164 THE CAMEL. 



Raids and forays, for the purpose of stealing 

 horses and camels, are nowise disreputable 

 among the Arabs, and enterprising adventurers 

 do not always inquire very nicely, whether their 

 own tribe and that on which they propose to 

 make a descent are technically at peace, or ac- 

 cording to the jus gentium in such a state of 

 hostility, that reprisals for old offences or new 

 provocations may be justified. The moss troop- 

 ers, if observed, are of course resisted, and these 

 filibustering expeditions, and the blood-feuds 

 which grow out of them, are a never-ending 

 cause of war between the Bedouin tribes. 



The harmonizing effects of commerce are 

 very plainly seen in all the relations between the 

 Bedouins and Europeans. The Arab still thinks, 

 no doubt, with Aymerigot Marcel, that " to pille 

 and to robbe is a fayre and goode lyfe, alle 

 thynges considered," yet as a regular vocation, 

 he finds it not so safe, or, in the long run, so 

 profitable, to plunder Franks as to pilot them 

 through the desert. There have, accordingly, 

 been but few recent instances of open violence 

 to travellers, in any part of the East where 

 Arabs are often brought into contact with 

 Europeans, although it must be confessed that 

 cases of pilfering are not altogether so rare, and 

 the Bedouins themselves not unfrequently dis- 

 pute, sword in hand, the possession of the travel- 



