun-barrels in Suse.--Silver-mine._
The manufactures of West Barbary, are of various kinds. They excel,
in the city of Fas, in the manufacture of woollens, cottons, silks,
and gold-thread. The wool and cotton are made into _hayks_, which
are pieces of cloth five feet wide, and about three and a half, or
four yards long, used to throw loosely over the dress, when they go
out into the external air: it resembles the Roman toga, and when
_tastefully adjusted_, gives an elegance to the Moorish costume.
These _hayks_ are manufactured in most of the private families of
Fas; the women employ themselves about them, and sell them to the
merchants. They are sometimes made of cotton mixed with silk, and
also altogether of silk. They make also pieces of silk of various
bright colours, called _bulawan_; the sky-blue, dark-blue, scarlet,
and yellow, are vivid colours, produced by their mode of dying the
silk before it is manufactured. They manufacture their silks from
_Bengal raw silk_, which they call _emfitla_. The _bulawan_ is
215 striped, or chequered, pink, blue, yellow, scarlet, and green: it
resembles what is called, in England, Persian, but it is much
stronger, and more[156] durable, though equally light. The silk
sashes, called _hazam_, are made in large quantities, and are
deserving of imitation in Europe; they are very substantial, but of
the same superior colours with the _bulawan_. They are made
generally half a yard wide, and three yards long: these sell at
Fas, from two to fifty dollars each. The superior kind made for the
ladies of the _horam_[157], or emperor's seraglio, for the ladies
of the bashaws, and for those of the great and opulent, are
intermixed with a beautiful gold-thread, much superior to any that
is manufactured in Europe, insomuch, that the gold-thread imported
from Leghorn and Marseilles is used only in such _hazams_ as are
made for exportation to Sudan, Draha, or Bled-el-Jereed, but those
made for the great and opulent, for home consumption, are
manufactured with the gold thread of the Fas manufacture. Whether
these expert artificers learned the mystery of gold beating, and
gold wire drawing, by which they obtain gold-thread, from the
216 Egyptians, I am not competent to say; but _they_ say they derived
it in ancient times from the Arabs, as well as the art of cutting,
polishing, and setting precious stones. They make a composition in
imitation of amber, which cannot, by the keenest eye, be
distinguished from the natural amber, the latter, however, by[158]
friction attracts cotton, but the manufactured amber does not; this
is the only criterion by which they ascertain the true from the
false amber. They also compose artificial stones with equal
sagacity; the topaz, the emerald, and the ruby they imitate to
perfection. The wool with which they make shawls almost equal in
appearance to those of Kashmere, is procured from the sheep of the
province of Tedla, and is finer than the Spanish Merino. They might
manufacture shawls of goats' hair, equal to those of Kashmere, from
the goats of the eastern declivity of the Atlas, whose hair is like
silk: these goats are called (_el maize Felelley_,) i.e. Tafilelt
goats.[159] There can be no doubt, if our intercourse with Marocco
217 had not been impeded by a general ignorance of the language of that
country, that we might long since have received from the
manufacturers of Fas, shawls of Tafilelt goat-hair, equal to the
finest of the Kashmere manufacture. There is a very extensive
manufactory of red woollen caps at Fas, the contexture of which is
well deserving investigation. There is also a manufactory of gun
locks and barrels; the former appear to have reached the acmé of
the art, the latter are not so good as those which they procure
from Europe: so that a Spanish or an English barrel, and a Fas
lock, is considered a complete gun. Such articles of manufacture as
require a complication of machinery and power to produce they
import from Europe, except only when the market is bare, and then
necessity compels them to attempt their construction. The (_hayk
Filelly_,) i.e. Tafilelt hayk, is a fine elegant woollen cloth,
thin as a muslin. The Emperor Seedi Muhamed ben Abdallah patronised
this manufacture of his native country, and never wore any other.
The art of manufacturing leather is carried to great perfection at
Mequinas: shoes of the thinnest leather are there made impervious
to water. The manufactures at Marocco and Terodant are similar to
those of Fas, with the exception of that of gold-thread, and the
cutting and polishing of precious stones. The preparation of
leather at Marocco surpasses any thing known in Europe: lion and
tiger skins they prepare white as snow, and soft as silk. There are
218 two plants that grow in the Atlas mountains, the leaves of which
they use in the manufacture of leather; they are called _tizra_,
and _tasaya_. Whether these render the leather impervious, I am not
competent to say; every inquiry that I have made at Marocco
respecting this beautiful manufacture, has been unsatisfactory. I
have always found the manufacturers very guarded, and extremely
jealous; but I have often thought that two or three of our leather
manufacturers, well versed in their art, and withal of penetrating
minds, might contrive to extract the secret from them. In the
mountains of Idaultit, in Lower Suse, they have iron-mines, and
they make gun-barrels and gun-locks equal to what are made at Fas.
