130 Of the Checks to Population Bk. i. 



Some tribes, from the nature of the deserts in 

 which they live, seem to be necessarily con- 

 demned to a pastoral life ;* but even those which 

 inhabit soils proper for agriculture, have but little 

 temptation to practise this art, while surrounded 

 by marauding neighbours. The peasants of the 

 frontier provinces of Syria, Persia and Siberia, 

 exposed, as they are, to the constant incursions 

 of a devastating enemy, do not lead a life that is 

 to be envied by the wandering Tartar or Arab. 

 A certain degree of security is perhaps still more 

 necessary than richness of soil, to encourage the 

 change from the pastoral to the agricultural state ; 

 and where this cannot be attained, the sedentary 

 labourer is more exposed to the vicissitudes of 

 fortune than he who leads a wandering life, and 

 carries all his property with him.j" Under the 

 feeble, yet oppressive government of the Turks, 

 it is not uncommon for peasants to desert their 

 villages and betake themselves to a pastoral state, 

 in which they expect to be better able to escape 

 from the plunder of their Turkish masters and 

 Arab neighbours.^ 



It may be said, however, of the shepherd, as of 

 the hunter, that if want alone could effect a change 

 of habits, there would be few pastoral tribes re- 

 maining. Notwithstanding the constant wars of 

 the Bedoween Arabs, and the other checks to 

 their increase from the hardships of their mode 



* Voy. de Volney, torn. i. c. xxxiii. p. 350. 

 t Id. p. 354. 

 X Id. p. 350. 



