Chapter 25 of Personal Narrative of Pilgrimage to El Medina and Mecca The Bedouin of Al-Hijaz from Masha or Musa or Mecca to Safar or Zafar, amount of the East, Genesis 1030. That is to say they occupied the lands of Tahama to Mahra. Two, the children of Ishmael and his Egyptian wife. They peopled only the wilderness of Paran in the Sanaitic Peninsula and the parts adjacent. Dr. Eloise Springer, in the Life of Muhammad page 18, throws philosophic doubt upon the Ishmaelite's descent of Muhammad, who in personal appearance was a pure Caucasian without any mingling of Egyptian blood. And the Ishmaelite's origin of the whole Arab race is an utterly untenable theory. Years ago our historian sensibly remarked that the name Sarasen used by Ptolemy and Pliny in a more confined by Amianus and Procopius in a larger sense has been derived ridiculously from Sarah, the wife of Abraham. In Gibbon's observation, the erudite interpreter of the one primeval language, the acute bibliologist who metamorphoses the quail of the wilderness into a ruddy goose detects insidiousness and a sprint of restless and rankerous hostility against revealed religion. He proceeds on these sound grounds to attack the accuracy, the honesty and the learning of the mighty dead. This may be a Christian zeal, but it's not a Christian charity. Of late years it has been the fashion for every aspirant to ecclesiastical honors to deal a blow at the ghost of Gibbon, and as has before been remarked. Mr. Forster gratuously attacked Burkhardt, whose mains had long rested in the good will of man. This contrasts offensively with Lord Lindsay's happy compliment to the memory of the honest Swiss and the amiable eulogy quoted by Dr. Keith from the quarterly Volume 23, and thus adopted as his own. It may seem folly to defend the historian of the decline and fall against the compiler of the historical geography of Arabia, but continental orientalists have expressed their wonder at the appearance of this 19th century of the voice of Israel from Mount Sinai and the Indian in Greece. It should be informed that all our eastern students are not votaries of such obsolete vagaries and a footnote. The first race, indigens or atoktons, are those sub-Caucasian tribes which may still be met with in the province of Mahra and generally along the coast between Masqat and Hadramot. This is said without any theory, according to all historians of long inhabited lands, the Advanae, whether migratory tribes or visitors, find indigens or Greek and a footnote. The Mahra, the Janaba in the Gara, especially show a low development, for which hardship and privation alone will not satisfactorily account. Footnote. They are described as having small heads with low brows and ill-formed noses, strongly contrasting with the Jewish feature. Irregular lines, black skins and frames, for the most part frail and slender. For a physiological description of this race, I must refer my readers to the writings of Dr. Carter of Bombay, a medical officer of the Palinuris, which went engaged on the survey of Eastern Arabia. With ample means of observation, he has not failed to remark the similarity between the lowest types of Bedouin and the indigens of India, as represented by Vils and other jungle races. This, from a man of science who is not writing up a theory, may be considered strong evidence in favor of variety in the Arabian family. The fact has long been suspected, but few travelers have given their attention to the subject since the downfall of Sir William Jones's Indian origin theory. I am convinced that there is not in Arabia one Arab face cast of features and expressions, as was formally supposed to be the case, an adventure to recommend the subject for consideration to future observers. And the footnote, these are Arab Al-Arabah, for whose inferiority Oriental fable accounts as usual by Thelma Turgi. The principal advent of the Naoukians, a great Khaldian or Mesopotamian tribe, which entered Arabia about 2200 AC, and by slow and gradual encroachments drove before them the ancient owners and seized the happier lands of the peninsula. The great Anza and the Nejdi families are types of this race, which is purely Caucasian, and shows a highly nervous temperament together with those signs of blood which distinguish even the lower animals, the horse and the camel, the grey hound, and the goat of Arabia. These adveney would correspond with the Arab Al-Mtaarriba, or the Arab-sized Arabs of the Eastern historians, footnote. Of this Mesopotamian race, there are now many local varieties, the subjects of the four Abyssinian and Christian sovereigns who succeeded Yusuf, the Jewish Lord of the Pit, produced in the Yemen, the Morden Akhdam, or the Serviles. The Hujur of Yemen and Oman are a mixed race whose origin is still unknown, and to quote no more cases, the ebna mentioned in Ibn Ishaq were descended from the Persian soldiers of Anishirwan, who expelled the Abyssinian invader and the footnote. The third family, an ancient and a noble race dating from 1900 AC and typified in history by Ishmael, still occupies the so-called Sinaitic Peninsula. These Arabs, however, do not and never did extend beyond the limits of the mountains, who were still dwelling in the presence of their brethren, they retain all the while customs and untameable spirit of their forefathers. They are distinguished from the pure stock-band admixture of Egyptian blood and by a preserving and ancient characteristics of the Nile-Otik