The Sun.
London, England, 1835-10-08 00:00:00

THE MOORS OF ALGIERS.

The coffee-houses and shops of Algiers are rather
amusing—l mean those that exhibit the old Algerine
manners. In the best French coffee-houses I observed
several Moors, but you recognised them at once by
their fine white turbans and dresses, as well as by their
manners, to be men of the upper class. The other
evening I took my coffee near two of them, each of
whom I was told was supposed to be worth at least
40,0001. sterling. I was, at first, Englishman enough
to laugh at the idea of men worth 40,0001. going
about with bare legs ; but, recollecting my own High-
land origin, I said to myself—and has not the chief-
tain of my own clan, in the best old times, shown as
much of his naked limbs ? I have seen a Highland
clergyman mount the pulpit in a philabeg. I was
struck with the perfectly gentlemanlike air of these
Moors. . There was grace in every movement of their
white and shapely hands. By the tones of their voice
I knew that they were arguing, but it was with mild-
ness and light pleasantry, and their Arabic sounded
like a musical language, in comparison with the gut-
tural harshness of the common speech. These gen-
tlemen Moors sat on chairs like the Europeans. In
the native Algerine coffee-houses you find the Moors
and Arabs squatting themselves for hours on benches,
smocking and sipping black and sugarless coffee,
which in taste much resembles worm-powders. There
they also play at two games, which, as far as I could
observe, are like drafts and chess. They listen mean-
while to the vocal and instrumental music of their in-
digenous minstrels—•a music which, to a European
ear, if I may judge by my own, is unintelligible and
execrable. They have a finger-guitar, with four
strings, a fiddle with only two, and a flageolet, which
is their best instrument, though bad is the best. I
have seen them also use a drum made of parchment
stretched over a jar of burnt clay. The jar might in-
deed be painted as a symbol of their music. Really
against an Algerine concert I would ulniost pit the
bag-pipes of Lochaber. A Highland piper gives you
at least some idea of lilt or rhythm in his rudest pibroch
_something to which you could dance or beat time ;
but in the Algerine airs I could discern no rhythm.
'What, you will say, melody without rhythm I it is im-
possible, the fault was in your ears. Well, I own to
you the utter difficulty of imagining music without
rhythm, and I thought at first that the fault lay wholly
in my own ear ; but when I spoke on the subject with
a Frenchman here, who is the leader of a regimental
band, he told me that the rhythm in Moorish melodies
is so capricious as to puzzle him. At a later period of
my residence in Algiers, a most accomplished vocal
musician, the lady of Colonel De Verger, had the
kindness to write out for me the notes of some Alge-
rine Airs ; but she said, " I have been obliged to put
a rhythm of my own to them, for I never could discern
what the natives mean the rhythm to be."—Campbell's
" Letters from the South."—New Monthly Mag.

The advices from Havre state that the receipts of
the Customs for the three first quarters of 1835, exhibited
a diminution of 3,644,000 f. compared with those of the
corresponding period of 1834. At Marseilles also the re-
ceipts of the first eight months of the present year showed
an important deficiency. This falling off of the receipts
was attributed in a great measure to the smallness of the
arrivals of colonial sugar, there having been considerably
less than during the preceding years.

BIRS.
On the 4th inst., at Clapham RisTH
e, the lady of the Rev' Ch3fleg
Pritchard, of a daughter. of a"
On the 6th inst., in Fitzroy-square, Mrs. John Murray'
daughter. SIIV ''
On the sth inst., at Plaistow, the wife of Charles Curtis/
of a daughter. CA'n.
On the 3d inst., the lady of T. B. Brown, Esq., surgeon'
bridge-street, Edgeware-road, of a daughter.
011 the sth inst., Mrs. George J. Moore Harley-street,,cirasol,
On the 7th inst., in Bruton-street, the lady of Benjamin
Esq., of a son. „s,ir,
On the sth inst., at Kensington, the lady of William PI
Esq., of a son.
On the 7th inst., in Torrington-square, the lady a Chi
O.
Jones, Esq., of a aughter. vaker,
On the 25th ult., at Aberdeen, the wife of Mr. R. 1.1. /
organist of St. John's, of a son.
__.—..---------

MARRIED. Catt
On the 6th inst., at St. Luke's, Old-street, William ,r. S-
Eaq., of Finsbury, to Caroline, third daughter of the late
Reddish, Esq. , of the Bank of England soa
On the 6th inst., at Ealing, Spencer Horatio, secerathe Ist°
Thomas Walpolt, Esq., to Isabella, fourth daughter ot
Right Hon. Spencer Prceval. nc, Jel°
On the 6th inst., at St. Mary's, Bridgenorth, the fliter Of
Purton, M.A. Rector of Oldbury Sal Sophia,
"au'. of , op, to
the late Lionol,Lampet, Esq., of Bridgnorth.
On the 7th inst., at Wandsworth, the Rev. Robert YalletTista
Spennithorne, Yorkshire, to Susan, eldest daughter of to
Hieronimus Burmister, Esq., of Burntwood Lodge,
-
DIED. late
On the 28th ult., in London, Anne, daughter of the
Sykes, Esq., of Swanland, Yorkshire. wie,olC
On the sth inst., in her 76th year, Mrs. Humphrey, the
of the late Joseph Humphrey, Esq., of Sudbury, Suffolk.
and On the sth inst., at the Rectory-house, Balshatn, d
„aSilastoin
shire, aged 71, Elizabeth, wife of the Rev. Edw
A. Dl., and only daughter of the Rev. William Rainsdell'
late Master of the Charterhouse. JaVaies,•
On the 9th of August, at Port Maria St. Mary's. 10 that
Jasper
H. Livingston, Esq., upwards of 30 year, resident

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