BEDOUINS. 



401 



Bedouins ly give their fire at a distace, then lay down their 

 *- v arms on the gr>. -md, and make a vigorous attack with 

 their broad swords ; but, if repulsed, seldom or never 

 rally again. They dread engaging with the cavalry, 

 and seldom venture to descend from the mountains, 

 when apprehensive of being charged by them. 



" On sudden alarms, or when any chieftain is in 

 distress, they give notice to their clans, or those in al- 

 liance with them, by sending a man with what they 

 call tlwjie/y aoss, which is a stick, in the form of a 

 cross, burnc at the end, who send it forward to the 

 next tribe or clan. They carry with it a written pa- 

 per, directing them where to assemble ; upon sight 

 of which, they leave their habitation, and with great 

 expedition repair to the place of rendezvous, with 

 arms, ammunition, and meal for their provision. 



" The imposition commonly called black-mail, is 

 levied by the Highlanders on almost all the low coun- 

 try bordering thereon. But as it is equally criminal by 

 the laws of Scotland to pay this exaction, or to ex- 

 tort it, the inhabitants, to avoid the penalty of the 

 laws, agree with the robbers, or some of their corre- 

 spondents in the lowlands, to protect their houses and 

 attle, who are in effect but their stewards, or factors ; 

 and as long as this payment continues, the depreda- 

 tions cease upon their lands ; otherwise the collector 

 of this illegal imposition is obliged to make good the 

 loss they have sustained. They give regular receipts 

 for the same safe-guard money ; and those who refuse 

 to submit to this imposition are sure of being plun- 

 dered. 



" Those who are robbed of their cattle, (or persons 

 employed by them,) follow them by the tract, and 

 often recover them from the robbers, by compound- 

 ing for a certain sum ot money agreed on. But if the 

 pursuers are armed, and in numbers superior to the 

 thieves, and happen to seize any of them, they are 

 seldom or never prosecuted, the poorer sort being 

 unable to support the charge of a prosecution. They 

 are likewise under the apprehension of becoming the 

 object of their revenge, by having their houses and 

 stacks burnt, their cattle stolen or hockt, and their 

 lives at the mercy of the tribe or clan to whom the 

 banditti belong. The richer sort (to keep, as they 

 call it, good neighbourhood, ) generally compound with 

 the chieftain of the tribe or clan for double restitu- 

 tion, which he willingly pays to save one of his clan 

 from prosecution ; and this is repaid him by a con- 

 tribution from the thieves of his clan, who never re- 

 fuse the payment of their proportion to save one of their 

 own fraternity. This composition is seldom paid in 

 money, but in cattle stolen from the opposite sideof the 

 country, to make reparation to the person injured." 



The situation of the Bedouins owes some of its 

 most material comforts to the camel, an animal 

 which nature seems to have expressly designed for in- 

 habiting the desert, and enduring the hardships and 

 privations which are inseparable from such a mode of 

 life. He is of a form muscular and robust, without 

 having any superfluous flesn to support : on his legs 

 and thighs we find absolutely nothing but the muscles 

 indispensible for motion. He is furnished with a 

 strong jaw, that he may grind the hardest aliments ; 

 and with a straitened and ruminating stomach, that he 

 may not consume too much. His foot is lined with a 



VOL. IH. PART III. 



lump of flesh, which, sliding in the mud, and being in Bedouin; 

 no way adapted to climbing, fits him for a dry, level, / 



and sandy soil like that of Arabia. Nature has also 

 evidently destined him to slavery, by refusing him 

 every sort of defence against his enemies. To pre- 

 serve the species, therefore, she has concealed him in 

 the depth of the vast deserts, where the want of ve- 

 getables can attract no game, and whence the want of 

 game expels every voracious animal. Here his absti- 

 nence enables him to support his strength on the 

 scanty herbage which the arid soil -produces ; and he is 

 capable of existing without water for several days to- 

 gether. Reduced to the domestic state, he has render- 

 ed habitable the most barren soil that the world con- 

 tains i and is alone sufficient for all his master's wants. 

 The milk of the camel nourishes the family of the 

 Arab, under the various forms of curd, cheese, and 

 butter ; and his flesh furnishes a repast upon extra- 

 ordinary occasions. Slippers and harness are made 

 of his skin, tents and clothing of his hair. Heavy- 

 burdens are transported by his means ; and when the 

 earth denies forage to the horse, the camel, for so 

 many advantages, seeks no other recompense than a 

 few stalks of brambles or wormwood, and pounded 

 date kernels. 



The ordinary rate of motion of the camel greatly 

 exceeds the journeying pace of the horse ; but there 

 is a peculiar species called the desert camel, of which 

 the velocity is so great, as almost to exceed credibi- 

 lity. Mr Jackson, in his recent account of Morocco, 

 has given the following account of the desert camel 

 of the Sahara, in Africa. " Nature, ever provident/, 

 and seeing the difficulty of communication, from the 

 immense tracts of desert country in Sahara, has af- 

 forded the Saharanans a means, upon any emergency, 

 of crossing the great African desert in a few days. 

 Mounted upon the heirie, or desert camel, (which is 

 in figure similar to the camel of burden, but more 

 elegantly formed,) the Arab, with his loins, breast, 

 and ears bound round, to prevent the percussion of 

 air proceeding from a quick motion, rapidly traverses, 

 upon the back of this abstemious animal, the scorch- 

 ing desert, the fiery atmosphere of which parches 

 and impedes respiration, so as almost to produce suf- 

 focation. The motion of the heirie is violent, and 

 can be endured only by those patient, abstemious, 

 and hardy Arabs, who are accustomed to it. The 

 most inferior kind of heirie are called talatayee, 

 a term expressive of their going the distance of three 

 days journey in one; the next kind is called sebayee, 

 a term appropriated to that which goes seven days 

 journey in one, and this is the general character; 

 there is also one called tasayee, or the heirie of nine 

 days ; these are extremely rare." p. 39, 40. The 

 swiftness of this useful animal, Mr Jackson informs 

 us, is thus described by the Arabs in their figurative 

 manner. " When thou shalt meet a heirie, and say 

 to the rider Salen-Aic/c, peace be between us;' ere 

 he shall have answered thee, Allele- Salem, ' there is 

 peace between us,' he will be afar off, and nearly 

 out of sight, for his swiftness is like the wind." 



The arts of the Bedouins are few and simple, and 



consist in weaving their clumsy tents and clothing, 



and in making mats and butter. They preserve 



their butter in leathern bags, and their water in goat 



3e 



