SOCIAL STATE OP THE ARABS. 383 



body, while they are carried like spitted victims about 

 the streets. The Kurra is the art of composing 

 billets or amulets, which secure the wearer from the 

 power of enchantments and all sorts of accidents. 

 They are also employed to give cattle an appetite 

 for food, and clear houses from flies or other vermin. 

 The practice of fortune-telling, which they call 

 ramie, is very common. The natives of Oman are 

 peculiarly skilled in sorcery (sihr} ; they are inferior, 

 however, to the witches and wizards of Europe, as 

 they know nothing about the art of riding through 

 the air on broomsticks, sailing to India in cockle- 

 shells, orholding nocturnal revelries in their mosques, 

 under the visible presidency of Satan. 



The Arabs pay great attention to their language, 

 which they speak and write with the utmost care. No 

 tongue, perhaps, is diversified by so many dialects : 

 the pronunciation in Yemen differs from that of 

 Tehama ; and both are distinct from the Bedouin 

 phraseology. It is a mistake, however, to suppose, as 

 Niebuhr and Michaelis have done, that these dialects 

 differ as widely as the Spanish or Italian does from 

 the Latin. Burckhardt, who had the best opportunity 

 of judging, says, that notwithstanding thevast extent 

 of country in which the language prevails^ whoever 

 has learned one dialect will easily understand all the 

 rest. According to this traveller, it is in the desert 

 where the purest Arabic is spoken. The Bedouins, 

 though they have different idioms, are remarkable for 

 the grammatical accuracy as well as the elegance of 

 their expressions. Next to them are the Meccawees 

 and natives of Hejaz, whose language approaches 

 nearer to the old written dialect than that of any other 

 district. The inhabitants of Bagdad and Sanaa, 

 and the Yemenees in general, speak with purity, but 



