cit. XXV.] Faculty of Sight. 20 r 



ment of living, a Bedouin in all probability gets as 

 much out of his few years as we do out of our 

 many. 



Much has been talked of the wonderful faculties 

 of sight and hearing possessed by the Bedouins, but 

 I have not remarked that they excel in either. On 

 the contrary, short-sight is common among them ; 

 and the ordinary Bedouin sees and hears no better 

 than the ordinary Italian, Greek, or Spaniard. We 

 were ourselves constantly appealed to by them when 

 trying to distinguish objects at a distance. In the 

 same way their faculty of finding their way across 

 the deserts has been much exaggerated. Bedouins, 

 of course, know their own district well, and that 

 district is often a large one ; but, once take them 

 out of it, and they are very nearly helpless. An 

 Anazeh cannot, as a South American gauclio does, 

 make out his course by sun and wind, and keep it 

 day after day till he arrives at the point intended. 

 He travels, on the contrary, from landmark to land- 

 mark ; and, where these fail, he depends entirely 

 on the information he may gather from shepherds 

 or at tents. If the country be uninhabited, he is 

 frightened. Living always in the desert, the Be- 

 douins yet speak of the Choi or Berriye in terms of 

 awe. They could never understand how it was that 

 we ventured without guides into unknown lands. 

 Of keeping a straight course for a wliole day they 

 seem incapable, for they are unable to calculate the 

 gradual motion of the sun round them. The only 



