Page:Sixteen years of an artist's life in Morocco, Spain and the Canary Islands.djvu/48

Rh closely observing their character. I found them generally to be idle, good-natured, gossiping and frivolous―possessing, in fact, all those small peculiarities of character that distinguish women in our own Christian country. The superintendence of their domestic affairs formed their gravest and most important occupation. Surrounding themselves with a hideous posse of black slaves, with each one with her own progeny around her, the wife reigns supreme over her sooty circle, and lords it most superbly in their midst. If she wishes to bestow her attention on some more light and elegant occupation, she resorts to embroidery, a never-failing refuge for her unoccupied hands in her many idle hours during the long, hot, and sunny day. I remember one monstrous creature―a Moorish beauty― the wife of an official, who, on receiving me, felt my clothes and counted my fingers to see if a Nazarene woman was in all points made like herself. My gloves next attracted her attention, and she proceeded to examine them, although from some cause, she shrank from them at first with fear. She was, as is usual here, very beautiful down to the chin, and her complexion was as fair as that of an English matron. Her black languishing eyes, like those of the Jewesses, were stained with al cohol; and besides the extreme whiteness of her skin, she