BEDOUINS. 



399 



Bedouins, tional character hi its greatest purity- Of these, the 



1 " * tribe denominated " Beni Khaleb" is one of the most 



powerful) on account of its conquests and wealth, 

 and the number of other tribes subjected to it. It 

 has advanced from the desert of Najd to the sea, and 

 conquered the country of Lachsa. The tribe of 

 " Koab" inhabits north of the Persian Gulf, and has 

 possessions in the province of Chusistan, in Persia, 

 where there are five different considerable tribes of 

 Bedouins. The tribe " Beni Lam" dwells between 

 Korne and Bagdad, upon the banks of the Tigris, 

 and receives duties upon goods carried from Bassora 

 to Bagdad ; sometimes pillaging caravans. The 

 " Montefidhi," or " Montefik," is the* most power- 

 ful tribe north from the desert, with respect to ex- 

 tent of territory, and the number of subaltern tribes 

 acknowledging their authority. They possess all the 

 country on both sides of the Euphrates, from Kerne 

 to Ardie. In Egypt there are various tribes of Be- 

 tlouins, which migrate every year from the heart of 

 Africa, after the inundation of the Nile, to profit by 

 the fertility of the country, and in spring retire again 

 into the depths of the desert. There are others which 

 are stationary, and farm lands, which they sow, and 

 annually change. Mr Sonnini speaks highly in praise 

 of the stationary Bedouins of Egypt. The males, he 

 . s, are in general handsome ; they live to be very 

 old, and, in their advanced age, are conspicuous for 

 a respectable and truly patriarchal appearance. The 

 women, when young, are not destitute of beauty, 

 notwithstanding their tawny hue, and those disfigu- 

 ring compartments which they impress on the lower 

 part of their faces with a needle and a black dye. 

 He found a very singular opinion prevalent with a 

 tribe which he visited, which tradition had rendered 

 sacred among them. They asserted, that their an- 

 cestors were Europeans, and Christians, who, having 

 . been shipwrecked on the coast of Egypt, were plun- 

 dered, and reduced to live in the desert. The whole, 

 however, that they retained of the pretended Chris- 

 tianity of their forefatiiers, was the sign of the cross, 

 which they made with their fingers, or traced in the 

 sand. Travels in Egypt, ch. xxv. 



The customs and manners of life of all the Be- 

 douins, whether African or Asiatic, are very nearly 

 the same, and present a lively picture of the rude 

 simplicity of the pastoral stage of society. Tliecamp3 

 of the Bedouins are formed in a kind of irregular cir- 

 cle, composed of a single row of tents, with greater 

 >,r less interval*. These tents are made of goats or 

 camels hair, black or brown, or striped black and 

 white, by which they are distinguished from those of 

 the Turcomans, which are white. They are only 

 :ive or six feet high, stretched on three or four 

 pickets, so that at a distance they appear like a 

 r. umber of black spots, or mole-hills. The length 

 of these tents is much greater than their breadth ; and 

 they are entirely open on one of their long sides, be- 

 ing that from which the wind most rarely blows. 

 The tent of the scheik is distinguished from the rest 

 by nothing but a plume of ostrich feathers placed at , 

 the top. Each tent inhabited by a family is divided 

 by a curtain into two apartments, one of which is ap- 

 propriated to the women. The empty space within 

 the circle serves to fold their cattle every evening. In 



these tents the Bedouins, when they go to rest, stretch Bedouiiu. 

 themselves out upon the ground, without bed, mat- v " v - w 

 trass, or pillow ; wrapping themselves in .their hides 

 or blankets, and lying upon a mat, wherever they can 

 find room. They have no entrenchments, nor any 

 advanced guards except their dogs ; their horses re- 

 main saddled, and ready to be mounted upon the first 

 alarm ; but being utter strangers to order and dis J 

 cipline, their camps are always open to surprise, and 

 then afford no sufficient means of defence. 



The wealth of a Bedouin is extremely circumscri- 

 bed. It generally consists of a few male and female 

 camels ; some goats or sheep, and poultry ; a mare, 

 with her bridle and saddle, which he prefers to a 

 horse, because she seldom neighs, is more docile, and 

 yields him milk, which occasionally satisfies both his 

 hunger and thirst in the desert ; add to this his tent ; 

 a lance 16 feet long; a crooked sabre; a rusty mus- 

 ket, or matchlock ; a pipe ; a portable mill ; a pot for 

 cooking ; a leathern bucket ; a small coffee-roaster ; a 

 straw mat, which serves equally for a seat, a table, and 

 a bed ; some clothes which are put up in leathern bags ; 

 a mantle of black woollen ; a few glass or silver rings 

 which the women wear upon their legs or arms ; and 

 perhaps a little money which he buries. The wealth 

 of a scheik is somewhat more considerable. M. Vol- 

 ney resided with one in the country of Gaza, about 

 the end of ITS');, who was reckoned very great and 

 powerful ; and whose expenditure he compares to that 

 of an opulent farmer; and estimates his effects, consist- 

 ing of a few pelisses, carpets, arms, horses, and camels, 

 at about 50,000 livres, or j2000 sterling. With 

 such scanty possessions, and dwelling in a desert, we 

 cannot suppose that the Bedouins live very luxurious- 

 ly, or even plentifully. The greater part of them, 

 indeed, may be said to lead lives of habitual wretched- 

 ness and famine. The length to which they are able 

 to carry their abstinence by the force of habit and 

 the impulse of necessity, is truly astonishing. The 

 whole food consumed by the greatest part of them 

 . does not usually exceed six ounces a day, and that 

 too of the simplest kind. A few dates soaked in but- 

 ter, a little sweet milk or curds, will serve a man for 

 a whole day ; and he esteems himself happy when he 

 can add a small quantity of coarse flour, or a little 

 ball of rice. Meat is used only at the greatest festi- 

 vals ; and they never kill a kid but for a marriage or 

 a funeral. The scheiks, indeed, can afford to live 

 more generously, and have a better appearance in 

 their persons, in consequence of their more comfort- 

 able fare ; but, in times of dearth, the vulgar, always 

 half famished, do not disdain the most wretched kinds 

 of food ; and eat locusts, rats, lizards, and serpents, 

 broiled on briars. " An Arab," says Mr Jackson, 

 " will go 50 miles a day without tasting food, and at 

 night will content himself with a little barley meal 

 mixed with cold water. The term that is applied to 

 the richest men among the Arabs is, that they eat 

 meat every day." Account of the Empire of Mo- 

 rocco, p. 228. 



When we consider the poverty and necessities of 

 the Bedouins, and their wandering manner of life, we 

 shall not be much surprised at their being habitual 

 plunderers, and formidable enemies to all who have 

 occasion to traverse the desert. But they never mur- 