family, footnote, that the Cops or ancient Egyptians were half-cased Arabs, a mixed people like the Abyssinians, the Galas, the Somal and the Kafirs, an Arab graph upon an African stock appears highly probable. Hence, the old Nile-Otik race has been represented as fully headed and of Negro feature. Thus, Leo Afrikanus makes the Africans to be descendants of the Arabs, hence the tradition that Egypt was peopled by Ethiopia and has been gradually whitened by admixture of Persian and Median, Greek and Roman blood. Hence, too, the fanciful connection of Ethiopia with Kush, Susiana, Huzistan or the lands about the Tigris. Thus learned, Virgil, confounding the western with the eastern Ethiopians, alludes to Esque coloratus nilus de vexus ad indos. Hence, Strabo maintains the people of Mauritania to be Indians who had come with Hercules. We can all but remarked in southern Arabia the footprints of the Hindu, whose superstitions like the phoenix which flew from India to expire in Egypt passed over to Arabia with Dupa Sochatra or Sokotra, for a resting place on its way to the regions of the Mermotus West as regards the difference between Japhetic and Semitic tongues. It may be remarked that though nothing can be more distinct than Sanskrit and Arabia, yet that Pahlavi and Hebrew by Professor Boulin on Genesis present some remarkable points of resemblance. I have attempted in a work on sin to collect words common to both families and further research convinces me that such vocables in the Arabic Torah and the Persian Torah and the Latin Tauros denote an ancient rapprochement whose mystery still invites the elucidation of modern science. The Ismailites are subcoocasians and are denoted in history as the Arab al-Mustahriba or the institution or half-cased Arab. Oriental ethnography, which like most western sciences, luxurious and nomenclative distinction, recognises a fourth race under the name of Arab Mustajima. These barbarised Arabs are now represented by such a population as that of Mecca that Al-Aus and Khazraj, the Himyaritic tribes which emigrated to Al-Hijaz, mixed with Amalika, the Jerham and the Qatra, are also races from Al-Yaman. And with the Hebrews, the northern branch of the Semitic family, we have ample historical evidence. And they know how immutable this race in the desert will scarcely doubt that the Bedouin of Al-Hijaz preserves in purity the blood transmitted to him by his ancestors. Footnote. The Shari families affect marrying female slaves, thereby showing the intense pride which finds no Arab noble enough for them. Others take to wife Bedouin girls, their blood, therefore, is by no means pure. The worst feature of their system is the forced celibacy of their daughters. They are never married to any but Shari families, consequently they often die in spincerhood. The effects of this custom are most pernicious. For those celibacy exist in the East, it is by no means anonymous with chastity. Here it springs from a morbid sense of honor and arose, it is popularly said, from an affront taken by a Shari against his daughter's husband. But all Arabs condemn the practice. End of footnote. I will not apologize for entering into details concerning the personnel of the Bedouin. A precise physical portrait of a race. It has justly been remarked as the soul's deficiency in the pages of Bruce and of Burkhardt. Footnote. I use the word Bedouin as popular abuse has fixed it. Every Orientalist knows that the Bedouin is the plural form of Bedouin and is a Manisbah, or adjective derived from Bedouin, a desert. Some words notoriously corrupt, says Gibbon, are fixed. And as it were naturalized in the Volker tongue, the word Bedouin is not insulting, like Turk applied to an Osmanli, or a Fella to the Egyptian, but you affront a wild man by mistaking his clan for a lower one. Ya Hitaymi, for instance, addressed to a Herbedouin, makes him finger his dagger. End of footnote. The temperament of the Hijazi is not unfrequently the pure nervous. As the height of the forehead and the fine texture of the hair prove, sometimes the billus and rarely sanguine elements predominate. The lymphatic I never saw. He has large nervous centers and well-formed spine and brain, a conformation favorable to longevity. Bartimao well describes his color as dark leonine, varies from the deepest Spanish to a chocolate hue, and its varieties are attributed by the people to blood. The skin is hard, dry, and soon wrinkled by exposure. The xanth house complexion is rare, though not unknown in cities, but the leucus does not exist. The crinal hair is frequently lightened by bleaching, and the pillar is browner than the crinal. The voice is strong and clear, but rather baritoned and bass. In anger it becomes a shrill chattering like the cry of a wild animal. The look of a chief is dignified, and grave, even to impensiveness. The respectable man's is self-sufficient and fierce.  