172 CHARACTER, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS 



The moment the fierce marauder ceased to be in a 

 state of war, he became quite another man. His 

 tent was the asylum of the stranger, the home of 

 kindness and hospitahty. The traveller who sought 

 his protection, or confided in his honour, he enter- 

 tained without inquiry or the hope of remuneration. 

 He regarded him, not merely as a guest, but as a 

 member of his family; he would defend his life at 

 the risk of his own ; and dismiss him, after the en- 

 joyment of needful repose, with blessings, perhaps 

 with gifts. His word once pledged was a sure and 

 inviolable guarantee. The ancients extolled the 

 Arabs for their benevolence. Agatharcides repre- 

 sents them as the most hospitable people on earth. 

 Treatises and poems were composed expressly to 

 eulogize their superiority in this respect. The 

 highest compliment that could be paid a man was to 

 pass an encomium upon his munificence, and the 

 most acceptable to a woman was to celebrate her 

 parsimony and her beauty. The contrary vices were 

 as much an object of contempt and reproach ; and a 

 certain poet, satirizing the inhabitants of Waset, 

 upbraids them, as the deepest stain on their honour, 

 that none of their men had the heart to give, nor 

 their women to deny. 



Their friendly treatment of strangers was not con- 

 fined to the camp or the tent. On every hill the 

 " fires of hospitality" nightly blazed, to conduct the 

 wayfaring traveller to a place of safety and repose. 

 Amid the darkness of winter, the country for miles 

 round was lighted up with these beacons ; and the 

 higher and larger they were, the more honourable 

 was the generosity esteemed of him that provided 

 them. It was a matter of glory and rivalry to sur- 

 pass each other in the number and extent of these 

 kindly tokens. "Thy fires," says a poet, "are 

 kindled after sunset in every valley. The weary 

 traveller spies these red signals afar through the 

 obscure night," 



