ARAB PANTISOCKACY. 



3*29 



matchlock can be repaired, and even bullets cast; 

 good cord is purchaseable ; and for tinning a set of 

 seventeen pots and plates five shukkah merkani are 

 charged. A pair of Arab stirrups are made up for one 

 shukkah besides the material, and chains for animals at 

 about double the price. Fetters and padlocks, however, 

 are usually imported by caravans. Pack-saddles are 

 brought from Zanzibar : in caravans a man may some- 

 times be found to make them. There is, moreover, 

 generally a pauper Arab who for cloth will make up 

 a ridge-tent; and as most civilised Orientals can use 

 a needle, professional tailors are little required. Pro- 

 visions are cheap and plentiful ; the profits are large ; 

 and the Arab, when wealthy, is disposed to be hospitable 

 and convivial. Many of the more prosperous merchants 

 support their brethren who have been ruined by the 

 chances and accidents of trade. When a stranger ap- 

 pears amongst them, he receives the " hishmat Til 

 gharib," or the guest-welcome, in the shape of a goat 

 and a load of white rice ; he is provided with lodgings, 

 and is introduced by the host to the rest of the society 

 at a general banquet. The Arabs' great deficiency is 

 the want of some man to take the lead. About fifteen 

 years ago Abdullah bin Salim, a merchant from Zan- 

 zibar, with his body of 200 armed slaves, kept the 

 whole community in subjection : since his death, in 

 1852, the society has suffered from all the effects of dis- 

 union where union is most required. The Arab, how- 

 ever, is even in Africa a Pantisocrat, and his familiarity 

 with the inferior races around him leads to the pro- 

 verbial consequences. 



The houses of the Arabs are Moslem modifications 

 of the African Tembe, somewhat superior in strength 

 and finish. The deep and shady outside-verandah, 