Yet there is not much difference in this point between men of the same tribe who have similar pursuits which engender similar passions. Expression is the grand diversifier of appearance among civilized people in the desert in those few varieties. The bideuicranium is small, oidal, long, high, narrow, and remarkable. In the occupant for the development of Gaul's second propensity the crown slopes upwards towards the region of firmness which is elevated, whilst the sides are flat to a fault. The hair, exposed to the sun, wind, and rain, acquires a coarseness not natural to it. This coarseness is not a little increased by a truly bideuic habit of washing his flocks with blank word in Arabic. It is not considered wholly impure and is also used for the eyes, upon which its ammonia would act as a root stimulant. The only cosmetic is clarified butter, freely applied to the body as well as to the hair, and a footnote. Worn in groun. Footnote. Groun properly means horns. The Sharif generally wear their hair in haffa. Long locks hanging down both sides of the neck and shaved away about a finger's breadth round the forehead and behind the neck. And a footnote. Rugged elf locks hanging down to the breast or shaved in the form of shusha or a skullcap of hair. Nothing can be wilder than its appearance. The face is made to be a long oval but want of flesh to tracks from its regularity. The forehead is high, broad and retreating. The proportion is moderately developed, but nothing can be finer than the lower brow. And the frontal sinuses stand out indicating bodily strength and activity of character. The temporal fossa are deep.  The eyebrows are long, bushy and crooked, broken as it were, at the angles where order is supposed to be and bent in sign of thoughtfulness. Most popular writers following the page. Footnote. This traveler describes the modern Mesopotamian and northern race, which as its bushy beard, unusual feature in pure Arab blood denotes, is mixed with Central Asian. In the north as might be expected, the camels are hairy, whereas in El Hijaz, in the low parts of a Yemen, a whole animal does not give a handful fit of weaving. The Arabs attribute this as we should, to heat which causes the longer hairs to drop off. And the footnote. Describes the Arab as large, ardent and black. The Badawi of the Hijaz, and indeed the race generally, has a small eye, round, restless, deep-set and fiery, denoting keen inspection with an ardent temperament and an impassioned character. Its color is dark brown to green brown, and the pupil is often speckled. The habit of pursing up the skin below the orbits and half-closing the lids to exclude glare plants the outer angles with premature crowd's feet. Another peculiarity is the sudden way in which the eye opens, especially under excitement. This, combined with its fixity of glance, forms an expression now of lively fierceness then of exceeding sternness, whilst the narrow space between the orbits impresses the countenance and repose with an intelligence, not destitute of cunning. As general rule, however, the expression of the Badawi face is rather dignity than that of cunning, for which the Semitic race is celebrated, and there are lines about the mouth in variance with the stern or the fierce look of the brow. The ears are like those of Arab horses, small, well-cut, casedy and elaborate, with many elevations and depressions. The nose is pronounced generally acolyne, but sometimes straight, like those Greek statues which have been treated as prodigious exaggerations of the facial angle. For the most part, it is a well-made feature with delicate nostrils, below which the septum appears. In anger they swell and open like a blood-mears. I have, however, seen, in not a few instances, part and offensive pugs, deep furrows descend from the wings of the nose, showing an uncertain temper now too gray than too gay. The mouth is irregular, the lips are either bores, denoting rudeness and want of taste, or they form a mere line. In the latter case, there is an appearance of undue development in the upper portion of the countenance, especially when the jaws are ascetically thin and the chin weakly retreats. The latter feature, however, is generally well and strongly made. The teeth, as usual among orientals, are white, even, short and broad, indications of strength. Some tribes trim their mostaches according to the sunna. The chafés often shave them and many allow them to hang Persian-like over their lips. The beard is represented by two tangled tufts upon the chin, where whiskers should be. The place is either bare or thinly covered with straggling pile. The Bedouin of Alhijaz are short men about the height of the Indians near Bombay, but weighing an average of stone more. As usual in this stage of society, stature varies little. You rarely see a giant and scarcely ever a dwarf. The formity is checked by the Spartan restraint upon population, and no weakly infant can live through a Bedouin life. The figure, though, spare is square and well-knit. Fullness of limbs seldom appears, but about spring when milk abounds. I have seen two or three muscular figures, but never met a fat man. The neck is sinewy, the chest broad, the flank thin, and the stomach indrawn. The legs, though fleshless, are well-made, especially when the knee and ankle are not bowed by too early riding. The shins do not bend cucumber-like to the front as in the African race. Now, the name of the whole Arab world is described in the African language. The Arab-Barbara member is known here as the African flak, too. The long neck is also well-matched to the front of the stand. The very strong argument is in the Daghand, the Egyptian origin. We are not the only members of the African tribe. Now, now. The arms are thin with muscles like whip cords, and the hands and feet are in point of size and delicacy, a link between Europe and India. As in the gelt, the Arab thumb is remarkably long, extending almost the first joint of the index, which with its easy rotation makes it a perfect perhensile