>£LAIiKE'S travels. 
ner which is very striking; and this perhaps is owing to their 
serious deportment, aided by the imposing aspect of their 
beards. Selfishness, the vice of civilized nations, seldom de¬ 
grades" ah Arab; and the politeness he practises is well 
w orthy of imitation. Drunkenness and gaming, the genuine 
offspring of selfishness, are unknown among them. If a 
stranger enter one of their tents, they all rise, give him the 
place of honour, and never sit till their guest is accommo¬ 
dated. They cannot endure seeing a person spit, because it 
is deemed a mark of contempt: for the same reason it is au 
oflence to blow the nose in their presence.* They detest the 
Turks, because they consider them as usurpers of their coun¬ 
try. The curious superstition of dreading the injurious con» 
sequences of a look , from an evil, or an envious eye, is not 
peculiar to the Arabs. The Turks, and many other nations, 
the Highlanders of Scotlands, and the people of Cornwall, en¬ 
tertain the same notion. But the Arabs even extend it to 
their cattle, whom they believe liable to this fascination. The 
ancients, according to Virgil,f entertained a similar fantasy. 
To relate all that may be said concerning their other customs, 
particularly of the delight they take in horsemanship, and of the 
estimation wherein high bred horses are held among them, 
would be only to repeat what has been already related, with 
admirable conciseness, truth, and judgment, by the Chevalier 
D’Arvieux ; whose work, already referred to, is worthy the 
consideration of every reader.J He has preserved the ad- 
& See D’Arvieux’s Voyage, p. 171. D’Arvieux says, that to break wind before an 
Arab is deemed an act of infamy •„ ‘Ml est sou vent arrive que ceux qui avoient 
?u ce malheur, ont etc obliges de s’absenter, et de passer ches. d’autres peoples, 
pour n’etre pas exposes aux huees, et a toutes les suites d’une mechante reputa¬ 
tion.” Ibid. p. 172. 
f “ Mescio, quis teneros oculus itiihi fascinat agnos.” Eel. iii. 103. 
Of all the Arab tribes, there is hot one which at present excites so much interest 
ns ..that of the IVahabees • whose very existence had scarcely merited attention when 
the author was engaged in these travels. Ibn Saoud, the present Wahabee chief, 
made in July, 1810, an incursion into the neighbourhood of Damascus. This happened 
about the ti'ipe the enterprising Buf.ckhar.dt arrived in that city, from Palmyra : and 
it is from his correspondence with the author that the substanee of this note is de¬ 
rived “ The inhabitants of Damascus,” (says he, in a letter dated Aleppo, May 3, 
1311 ) “ knowing the pacha’s feeble resources for the defence of the city, were so 
much terrified, that many began to send off their most valuable effects to the rnoun- 
ain of the Druses. The Wahabees, however, Executed their design in the true 
Arab style. Ibn Saoud remained only two days and a half in the Hainan (a mountain¬ 
ous district of Li ban us, southeast of Damascus, still retaining its ancient patriarchal 
Damc O overran, in that time, a space of at least ?40 miles ; plundered and ransacked 
above thirty villages; and returned, flying into the heart of his desert dominions. 
The pacha had issued from Damascus, with a corps of above six thousand men; but 
did not choose to hazard an engagement. Ibn Saoud was for several hours in view of 
him; but contented himself with awkwardly firing his guns. The Wahabees were, 
for the greater part, mounted upon she camels, w hose milk afforded, in the desert, 
subsistence to themselves, and to the few horses which accompanied them. Their 
strength was between six and seven thousand men. It is to be presumed that their 
