834 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The morning dawned in a streak of spear-shaped clouds,* presaging 

 a warm day, so we commended the child to the care of Allah, and 

 ascended the hill before Er-Masood had opened his den. Our red- 

 nosed friend had left his camp, but, when we reached the main road, 

 we met several Monakees driving their working-steers to the field. 

 They eyed us with surprise, and some of them quickened their steps 

 to keep up with us, thus giving me an opportunity to observe them 

 well. Whatever might be their sins, I soon saw that the hand of 

 Allah weighed heavily upon their race. They wheezed and coughed ; 

 their children looked pale-cheeked, and, among the three or four score 

 of adults we met on that day, I did not see half a dozen purely 

 human countenances. Some had fish-eyes, and some pig-noses, and 

 nearly all the old males were disfigured by the bloated appearance 

 of their faces. They all marched on their hind-legs, but their gait 

 was remarkably awkward ; they can not walk with dignity, and in the 

 cities, where I afterward saw large assemblies of their people, only the 

 younger boys seemed to have anything like a natural grace of deport- 

 ment. Whenever the road led up-hill, their knees weakened, and they 

 had to pause, panting for breath, while the small dogs that accompa- 

 nied them went boldly ahead. Their feet were shod with leather 

 boxes, and, though the morning was rather sultry, most of them were 

 muffled up to their chins in blankets or heavy cloaks. These garments, 

 however, were well woven, and, like their agricultural implements, 

 evinced the skill of their artificers. Their conversation, too (whenever 

 they ceased to discuss their various bodily ailments), seemed to turn 

 upon mechanical topics ; in matters pertaining to natural science and 

 the wonders of natural history they are strangely incurious ; their 

 country-people have no names for the splendid butterflies of their 

 fields, and few of them can identify a single constellation of the starry 

 firmament.f In these border districts a corrupt dialect of the Khundi- 

 Arabs is the prevailing idiom ; farther west the vernacular of ancient 

 Monghistan is more generally spoken, though nearly all their educated 

 men have some knowledge of the Arabic language. 



On the next steep hill we had left all the villages behind, when we 

 reached a cross-road where we saw a Monakee standing on all-fours, 

 with his head between his hands, and moving his hind-feet up and 

 down like the stampers of a water-wheel. The Karman turned back 

 to me smiling, but I beckoned him to follow me behind a hedge, where 

 we could watch the strange creature unobserved. 



" Do you not know him ? " whispered my guide ; " it is the traveler, 

 the same man we met in the woods last night : that is the way they 

 say their prayers." 



* Nubes rayadas (It.). 



f " The poorest Bedouins," says Professor W., " are as familiar with practical 

 astronomy as a German Fiirstcr with the slang and mystery of woodcraft. They have 

 names, and even nicknames, for every constellation and every conspicuous 6tar." 