instrument. Foot-knit. Whereas the Saxon thumb is thick, flat, and short, extending scarcely halfway to the middle joint of the index, and a foot-knit. The palm also is fleshless, small-booned, and elastic. With his small active figure it is not strange that the wildest Bedouin gate should be pleasing. He neither unfits himself for walking nor distorts his ankles by turning out his toes according to the farcical rule of fashion, and his shoulders are not dressed like a drill sergeant to throw all the weight of the body upon the heels. Yet there is no slouch in his walk. It is light and springy and earnestly in one point, sometimes becoming a strut, such is the Bedouin. And such he has been for ages. The national type has been preserved by systematic intermarriage. The wild men do not refuse their daughters to a stranger, but the son-in-law should be forced to settle among them in this life, which has its charms for a while, ends in becoming wearisome. Here no evil results are anticipated from the union of first cousins, and the experience of ages and of mighty nation may be trusted. Every Bedouin has a right to marry his father's brother's daughter before she is given to a stranger. Hence cousin or bint am, in polite phrases, signifies a wife. Foot-knit. A similar unwillingness to name the wife may be found in some parts of southern Europe, where probably jealousy or possibly asiatic custom has given rise to it. Among the maltees it appears in a truly ridiculous way. For example, this la mia moglie con respeto parlando, etc., says the husband, adding to the word spousa, saving your presence as if he were speaking of something offensive. End of a note. Our physiologist adduced the Assange Azul of Spain. Foot-knit. Dr. Howe, in the report on Idiotci, in Massachusetts in 1848, asserts that the law against the marriage of relations is made out as clearly as though it were emitting on table of stone. He proceeds to show that in 17 households where the parents were connected by blood, of 95 children, one was a dwarf, 12 scrophilus, and 44 idiots, total 58 diseased. End of a note. And that the case of the lower animals to prove that degeneracy inevitably follows breeding in. Foot-knit. Yet the celebrated flying children and all his race were remarkably bred in. There is still in my humble opinion much mystery about the subject to be cleared up only by the studies of physiologists and a foot-knit. Either they have theorized from insufficient facts or civilization and artificial living exercise some peculiar influence or Arabia is a solitary exception to the general rule. The fact which I have mentioned is patent to every eastern traveler. After this long description the reader will perceive with pleasure that we are approaching an interesting theme, the first question of mankind to the wonder, what are the women like? Truth compels me to state that the women of Hijazi Bedouin are by no means calmly, although the Banu Amru boasts some pretty girls yet they are far inferior to the high bosom beauties of Nijd. And I warn all men that if they run to al-Hijaz in search of a charming face which appears in my sketchbook as a badoui girl, they will be bitterly disappointed. The dress was Arab but it was worn by a fairy of the west.  Withered croons abound the camps where old men are seldom seen. The sword and the sun are fatal to a green old age unconscious of decay. The manners of the Bedouin are free and simple. Vulgarity and affectation, awkwardness and embarrassment are weeds of civilized growth unknown to the people of the desert. Footnote This sounds in English like an Irish bull. I translate Bedouin as the dictionaries do a desert. And a footnote. Yet their manners are sometimes dashed with strange ceremoniousness. When two friends meet they either embrace or both extend the right hands clapping the palm to palm their foreheads are either pressed together or their heads are moved from side to side. Whilst four minutes together mutual inquiries are made and answered it is a reach of decorum even when eating to turn the back upon a person and if a Bedouin does it he intends an insult. When a man prepares coffee he drinks the first cup. The Sherbet Qajiri of the Persians and the Soleimani of Egypt render this precaution necessary. Footnote The Sherbet Qajiri is the Aquetta of Persia and derives its name from the present royal family. It is said to be a mixture of Verdi Grease with milk. If so it is a very clumsy engine of state policy. In Egypt and Masool Soleimani the common name of an Afghan is used to signify poison but I know not whether it be merely euphoistic or confined to some species. The banks of the Nile are infamous for these arts and Muhammad Ali Pasha imported it. It is said professional poisoners and a footnote. As a friend approaches the camp it is done to strangers for fear of star-selling them those who catch sight of him shout out his name and gala pop saluting with lances or firing matchlocks in the air. This is the known Label Baroud or gunpowder play. Bedouin are generally polite in language but in anger temper is soon shown and although life be the peril the foulest epithets dog, drunkard, liar and infidel are discharged like pistol shots by both disputants. The best character of the Bedouin is a truly noble compound of determination, gentleness and generosity. Usually they are a mixture of worldly cunning and great simplicity sensitive to touchiness good tempered souls solemn and dignified with all fond