THE KELIGTON OF MOHAMMED. 



119 



equally adapted to the simple pathos of love and elegy, the 

 piquancy of satire or the loftiest efforts of popular oratory. 



In casting a retrospective view over the manners and habits 

 of the Bedouins we are struck with the strange contradictions 

 they exhibit both in theip social and moral character. The 

 spirit of patriotism among them is strong and universal, yet 

 they have no home but the pathless waste and wretched tent. 

 They are a nation of brothers, yet live continually at war, jea- 

 lous of their honour and yet stooping to the meanness of 

 theft ; fierce and sanguinary in their temper, and yet alive to 

 the virtues of pity and gratitude ; covetous and by no means 

 of good faitli in pecuniary transactions, yet true to their 

 pledged word and charitable to the needy. 



Their religious character is marked by the same irreconcil- 

 able extremes. Their fanaticism is coupled with a lax observ- 

 ance of the precepts and ceremonies of Islam. In a pleasant 

 indifference about the precepts of the Koran, they remark 

 that the religion of Mohammed never could have been in- 

 tended for them. 'In the desert,' say they, 'we have no 

 water ; how, then, can we make the prescribed ablutions ? 

 We have no money, and how can we bestow alms ? Why 

 should we fast in the Ehamadan since the whole year with us is 

 one continual abstinence ; and if the world is the house of 

 Allah why should we go to Meccah to adore him?' 



The almost absolute independence of the Arabs and of that 

 noble race, the North American Indians of a former generation, 

 has produced many similarities between them. 'Both,' says 

 Captain Burton, ' have the same wild chivalry, the same fiery 

 sense of honour, and the same boundless hospitality ; love 

 elopements from tribe to tribe, the blood feud and the vendetta. 

 Both are grave and cautious in demeanour, and formal in 

 manner— princes in rags or paint. The Arabs plunder pilgrims, 

 'the Indians backwood settlers ; both glory in forays, raids, and 

 cattle-lifting, and })oth rob according to certain rules. Both 

 are alternately brave to desperation and shy of danger. Both 

 are remarkable for nervous and powerful oratory, and for the^ 

 use of figurative language. Both, addicted to war and to the 

 chase, despise all sedentary occupations. But the Bedouin 

 claims the superiority over the red Indian by his treatment of 

 i women, his greater development of intellect, and the grand 

 page of history which he has filled.' 



