338 SOCIAL STATE OF THE ARABS. 



the tobacco a fragrant smell and a very agreeable 

 taste. Throwing the jereed is a kmd of rude 

 tournament which they frequently practise. This 

 is a blunt spear, made of heavy wood, about a 

 yard long and the thickness of a mopstick. Tlie 

 object of the game, in which they evince the most 

 astonishing dexterity, is for one party to pursue 

 and the other to fly, and try to elude being struck 

 with the weapon. Sometimes they amuse them- 

 selves with sham-fights ; and nothing can be more 

 picturesque than to see a group of wild men hud- 

 dled together in the greatest apparent confusion, 

 with drawn swords and couched lances. The more 

 domestic pastimes are dancing, singing, and story- 

 telling, for which they have a singular passion, and 

 which fill up all their leisure hours. There is a 

 species of song common all over the Desert, in which 

 the youths of both sexes join in the chorus, accom- 

 panying it with clapping of hands and various mo- 

 tions of the body. It is called the mesamer, and is 

 the only opportunity which the lover has of serenad- 

 ing his mistress ; the verses are often composed ex- 

 tempore, and relate to the beauty and qualities of 

 the beloved object. They have war-songs, called 

 hadou, in praise of their chiefs, and chants to enliven 

 their camels; for it is well known that that animal 

 never moves with so much ease as when he hears 

 his master sing.* When an Aeneze recites verses 

 or ancient poetry, he accompanies his voice with 

 the rehaba, a kind of guitar, the only musical instru- 

 ment used in the Desert. Some tribes are more 

 famous than others for their poetical and vocal 



* Of the Asamer, or Camel-driver's Song, Burckhardt gives 

 the following specimen : — " Lord preserve them from all threat- 

 ening dangers ! Let their limbs be pillars of iron !" 



In their amatory songs the lover sometimes expresses his 

 passion in epithets that sound rather oddly in European ears : — 

 "O, Ghaha! if my father were a jackass, I would sell him to 

 purchase Ghalia !" 



