MEMOIR OF BURCKIIARDT. 65 



city, which became the capital of Northern Arabia, 

 and the great entrepot of the trade from India, 

 Persia, and Arabia, to Egypt and the ]\Iediterranean. 

 Kerek then became distinguished by its own name 

 in the Greek form of Charax ; it was afterwards 

 strongly fortified, and in the time of the cnisades 

 was a stronghold of the Saracens. Its chief or sheikh 

 is still a powerful personage, and a leading character 

 in the affairs of the deserts of South Syria. His 

 conduct to our traveller, as we shall soon find, was 

 very unfriendly, although he had been particularly 

 recommended to him by a grandee of Damascus. 



The inhabitants of Kerek are esteemed excellent 

 warriors ; they are hospitable to strangers ; and as 

 butter is with them a principal article of domestic 

 consumption, it is considered an unpardonable mean- 

 ness to sell it, or exchange it for any necessary or 

 convenience of life; so much so, that if a man is 

 knowTi to have transgressed in this respect, his 

 daughters or sisters would remain unmarried, for 

 no one would dare to connect himself with the 

 family of a Baya el Samin, or butter-seller, — the 

 most insulting epithet that can be applied to a 

 Kerekein. This people intermarry with the Be- 

 douins, but they do not treat their wives so affec- 

 tionately as the Arabs. If one of them happen to 

 fall sick, and her sickness is likely to prevent her 

 for some time from taking care of the household 

 affairs, the husband sends her back to her father s 

 house with a message that " he must cure her," for, 

 as he says, " I bought a healthy wife of you, and it 



