114 THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



a march of 500 miles, disappear before the conqueror; the 

 secret waters of the desert elude his search, and his victorious 

 troops are consumed with thirst, hunger, and fatigue, in the 

 pursuit of an invisible foe, who scorns his efforts, and safely 

 reposes in the heart of the burning solitude. 



'The slaves of a despotic rule may vainly boast of their 

 national independence ; but the Arab is as free from a domestic 

 as from a foreign yoke. In every tribe superstition or 

 gratitude or traditional respect has exalted a particular family 

 above the heads of their equals. The dignities of sheik and 

 emir invariably descend in this chosen race ; but the order of 

 succession is loose and precarious, and the most worthy or aged 

 of the noble kinsmen are preferred to the simple though im- 

 portant office of composing disputes by their advice and guiding- 

 valour by their example. If an emir abuses his power he is 

 quickly punished by the desertion of his subjects. Their 

 independent spirit disdains a base submission to the will of a 

 master, their steps are unconfined, the desert is open and the 

 tribes and families are held together by a mutual and voluntary 

 compact. Accustomed to a life of danger and distress, the 

 breast of the wandering Arab is fortified with the austere 

 virtues of courage, patience, and sobriety ; the love of liberty 

 prompts him to exercise the habits of self-command, and the 

 fear of dishonour guards him from the meaner apprehension of 

 pain, of danger, and of death. The self-respect which in- 

 dependence inspires shows itself in the dignity of his outward 

 demeanour : his speech is slow, weighty, and concise ; he is 

 seldom provoked to laughter ; his only gesture is that of stroking 

 his beard, the venerable symbol of manhood.' 



Unfortunately the Bedouin too often tarnishes his liberty by 

 crime, and, accustomed to confound the ideas of stranger and 

 enemy, endeavours to justify by casuistry the base pursuits of 

 a robber. He pretends that in the division of the earth the 

 rich and fertile climates were assigned to the other branches of 

 the human family, and that the posterity of the outlaw Ismael 

 is entitled to recover by fraud or force the portion of inheri- 

 tance of which he has been unjustly deprived. Equally 

 addicted to theft and merchandise, he ransoms or pillages the 

 caravans that traverse his native desert, and armed against man- 

 k:ind, makes the inoffensive traveller the victim of his rapacious 



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