105 



LIVESTOCK. 



The typical country Arab, unlike his cousin the Moorish artisan or shop- 

 keeper of the cities, has the blood of many nomadic generations in his veins. 

 Surrounded by his flocks and herds, he lives in the shelter of camel's hair 

 tents, which can be struck at a moment's notice ; or else in huts of brush- 

 wood and mud, very rapidly put together, and at no more expense than that 

 of a little uncongenial labor, which for the most part, however, falls to his 

 womenfolk. Contemplative and ease-loving, beyond the bare necessaries 

 of life, his wants are of the slenderest. He has all the Oriental's dislike of 

 manual labor ; and if the earnings of a month or two of toil suffice to keep 

 body and soul together for a twelvemonth, he can rarely see any good reason 

 why his usual 10 months' holiday should be encroached upon. But even 

 in the Arab's well-regulated life exceptional cases will occasionally arise ; 

 as, for instance, when he is bent on acquiring the wherewithal to purchase a 

 wife. These traits in the character of the Arab make of him, perhaps, a better 

 herdsman and flockmaster than he has been shown to be an agriculturist. 

 It is customary to extol him as a breeder, particularly in the matter of horses. 

 In this connection it is much to be feared that the latter-day Arab lives very 

 unworthily on a reputation built up in the uncivilised days of a distant past. 

 It is unquestionable that among the Arabs many an individual has inherited 

 an instinctive knowledge of the good points of a saddle horse ; and that at 

 times a favorite charger may receive from an Arab quite as much attention 

 as a member of his own family. In the main, however, the Arab's philosophy 

 of life is summarised in a blind confidence in a beneficent Providence, which, 

 in his view, altogether absolves him from any need to provide for the future. 

 In the circumstances it is little to be wondered that the flocks and herds 

 of the Regency alternately contract and expand, according as the seasons 

 are able to kill them off, or, more rarely, are not able to put any special 

 obstacle to their indiscriminate multiplication. The figures below, having 

 reference to the livestock of Tunisia in 1907 and 1908, afford a good illustra- 

 tion of these facts. 



The year 1908 happened to be a period of drought, during the course of 

 which, as will be seen, much of the -livestock of the Regency perished. The 



