Ch. vii. among modern Pastoral Nations. 133 



Whatever maybe the encouragements to marriage, 

 this measure cannot be passed. While the Arabs 

 retain their present manners, and the country re- 

 mains in its present state of cultivation, the pro- 

 mise of Paradise to every man who had ten chil- 

 dren would but little increase their numbers, 

 though it might greatly increase their misery. 

 Direct encouragements to population have no ten- 

 dency whatever to change these manners and 

 promote cultivation. Perhaps indeed they have 

 a contrary tendency; as the constant uneasiness 

 from poverty and want which they occasion must 

 encourage the marauding spirit,* and multiply 

 the occasions of war. 



Among the Tartars, who from living in a more 

 fertile soil are comparatively richer in cattle, the 

 plunder to be obtained in predatory incursions is 

 greater than among the Arabs. And as the con- 

 tests are more bloody from the superior strength 

 of the tribes, and the custom of making slaves is 

 general, the loss of numbers in war will be more 

 considerable. These two circumstances united 

 enable some hordes of fortunate robbers to live in 

 a state of plenty, in comparison of their less en- 

 terprising neighbours. Professor Pallas gives a 

 particular account of two wandering tribes sub- 

 should so rarely have been pursued to its consequences. People 

 are not every day dying of famine. How then is the population 

 regulated to the measure of the means of subsistence ? 



* Aussi arrive-t'il chaque jour dcs accidens, des enlevemens de 

 bestiaux ; et cette guerre de inaraudc est une dc cclles qui occupent 

 davantage les Arabes. Voy. de Volney, torn. i. c. xxiii. p. 364. 



