CUSTOMS AND MANNERS. 



403 



jackal. I saw one after it had been on board of the Inconstant two 

 months ; but it still retained its savage aspect, and had never become 

 familiar. 



Among the different classes of people we met with in Egypt, none 

 struck me more forcibly that the Bedouins. The desarts of Barca, 

 or rather its oases, are inhabited by several tribes of these wanderers 

 who are often in hostility with each other. The most formidable of 

 them is that called Welled Ali. One of its chiefs was an inmate 

 in the house inhabited by Osman Bey Bardisi, and to this Sheik I 

 was introduced by Osman, who said to me aloud in Arabic, if you or 

 I were to meet this Sheik in the desart, of which he is one of the 

 wolves, perhaps it would not be for us a pleasant meeting. The 

 Sheik made no reply, but smiled. Many English officers however 

 ventured a long way into the desart in hunting parties, where they 

 staid some days, and all the Bedouins, whom they met, behaved 

 with civility to them. The greatest number of Bedouins to be seen 

 at a time at Alexandria, was at a certain season of the year with 

 their camels, when many of them assembled in the square near the 

 Jerusalem convent gate, The Bedouin, from hard living and constant 

 exposure to the sun of the desart, is extremely lank and thin, and of 

 a very dark complexion ; his countenance wild ; his eye black and 

 penetrating, his general appearance bespeaking the half-savage, and 

 unenlightened son of nature. His sole dress consists of a skull-cap 

 and slippers, and a bernouse, or white woollen garment which covers 

 the whole body, and reaches as low as the calf of the leg, having a 

 hood to cover the head, (for he never wears a turban,) and open holes 

 for the arms. Such is the Bedouin, whether Sheik or not. The 

 Welled Ali Sheik had a lance with a head somewhat like a tomahawk ; 

 a long rifle gun, a sabre, and a pair of pistols of superior work- 

 manship. 



The people called Levantines in Egypt are the descendants of 

 Franks born in this country, and are thus named to distinguish them 

 from those Franks who are natives of European countries. The 

 Levantine women imitate the Arabs in dying their eye-lashes, eye- 



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