inhospitable region, they could only have succeeded after having
become well acquainted with the Moorish language, and when, after a
considerable sojourn on the coast, they had raised for themselves a
name, and were regarded with superstitious fear; in a word, if they
walked this land of peril untouched and unscathed, it was not that
they were considered as harmless and inoffensive people, which,
indeed, would not have protected them, and which assuredly they
were not; it was not that they were mistaken for wandering Moors
and Bedouins, from whom they differed in feature and complexion,
but because, wherever they went, they were dreaded as the
possessors of supernatural powers, and as mighty sorcerers.

There is in Barbary more than one sect of wanderers, which, to the
cursory observer, might easily appear, and perhaps have appeared,
in the right of legitimate Gypsies. For example, there are the
Beni Aros. The proper home of these people is in certain high
mountains in the neighbourhood of Tetuan, but they are to be found
roving about the whole kingdom of Fez. Perhaps it would be
impossible to find, in the whole of Northern Africa, a more
detestable caste. They are beggars by profession, but are
exceedingly addicted to robbery and murder; they are notorious
drunkards, and are infamous, even in Barbary, for their unnatural
lusts. They are, for the most part, well made and of comely
features. I have occasionally spoken with them; they are Moors,
and speak no language but the Arabic.

Then there is the sect of Sidi Hamed au Muza, a very roving people,
companies of whom are generally to be found in all the principal
towns of Barbary. The men are expert vaulters and tumblers, and
perform wonderful feats of address with swords and daggers, to the