With regard to the (Kadeem[144]) concubines, they are generally black women, purchased originally at Timbuctoo; they reside in the house with the wives, performing the menial offices of the domestic establishment. The children of these concubines, when not the master’s offspring, are born slaves, and inherited by him, who either keeps them for the purpose of marrying them to some black slave of his own, or sells them in the public market; this latter mode of disposing of them, however, is seldom practised, except in cases of necessity; for although the law gives great latitude to masters having slaves, yet the children are generally brought up under the mother’s care, and become members of the family; by serving at an early age in domestic occupations, they earn their living by their work; for in a country where the necessaries of life are prohibited from exportation,[145] the expense of maintenance is inconsiderable: so that a large and numerous family is a blessing, and the more numerous the greater the blessing. Living on simple food, for the most part of the farinaceous kind, their appetites are easily satisfied: their wants are few, and their resources many. This system of prohibiting the exportation of provisions does not, however, as might be supposed, reduce their value; for it has been observed, in the reign of Seedy Mohammed ben Abd Allah, when the prohibition was enforced only when a scarcity was anticipated, that during the prohibition the price of corn rose; the Arab farmers, preferring a market and sale to Europeans for dollars, to the tardiness of sale for domestic consumption, kept their corn in their Matamores till an exportation was again permitted, and then brought it to market. Neither is there policy in the prohibition, (except the Mohammedan principle of policy be admitted, that of promoting the poverty of the people or community), for by it the agriculturists not having a sufficient market for the whole produce of his land, he cultivates but a third or a fourth part, leaving the remaining part fallow; and even this fourth part is found to produce quite as much as is necessary for the domestic consumption. The same argument applies to the other articles of produce, viz. sweet almonds, dates, raisins, figs, olive oil, &c. Accordingly, since their prohibition, the immense plantations of these articles in all the provinces, particularly in Suse, where they abound, have been neglected, and are gradually decreasing, the produce being more than the domestic demand, insomuch, that the price is insufficient to pay the labour of gathering; for among this abstemious and parsimonious people, it would be difficult to find the individual who would give two shillings for the same quantity of provision of one kind, that he could procure of another kind for one shilling.