soil appears to engender inevitably, might be regarded as the most dangerous of all those barbarians among whom civilized man could expose himself. Hunting the lion, taming the most fiery coursers, in short, all violent exercises, and bloodshed, and war, were their daily recreations. Nevertheless some traces of the milder manners of Arabia remained. Poetry, adapting itself to the tastes of these rude men, celebrated in songs burning with energy and enthusiasm the prowess and exploits of their warriors, the beauty of their women, the savage but sublime features of their country, or the antiquity and glory of their race. Making their sword the purveyor of their desires, they enjoyed whatever iron thus fashioned could purchase,—ample tents, costly and magnificent garments, vessels of copper or of brass, with abundance of silver and gold. In summer moving northward before the sun, they poured down upon the cultivated country lying along the shores of the Mediterranean, through a thousand mountain defiles, and collecting both fruit and grain as they were ripened by its rays, watched the retreat of the great luminary towards the southern tropic, and pursued its fiery track across the desert.
Returning from this expedition without undergoing any particular hardships, he shortly afterward passed into Morocco, where he remained during several years, visiting its most celebrated cities, mountains, and deserts, and carefully studying the manners of its inhabitants under all their aspects. The first place of any note which he examined was Mount Magran. Here, amid wild Alpine scenes, and peaks covered with eternal snow, he found a people whose simple manners carried back his imagination to the first ages of the world. In winter they had no fixed habitations, but dwelt in large baskets, the sides of which were formed of the bark of trees, and the roof of wicker-work. These they removed from place
