232 Bcdoiiiii Tribes of the Euphrates, [rn. xxvn, 



sary too in a slieykh, for on him the principal 

 burden of hospitahty falls ; and the qualities for 

 governing, which seem to be hereditary everywhere, 

 are fully recognised as such in the Desert. The 

 son, the brother, or the uncle of their late sheykh 

 is the man usually chosen to succeed him; and 

 nothing but extraordinary aptitude for command 

 can raise a new man to this position. Real power 

 there is but little in the hands of the sheykh, 

 though many thousand men nominally obey him. 

 The truth is, he represents only the united will of 

 the tribe ; and in political matters he has to follow 

 rather than lead public opinion. A very bold or a 

 very clever sheykh may for a time become vested 

 with real power, but this is in virtue not of his 

 position but of his character. A weaker man is 

 merely the representative of his tribe, and such a 

 one seems generally preferred. 



The sheykh has many duties and few advantages. 

 On him falls the trouble of deciding small cases of 

 dispute, quarrels between wife and husband, disputes 

 as to ownership in a camel or a sheep. He has to 

 transact the political business of the tribe, to sign 

 the letters that are sometimes written by the public 

 scribe, who is often a townsman, to receive strangers, 

 and above all to keep open house at all hours for his 

 people. He it is who is called in to stop quarrels, 

 by the authority of his presence, and to rebuke dis- 

 turbers of the peace. His main privilege is to lead 

 the tribe from camp to camp, fixing by the position 



