318 SOCIAL STATE OF THE ARABS. 



they balance it for some time over their head, and 

 thrust forwards, or back%yards if hard pressed by an 

 enemy. Should a horseman be without a lance, he 

 arms himself with a club or mace, which is made 

 either wholly of iron or with a wooden handle. The 

 foot-soldiers sometimes carry a small round target, 

 made of the wild-ox hide, and covered with iron 

 bars. Some wear iron caps and coats-of-mail, which 

 either cover the whole body to the knees, hke a long 

 gown, or reach only to the waist. 



The hardy and athletic frame of the Bedouins is 



to be ascribed in part to their abstemious habits. 



They are models of sobriety, and never indulge in 



luxuries except on some festive occasion, or on the 



arrival of a stranger. Their usual articles of food 



are rice, pulse, dates, milk, butter, and flour. The 



common people eat bread made of dhourra, which 



is coarse and insipid. When they have no gridiron 



they roll the dough into balls and cook it among 



embers. They generally eat their bread while hot 



and only half-baked. Though not strangers to the 



invention of mills, they grind their flour with the 



hand, or merely bruise the grain between two stones. 



The daily and universal dish of the Aenezes is the 



ayesh^ which is flour and sour camels' milk made into 



a paste and boiled. The hourgoul is wheat boiled 



with some leaven and then dried in the sun ; and in 



this state it is preserved for the whole year. Bread 



is used at breakfast, which they bake in round cakes 



either upon gridirons or on heated stones, over which 



the dough is spread and immediately covered with 



glowing ashes ; sometimes the fire is put into glazed 



earthen pots, and the paste spread over the outside. 



In some districts they have abundance of poultry 



and garden-stuffs. Butter is used to excess. It is an 



ingredient in every dish ; all their food swims in it ; 



and they frequently swallow a whole cupful before 



breakfast. The operation of churning is performed 



in a goat-skin bag, which is tied to the tent-pole or 



