A voyage to Senegal : $b or, Historical, philosophical, and political memoirs, relative to the discoveries, establishments and commerce of Europeans in the Atlantic Ocean, from Cape Blanco to the river of Sierra LeoneDurand, Jean Baptiste Léonard
History
A voyage to Senegal : $b or, Historical, philosophical, and political memoirs, relative to the discoveries, establishments and commerce of Europeans in the Atlantic Ocean, from Cape Blanco to the river of Sierra Leone
Durand, Jean Baptiste Léonard
Africa, Northwest; Senegal -- Description and travel
It is also the business of the women to prepare the provisions,
fetch water, and attend to the horses and cattle, which always
lodge in the same tent. Those who are in easy circumstances keep
Negro slaves to do the principal part of the labour; but they are
always obliged to wait upon their husbands themselves. In short,
nothing can exceed the arrogance of a Moor to his wife, nor the
humility of the woman in presence of her husband.
The women, when a horde changes its situation, strike the tents,
load and unburden the camels; and when the husband mounts his horse,
his wife holds the stirrup: they are not even admitted to eat with
the men, but when dinner is ready, they retire, and wait till they
are called on, to take what is left.
These women are in some degree the property of their husbands: for
a Moor does not marry till he is able to buy himself a wife. The
fathers sell their daughters; and he who has most of them, is
considered the richest man. The price agreed on is always paid
in advance; and the husband may afterwards put away his wife, but
what he has given for her is never returned. Nevertheless a Moor
cannot turn away his wife without obtaining permission from the
oldest people of the horde, but which they never refuse to give;
so that the demand is a simple matter of form.
The women are treated by the Moors with the most sovereign contempt;
they never take the names of their husbands, nor do the children even
bear the names of their fathers. Amongst almost all the hordes they
admit only of four or five different names. The men are distinguished
by that of their tribe, and have some kind of surname.
Although the women in question are so badly used, and though they
are very indecent in their manners and gestures, they are faithful
to their husbands. An instance to the contrary seldom occurs; but
when it does, the offender is driven from the house of her lord,
and his relations generally revenge themselves by her blood, for
the disgrace which she has brought upon their family.
The Moors consider the women as an inferior race of beings,
created solely for their pleasure and caprice. With respect to
female beauty they have singular ideas. An elegant shape, majestic
walk, a mild and expressive physiognomy; in short, all the charms
which delight our eyes, are to them without attraction. They must
have women particularly fat; for with them corpulence seems to be
every thing. Hence those women who only require the assistance of
two slaves to help them to walk, can have but moderate pretensions;
but those who cannot stir, and who are obliged to be conveyed upon
camels, are considered perfect beauties, particularly if they have
long teeth projecting out of the mouth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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