84.8 B E D O 
that of our own peafantry. Such are the inhabitants of 
Yemen ; and fuch alfo are the defcendants of thofe an¬ 
cient conquerors, who have either entirely, or in part, giv 
ven inhabitants to Syria, Egypt, and the Barbary dates, 
in the fecond indance, having only a trail fie nt intereft in 
the foil, perpetually removing their tents from one place 
to another, and under hibjeftion to no laws, their mode 
of evidence is neither that of poliflied nations nor of fa- 
vaves ; and therefore more particularly merits our atten¬ 
tion. Such are the Bedouins, or inhabitants of the via ft 
deferts which extend from the confines of Perlia to Mo¬ 
rocco. Though divided into independent communities or 
tribes, not unfrequently hoftile to each other, they may 
dill be confidered as forming one nation. The refcmblance 
of their language is a manifeft token of this relationfiiip. 
The only difference that exids between them is, that the 
African tribes are of a lefs ancient origin, being pofterior 
to the conqueft of thefe countries by the khaliffs or fuc- 
cefl'ors of Mahomet; while the tribes of the defert of 
Arabia, properly fo called, have defcended by an uninter¬ 
rupted fuccelTion from the remoteft ages. To thefe the 
orientals are accuftomed to appropriate the name of Arabs, 
as being the mod ancient and pured race. The term Be- 
daoui is added as a fynonymous expreffion, dignifying, ‘ in¬ 
habitant of the defert.’ 
If is not without reafon that the inhabitants of the de¬ 
fert boad of being the pured and the bed prefe.rved race 
of all the Arab tribes : for never have they been conquer¬ 
ed, nor have they mixed with any other people by making 
conquefts ; for thofe by which the general name of Arabs 
has been rendered famous really belong only to the tribes 
of the Hedjas and the Yemen. Thofe who dwelt in the 
interior of the country, never emigrated at the time of the 
revolution effected by Mahomet; or, if they did take any 
part in it, it was confined to a few individuals, detached 
by motives of ambition. Thus we find the prophet in his 
Koran continually ftyling the Arabs of the defert rebels 
and infidels ; nor has fo great a length of time produced 
any very confiderable change. We may aflert they have 
in every refpedl retained their primitive independence and 
limplicily. 
The wandering life of thefe people arifes from the very 
nature of their deferts. To paint to himfelf thefe dreary 
abodes, the reader mud imagine a (ky almoft perpetually 
inflamed, and without clouds; immenfe and boundlefs 
plains, without houfes, trees, rivulets, or hills, where the 
eye frequently meets nothing but an extenfive and uniform 
horizon like the fea, though in fome places the ground is 
uneven and ftony. Almoft invariably naked on every lide, 
the earth prefents nothing but a few wild plants thinly 
fcattered, and thickets, whofe folitude is rarely difturbed 
but by antelopes, hares, locufts, and rats. Such is the na¬ 
ture of nearly the whole country, which extends fix hun¬ 
dred leagues in length and three hundred in breadth, and 
retches*from Aleppo to the Arabian fea, and from Egypt 
to the Ferfian gulph. It muft not, however, be imagined 
that the foil ‘in fo great an extent is every where the fame; 
it varies confiderab.ly in different places. On the frontiers 
of Syria, for example, the earth is in general fat and cul¬ 
tivable, nay even fruitful. It is the fame alfo on the banks 
of the Euphrates : but in the internal parts of the coun¬ 
try, and towards the fouth, it becomes white and chalky, 
as in the parallel of Dam a feus; rocky, as in the Till and 
the Hedjaz ; and a pure fand, as to the eaftward of the 
Yemen. This variety in the qualities of the foil is pro¬ 
ductive of fome minute diff erences in the condition of the 
Bedouins. For inftance, in the more fterile countries, 
that is, thofe which produce but few plants, the tribes are 
feeble and very diftant; which is the cafe in the defert of 
Suez, that of the Red Sea, and the interior of the great 
defert called the Najd. When the foil is more fruitful, 
as between Damafcus and the Euphrates, the tribes are 
more numerous and lefs remote from each other; and, 
laftly, in the cultivable diftridts, fuch as the pachalics of 
Aleppo, the Hauran, and the neighbourhood of Gaza, the 
U I N S. 
camps are frequent and contiguous, In the former infra si¬ 
ces, the Bedouins are purely pallors, and ftibfift only 01.5 
the produce of their herds, and on a few dates and iflelh 
meat, which they eat either frefli or dried in the fun and 
reduced to a powder. In the latter they fow fome land, 
and add cheefe, barley, and even rice, to their flelh and 
milk meats. 
