MEMOIR OF BURCKIIARDT. 39 



anxious still farther to extend his acquaintance with 

 the natives by making occasional excursions into 

 Syria, with a view to inspect the state of Arabian 

 life and manners in the tent and the desert as well 

 as in the crowded city. And while thus preparing 

 himself for the ultimate object of his mission, he 

 was careful to direct his journeys through the parts 

 of the country which had been the least frequented 

 by European travellers, so that he had thus the 

 opportunity of making some important additions to 

 our knowledge of those regions, of which the geo • 

 graphy is not less interesting from its connexion 

 with ancient history, than it is imperfect in conse- 

 quence of the impediments which modern barbarism 

 has opposed to scientific researches. 



His first intention w^as to visit the extensive 

 plains of the Haouran (the original patrimony of 

 Abraham), where the Bedouin Arabs of the desert 

 encamp in the spring and summer in search of grass 

 and water for their cattle, or of corn for their winter 

 supply. On the eve of his departure, it happened 

 that an Arab sheikh or chief of the Aenezy tribe, 

 the most powerful and warlike of their countrymen, 

 had come to Aleppo for the purpose of receiving the 

 passage duties on certain goods which were to be 

 conveyed through his territory by the great caravan 

 to Bagdad. AVith this chief Burckhardt formed an 

 acquaintance, and engaged that he should accom- 

 pany him by way of Tadmor or Palmyra, home to 

 his family and tents; and having shown him the 



