196 HEJAZ. 



Of the sheriff families at Mecca, who may be re- 

 garded as the former Mamlouks or janizaries of 

 Arabia, only a small number (Burckhardt enume- 

 rates twelve) now remain,, who serve as auxiliaries 

 under their respective chiefs, either in the armies of 

 their friends or their enemies. Their great versatility 

 of character and conduct has destroyed their credit 

 for honesty ; and this popular distrust is increased 

 by the suspicion that they belong to the heterodox 

 sect of the Zaidites ; while the Meccawees follow the 

 doctrines of Shafei. In personal appearance and 

 gallant bearing they surpass most other tribes of 

 their countrymen. Those whom Burckhardt had 

 an opportunity of seeing, were distinguished by fine 

 manly countenances, strongly expressive of noble 

 extraction ; they had all the bold and frank man- 

 ners of the Bedouins; were fond of popularity; and 

 endowed with an innate pride which, in their own 

 eyes, set them far above the Sultan of Constanti- 

 nople. They form a distinct class, into which no 

 foreigners are admitted. They are spread over se- 

 veral other parts of Arabia, and acknowledge most of 

 the sheriffs of Yemen and Hejaz as their distant rela- 

 tions. They delight in arms and civil broils ; and 

 have a singular custom, which was practised in the 

 days of Mohammed, of sending every male child eight 

 days after its birth to the tent of some neighbouring 

 Bedouin, where he is brought up with the children 

 for eight or ten years, or till he is able to manage a 

 mare, when the father takes him home. During 

 the whole of this period, except a short visit in his 

 sixth month, the boy never sees his parents, nor 

 enters the town; nor is he in any instance left 

 longer than thirty days after his birth in the hands 



