The lamentable effects of this fatal retaliation is such, that one death often produces twenty murders, and afterwards involves whole kabyls in intestine wars. 296 It is remarkable, that the more duplicity they use in these horrid transactions, the more merit is ascribed to the agent; who is praised in proportion to the extent of his ingenuity, or duplicity, as was the case with the liberator above mentioned.
_Every Nation is required to use its own Costume._
The Jews in West and South Barbary, have a predilection for the European costume, in preference to their own, the former being respected, the latter not: moreover the character of a _merchant_ is highly respected by the Moors, and the European dress is a kind of passport to a man as such. One day, the Emperor seeing in the place of audience, at a great distance, a gentleman, apparently an European ambassador, ordered the master of the audience to go and see who he was, and what nation he represented; but it being discovered that he was a Marocco Jew, his scarlet and gold dress was torn from him, and a _burnose_, (a large black cloak, the costume of the Jews of the lower order,) was put over him, when he was buffetted and kicked out of the place of audience. The Emperor was exasperated at this circumstance, which he considered a vain deception: he ordered his secretary to write to all the ports in his dominions, to desire that Jews should wear the _burnose_, that 297 Christians only should wear the European costume, and Moors and Arabs theirs; so that thus every individual might be known by their respective dress. On this occasion, an opulent Hebrew merchant at Mogodor felt so much the insults he was exposed to, from wearing the Jewish costume, that he actually paid several thousand dollars to obtain the privilege he had formerly enjoyed, which, in consequence of his being an opulent man, and a foreign merchant, was granted to him.
The name of this gentleman would here be mentioned to gratify the curious; but as it might give umbrage to his family, and as the intention here is only to describe the character and manners of the country, there is, I conceive no necessity for stating personalities.
_Ali Bey (El Abassi), Author of the Travels under that Name._