At every Moorish feast of consequence (four of which are celebrated here
in a year), the slaves of Tangier perambulate the streets with music and
dancing, dressed in their holiday clothes, to beg alms from all classes
of the population, particularly Europeans. The money collected is
deposited in the hands of their chief; to this is added the savings of
the whole year. In the spring, all is spent in a feast, which lasts
seven days. The slaves carry green ears of wheat, barley, and fresh
dates about the town. The Moorish women kiss the new corn or fruit, and
give the slaves a trifle of money. A slave, when he is dissatisfied with
his master, sometimes will ask him to be allowed to go about begging
until he gets money enough to buy his freedom. The slave puts the âtka
in his mouth (which piece of written paper when signed, assures his
freedom), and goes about the town, crying, "Fedeeak Allah, (Ransom of
God!)" All depends on his luck. He may be months, or even years, before
he accumulates enough to purchase his ransom.
Tangier Moors pretend that the negroes of Timbuctoo sacrifice annually a
white man, the victim being preserved and fed for the occasion. When the
time of immolation arrives, the white man is adorned with fair flowers,
and clothes of silk and many colours, and led out and sacrificed at a
grand "fiesta." Slaves and blacks in Morocco keep the same feast, with
the difference, that not being able to get a man to sacrifice, they kill
a bullock. Such a barbarous rite may possibly be practised in some part
of Negroland, but certainly not at Timbuctoo. All these tales about
Negro cannibals I am inclined to believe inventions. There never yet has
been published a well authenticated case of negro cannibalism.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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