Ch. vii. among modern Pastoral Nations. 131 



TO 



of life, their population presses so hard against 

 the limits of their food, that they are compelled 

 from necessity to a degree of abstinence, which 

 nothing but early and constant habit could enable 

 the human constitution to support. According to 

 Volney, the lower classes of the Arabs live in a 

 state of habitual misery and famine.* The tribes 

 of the desert deny that the religion of Mahomet 

 was made for them. " For how," they say, " can 

 we perform ablutions when we have no water; 

 how can we give alms when we have no riches ; 

 or what occasion can there be to fast during the 

 month of Ramadan, when we fast all the year?"'f 



The power and riches of a Chaik consist in the 

 number of his tribe. He considers it therefore 

 as his interest to encourage population, without 

 reflecting how it may be supported. His own 

 consequence greatly depends on a numerous pro- 

 geny and kindred jj and in a state of society 

 where power generally procures subsistence, each 

 individual family derives strength and importance 

 from its numbers. These ideas act strongly as a 

 bounty upon population; and, co-operating with 

 a spirit of generosity which almost produces a 

 community of goods,§ contribute to push it to its 

 utmost verge, and to depress the body of the people 

 in the most rigid poverty. 



The habits of polygamy, where there have been 



* Voy. de Yolney, torn. i. c. xxiii. p. 359. 

 t Id. p. 380. 

 + Id. p. 366. 

 § Id. p. 37S. 



K 2 