In thofe diftricls where the foil is ftony and fandy, as in 
the Till, the Hedjaz, and the Najd, the rains make the 
feeds of the wild plants [boot, and revive the thickets, 
ranunculi, wormwood, and kali. They caufe marlhes in 
the lower grounds, which produce reeds and grafs; and 
the plain ailiimes a tolerable degree of verdure. This is 
the leafon of abundance both for the herds and their mat¬ 
ters ; but, on the return of the heats, every thing is parch¬ 
ed up, and the earth, converted into a grey and fine dull, 
prefents nothing but dry ftems as hard as wood, on which 
neither horfes, oxen, nor even goats, can feed. In this 
ftate the defert would become uninhabitable, and muff be 
totally abandoned, had not nature formed an animal no 
lefs hardy and frugal than the foil is fterile and ungrate¬ 
ful. No creature feems fo peculiarly fitted to the climate 
in which it exifts. Deligning the camel to dwell in a coun¬ 
try where lie can find little nouriftiment, nature has been 
fparing of her materials in the w hole of his formation. 
She has not bellowed on him the plump fleftiinefs of the 
ox, horfe, or elephant; but, limiting herfelf to what is 
ftridlly neceffary, Ihe has given him a Email head without 
ears at the end of a long neck without flelh. She has ta¬ 
ken from his legs and thighs every mufcle not immediate¬ 
ly requifite for motion ; and, in fliort, has bellowed on his 
withered body only the veffels and tendons neceffary to 
connect its frame together. She has furnifhed him with a 
ftrong jaw, that he may grind the hardeft aliments; but, 
left lie Iliould confume too much, (lie has ftraitened his fto- 
mach, and obliged him to chew the cud. She has lined 
his foot with a lump of flelh, which Aiding in the mud, 
and being no way adapted to climbing, fits him only for a 
dry, level, and fandy, foil, like that of Arabia : (he has 
evidently deftined him likewife to flavery, by refilling him 
every fort of defence againft his enemies. Deftitute of 
the horns of the bull, the hoof of the horfe, the tooth of 
the elephant, and the fwiftnefs of the (lag, Ivow can the 
camel refift or avoid the attacks of the lion, the tiger, or 
even the wolf ? To preferve the fpecies, therefore, nature 
has concealed him in the depth of the vaft deferts, where 
the want of vegetables can attraift no game, and whence 
the want of game repels every voracious animal. Tyran¬ 
ny mull have expelled man from the habitable parts of the 
earth before the camel could have loft his liberty. Be- 
come domeftic, he has rendered habitable the rrioft barren 
foil the world contains. He alone fuppliesall his matter's 
wants. The milk of the camel nouriflies the family of the 
Arab under the various forms of curd, cheefe, and but¬ 
ter ; and they often feed upon his flefti. Slippers and 
harnefs are made of his Ikin, tents and clothing of his hair. 
Heavy burdens are tranfported bv his means : and, when 
the earth denies forage to the horfe, fo valuable to the Be¬ 
douin, the Ihe-camel fuppiies that deficiency by her milk, 
at no other coft, for fo many advantages, than a few ftalks 
of brambles or wormwood, and pounded date-kernels. So 
great is the importance of the camel to the defert, that, 
were it deprived of that life fill animal, it muft infallibly 
lofe every inhabitant. 
Such is the (ituation in which nature has placed the 
Bedouins, to make them of a race of-men equally lingu¬ 
lar in their phylical and mqral character. This Angula¬ 
rity is fo ftriking, that even their neighbours the Syrians 
regard them as extraordinary beings: efpeciallv thole 
tribes which dwell in the depths of the deferts, fuch as the 
Anaza, Kaibar, Tai, and others, which never approach 
the towns. When in the time of fhaik Daher, fome of 
their horfemen came as far as Acre, they excited the fame 
curiofity there as a vifit from the favagesof America would 
among us. Every body viewed with furprife thefe men, 
w ho 
