390 



SOCIAL STATE OF THE ARABS. 



faithful where they pledge their word, and chari- 

 table to the needy ; but they are covetous, and by 

 no means of good faith in pecuniary transactions. 



Their religious character is marked by the same 

 irreconcilable extremes. Their fanaticism is coupled 

 with infidelity; their prayers and devotions are 

 mingled with the pursuits of commerce and the 

 ideas of worldly lucre. Islam has but very little 

 hold on the reverence of its disciples, even under the 

 domes of its own temples. In the desert there is a 

 still more lax observance of its precepts and cere- 

 monies. In a pleasant indifference about the mat- 

 ter, the Bedouins remark that the religion of Mo- 

 hammed never could have been intended for them. 

 " In the desert," say they, " we have no water; 

 how then can we make the prescribed ablutions ? 

 We have no money, and how can we bestow alms ? 

 Why should we fast in the Ramadan, since the 

 whole year with us is one continual abstinence; 

 and if God be present every where, why should we 

 go to Mecca to adore him ?" The whole of their 

 social and moral economy remarkably illustrates 

 the truths of Holy Writ, that " Ishmael shall be a 

 wild man, whose hand is against every man, and 

 every man's hand against him/' Enemies alike to 

 industry and the arts, they dwell " without bolts 

 and bars," the wandering denizens of the wilderness. 

 Religiously opposed to the luxuries and refinements 

 of civilized life, these rude barbarians present the phe- 

 nomenon of a people living in a state of nature, un- 

 subdued and unchanged ; yet, in their acknowledg- 

 ment of the true God, still preserving evidence of 

 their lineage as the children of Abraham. 



