number of pelicans and
ostriches, the latter so strong as to be able to carry a man upon
their backs. I one day saw a Moor riding in a court here upon one,
which he had got from those parts, and tamed for. show.

The Moors write in the manner of the Hebrew language, from right to
left; they are wonderfully expeditious in it, and their seals are very
neat. Public schools have lately been established in all the towns and
villages of these states; but, as the children are taught by their
priests, a set of superstitious and fanatic people, no great benefit,
to change or improve their manners, can accrue from such an
institution.

I believe, in a former letter I told you that the peasantry reside in
tents; I have however observed a few huts built of clay, but very
few. In the centre of both the huts and tents, there is a hole dug in
the ground, where they make a fire, with an outlet in the roof to vent
the smoke. They generally burn wood, or a species of charcoal, in the
preparation of which they contrive to deprive it of the baneful
effects usually experienced from the use of it in England. They have
mats spread round the fire, upon which they sit in the day, and sleep
at night. They are so parsimonious, that they live the greater part of
the year on fruit, vegetables, and fish, though they supply the
markets with abundance of fowls (of which they rear immense numbers),
butter, &c. &c. Their chief defence at night is their dogs; each tent
is provided with one, and they are so vigilant, that they give instant
notice of the approach of intruders; and when the alarm is
communicated to the whole of them, it is scarcely possible to conceive
the effect. The habit of the peasantry is the same both winter and
summer, and consists of a thick garment (frequently old and tattered),
a short capote, a greasy turban, and a pair of yellow slippers. They
sometimes throw round them a coarse white _haik_, which also serves
for a bed and covering in the night, as many of them lie upon the bare
ground in the open air before their tents.

In my next I shall give you a short sketch of the produce of this
fertile country.

LETTER XIX.

_Face and Produce of the Empire, natural and artificial_.

Mequinez.

The mountains (the principal of which are Mount Diur, Mount Cotta,
near the city of Larache, the mountain commonly called _Ape's Hill_,
between Tangiers and Ceuta, and that remarkable ridge called Mount
Atlas) contain mines of gold,