Photo and copyright by Underwood & Underwood 



TENT OF ARAB CHIEF AND WATFR-BUFFAEO ON FLOODED BABYLONIAN PLAIN 



"Useful as the Bedouin wife is to her husband and the tribe, however, through all the 

 tribal songs, legends, and poetry, there runs a note hostile and abusive of all womankind. 

 A woman's nature is inherently wicked, the Bedouins say, and, like a cat, she has nine lives. 

 They believe that in all other animals save mankind the female is the better. Doughty, in 

 his work on Arabia, says : 'The Arabs are contrary to womankind, upon whom they would 

 have God's curse' " (see text, page 585). 



578 



