SOCIAL STATE OF THE ARABS. 361 



that it has been concentrated in the body of the de- 

 voted animal. The cholera morb us, now fearfully 

 familiar to British ears, is no stranger in Arabia. 

 At Mecca, in the month of May 1831, it raged with 

 the greatest violence ; having carried off above 5500 

 persons in the course of twenty or thirty days. Of 

 50,000 pilgrims assembled that year nearly one-half 

 are said to have perished. The dead were buried in 

 their clothes indiscriminately, in large trenches dug 

 for the purpose. Medina, Yembo, and Suez, were 

 visited at the same time by this dreadful epidemic. 



An Arab's property consists chiefly in his flocks ; 

 the profits of which enable him to procure the ne- 

 cessary provisions of wheat and barley, and occa- 

 sionally a new suit of clothes for his wife and daugh- 

 ters. No family can exist without one camel at 

 least ; a man who has but ten is reckoned poor, 

 thirty or forty place him in easy circumstances, and 

 he who possesses sixty is rich. The annual expen- 

 diture for an Arab possessed of moderate affluence 

 is calculated by Burckhardt at between 35 and 

 40 sterling. The lower classes spend less in pro- 

 portion. Wealth in such a fluctuating state of so- 

 ciety is extremely precarious, and the most rapid 

 changes of fortune are daily experienced. 



Domestic industry is little known among the Be- 

 douins ; the husband enjoys his amusements, while 

 all the household cares devolve on his females. 

 This degradation of the weaker sex is common to 

 the Arabs with most other Asiatic nations. Women 

 are regarded as beings much inferior to men, and 

 to them exclusively all the labour and menial of- 

 fices in the tent are assigned. In these employments 

 there is sometimes a curious inversion of character, 

 women work at the loom, while the men milk the 



