IV 
124 THE HOLY LAND. 
CHAP, universal characteristic, they are by no means 
uniformly fashioned among different nations. 
A variety of climate necessarily modiiies the 
mode of their construction. The conical dwelling 
of the Laplander is not shaped after a model 
borrowed from the v/aiidering hordes of Tahtary ; 
nor does the lodging-place of a Calmuck resemble 
the wide-spreading airy pavilions of Syria. To 
what then can be owing the similitude which 
exists, in this respect, between a tribe of Arah.% 
and the inhabitants of Europe ; unless the latter 
derived the luxury and the elegance of their 
tents, as they did so many other of their 
refinements, from the inhabitants of this country, 
in the time of the Crusades P Where customs are 
beheld as they existed during the first ages of 
the world, there is little reason to believe the 
manner of building this kind of dwelling has 
undergone any material alteration. The tent of 
an u4rab Chief, in all probability, exhibits, at 
this day, an accurate representation of the 
Hebrew Shapheer\ or regal pavilion of the Land 
of Canaan : its Asiatic form, and the nature of 
its materials, render it peculiarly adapted to the 
temperature of a Syrian climate : but viewing 
it in northern countries, where it appears rather 
(l) See Harrner's Obsenations on Pass, of Scripture, vol. 1. p. 129. 
ed. Lond. 1808. 
