SOCIAL STATF. OF THF ARARS, 307 



first of these causes may be ascribed many of the 

 socinl virtues for which tlie unlives have been always 

 disti«truishcd ; while most of th<' crimes, vices, and 

 prejudices by which they are deg-raded are the 

 natural fruits of the two latter. On the seacoasts 

 and in the towns, their maimers have been corrupted 

 by conuiierce and a free intercourse with foreigners. 

 Travellers, who have formed their opinions from 

 mixing exclusively with those classes, have drawn a 

 very unfavourable picture of the inhabitants in gen- 

 eral, as a nation of tyrants, hypocrites, and deceiv- 

 ers, plunged in a lower state of ignorance and de- 

 bauchery than the most barbarous islanders of the 

 South vSeas. These representations are no doubt 

 partially true, but they are far from being universally 

 just. A longer residence among them and better 

 opportunities of judging have contributed to remove 

 many erroneous impressions as to their social and 

 domestic habits. 



No people are more remarkable than the Arabs 

 for their spirit of nationality and family pride. The 

 poorest of them glory in their birth, and look witli 

 disdain on the natives of other countries. They 

 boast of the accuracy with which they have pre- 

 served their genealogies ; yet the lower, and most 

 even of the middle classes, keep no register of their 

 parentage, and would often be at a loss to know their 

 fathers or grandfathers were it not regulated by 

 custom that the son frequently joins their names to 

 his own. The sheiks and sherifis are the true aris- 

 tocracy of Arabia ; and these have reason to be vain 

 of their ancestry, which some of them can trace in 

 regular descent from the days of Mohammed or 

 Moses. The oldest nobility in Europe are but of 

 yesterday compared to these petty princes of the 

 desert. 



Though the title of sheik is the most ancient and 

 most common in use among the Arabian grandees, 

 the sheriffs, being the descendants of Mohammed, 



