THE ARAB. 



377 



Bacon's model, ' who hath openness in fame and 

 opinion, secrecy in habit, dissimulation in reason- 

 able use, and a power to feign, if there be no 

 remedy.' Haughty in the highest degree, and 

 boasting descent from the kings of Yemen, they 

 hold themselves to be the salt of the earth. 

 Man's nature everywhere objects to restraint, 

 these people cannot endure it : nothing afflicts 

 them so much as the necessity of regular occupa- 

 tion, as the recurrence of c duty,' as the weight 

 of any subject upon the mind. Constant only in 

 procrastination, as they are hebetous in body so 

 they are mentally torpid and apparently incapable 

 of active exertion, especially of immediate action. 

 Like their congeners of Maskat and Sur, they 

 have distinguished themselves on all occasions 

 when opposed to any but Arabs, by excessive 

 poltroonery. They seldom mix with strangers, 

 for whom they have generally an aversion, and 

 they will refuse a dollar to a wretch who has 

 changed his faith to save his life. They are never 

 worse than in youth, when excessive polygamy 

 and debauchery have enslaved them : as with 

 the Arabs of the Peninsula, a people of violent 

 and unruly passions, and seldom ripe for use 

 till their beards are grey, these Zanzabaris im- 

 prove by age, and body and mind seem to grow 