The temptations to agriculture, however, are such, that sufficient
only for the consumption of their own _kabyl_ are manufactured;
which is done rather from a principle of self-defense, and from the
_amor patriæ_, than with a view to gain. The silver from the mines
of Elala, comes to the Santa Cruz market pure, and in round lumps,
weighing about two ounces each. I have bought it for its weight in
Spanish dollars; but it is generally taken to the Mint for sale.
Ores of gold from the mines of South Barbary, and silver dust from
the bed of the river at Messa, collected personally by me, I sent
to England to be assayed: the person who got them assayed,
reported, that the metal yielded was scarcely sufficient to pay the
charges of assaying; so that the speculation was abandoned.
[Footnote 156: The spirit of avarice does not sufficiently
prevail to induce the manufacturer to make imperfect articles
for the purpose of sale only. Moreover, they are restrained
from deception by an officer, who inspects the quality of
manufactures, and does not suffer an imperfect article to be
sold.]
[Footnote 157: This word is called by Europeans _haram_ or
seraglio; but haram thus applied, is a barbarism: it signifies
_vicious_. Horam is the correct pronunciation: it signifies a
place of safety, that admits of no intrusion.]
[Footnote 158: Thales, the chief of the seven wise men of
Greece, detected the existence of electricity in amber about
600 years before the Christian era. He was the first who
observed _attraction_ to be the distinguishing property of
amber; and he was so forcibly struck with this singular
discovery, that he was almost led to suppose that it possessed
animation. The term electricity is derived from the Greek word
[Greek: êlectron], amber. See Remarks on Electricity and
Galvanism, by M. La Beaume, p. 29.]
[Footnote 159: There was a breed of these goats on the island
of Mogodor, kept there by the emperor's orders. This island is
the state-prison of the empire.]
219
ON THE STATE OF SLAVERY
IN MUHAMEDAN AFRICA.
The state of slavery in this country is very different from that
which is experienced by the unfortunate men who are transported
from Africa to work under our Christian brethren in the West India
islands. No man, who is sufficiently erudite to read the Koran can
be (_abd_) a slave in a Muhamedan country. It is incumbent on a
good mûselman to give such his liberty, that the propagation of the
(_Deen el Wâsah_[160]) mûselman faith, be not impeded. A man who
has served his master faithfully[161] seven years, sometimes gets
liberated. This liberation, however, is not compulsory; but
conscientious mûselmen, of good moral character, often adopt this
enlarging system. I have, however, met with many Moors, who, on
offering liberty to their slaves, the latter have declined it,
preferring to continue in obeisance; a clear proof that their
servitude is not very severe. All slaves, without exception, are
brought to this country from the various territories of Sudan, by
the akkabars, kaffilas, or caravans, that traverse Sahara. They are
all pagans or idolaters (from the interior regions). They are worth
220 from ten to twenty dollars at Timbuctoo; and at Marocco and Fas
they sell for, from seventy to one hundred dollars. They are
received into the Moorish families as domestic servants, and soon
forget their idolatrous superstitions, and become (nominally at
least) Muhamedans. After which, many learn to read the Koran, and
becoming observers of ablution and prostration, often procure their
liberation; for if any one should neglect to liberate such a slave,
his brethren in Muhamed will urge him to it, as a good and
charitable work, becoming a true, mûselman.[162]
[Footnote 160: So called by Muhamedans: _literally_ means the
liberal of _wide doctrine_, alluding to that of the Arabian
Prophet.]
[Footnote 161: Jeremiah, xxxiv. 14.]
[Footnote 162: The etymology of _muselman_ is, a man of peace;
from _salem_, peace.]
The man who wrote the letter from Timbuctoo, giving his master at
Mogodor an account of Mungo Park, having visited Kabria, which
letter I read, and reported its contents on my arrival in England
from Mogodor, about the year 1807, to my Lord Moira (now the
Marquis of Hastings), to Sir Joseph Banks, and to Sir Charles
Morgan, was a liberated negro of Seed el Abes Buhellel, a Fas
merchant, whose father had an establishment at Timbuctoo. When
Buhellel liberated this negro, he had such confidence in him, that
he advanced to him, on his own personal credit, goods to a
considerable amount, with which he crossed Sahara, and took them to
Timbuctoo for a market. It were to be desired, for the sake of
_humanity_, that our West-India planters would take a lesson on
this subject from the Moors, whose conduct, in this particular, is
worthy of imitation.
221