of a jest yet of a grave turn of mind easily managed by a laugh and a soft word and pluckable after a passion though madly revengeful after injury. It has been sarcastically said of the Benoît Heddeb that there is not a man que c'est né voir, voire tout brouloir ne faut assez bonne partons. The reader will inquire like the critics of a certain modern humorist how the fabric of society can be supported by such material. In the first place it is a kind society of Leonine in which the fiercest, the strongest and the craftiest obtain complete mastery over his fellows and this gives a keystone to the arch. Secondly there is the terrible of blood feud which even the most reckless fear for their posterity and thirdly though the revealed law of the Quran being insufficient for the desert is openly disregarded the immemorial customs of the Qaldil Arab or the judge of the Arabs form a system stringent in the extreme footnote. Throughout the world the strictness of the lex-crypta is an inverse ratio to that of custom. Whenever their former is lax the latter is stringent and vice versa thus in England where law leaves men comparatively free they are slaves to grinding despotism of conventionalities unknown in the land of tyrannical rule this explains why many men accustomed to live under despotic governments feel fettered and enslaved in the so called free countries. Hence also the reason why notably in a republic there is less private and practical liberty under a despotism the Qaldil Arab or the judge of the Arabs is indistinction to the Qaldil Shara or the Qaldi of the Quran the former is almost always some sharp with a grey beard with a minute knowledge of genealogy and precedence a retentive memory and an eloquent tongue and a footnote. The valor of the Badawi is fitful and uncertain man is by nature an animal of prey educated by the complicated relations of society but readily relapsing to his old habits ravenous and sanguinary propensities grow apace in the desert but for the same reason the recklessness of civilization is unknown here savages and semi-barbarians are always cautious because they have nothing valuable but their lives and limbs. The civilized men on the contrary has a hundred wants or hopes or aims without which existence has for him no charms Arab ideas of bravery do not pre-possess us their romance full of full hardy feats and impossible exploits are farmed for a time but would not become the standard works of a really fighting people. Footnote Thus the Arabs being decidedly a parsimonious people indulge in exaggerated praises and instances of liberality Hatimata'i whose generosity is unintelligible to Europeans becomes the Arab model of the open hand generally a high bow ideal is no proof of a people's practical preeminence and when exaggeration enters into it and suits the public taste a low standard of actuality may be fairly suspected but to convince the oriental mind you must dazzle it hence in part the superhuman courage of Antara the liberality of Hatim and the justice of Omar and the purity of Leila in Majnun under circumstances more trying than art chronicled in the Matid or the newest American novel and a footnote nor would a truly valourous race admire the cautious free booters who safely fire down upon the caravans from their iris at a boar's to our succession of skirmishes in which five hundred men will retreat after losing a dozen of their number in these partisans fighting the first charge secures a victory and a vanquished by shades of the night then come cries and taunts of women, deep oaths while poetry, excitement and reprisals which will probably end in the fight of the former victor when if peace is to be made both parties count up their dead and the usual blood-menies paid for excess on either parties generally however the feud endures till all becoming wary of it some great man as the Sharif of is called upon to settle the terms of a treaty which is nothing but an armistice after a few months peace a glance or word will draw blood for these hates are old growths and the new dissensions easily shoot up from them but contemptible though their battles be the bitter in our not cowards the habit of danger in rays and in blood feuds the continual uncertainty of existence the desert the chase the hard life and exposure to the air the nervous system the presence and the practice of weapons horsemanship sharp shooting and martial exercise habituate them to look death in a face like men and powerful motives will make them heroes the English it is said fight willingly for liberty our neighbors for glory the spaniard fights or rather fought for religion and pundowner and the Irishman fights for fun of fighting gain and revenge draw the Arab sword yet then he uses it fitfully enough without the gay gallantry of the French or the persistent stay of the Anglo-Saxon to become desperate he must have the all powerful stimulants of honor and fanaticism frenzied by the insults of his women or by the fear of being branded a coward he's capable of any mad deed footnote at the battle of Bissell when Muhammad Ali of Egypt broke the four thousand gorillas of Faisal's son Haby, whole lines of the Beno-Azir tribe were found dead and tied by the legs with the ropes the system of collegation dates from the old times in Arabia as the affair of the chains or that Salasil proves it is alluded to by the late Sir Henry Elliot in his appendix to the Arabs in Sindh a work of remarkable sagacity and research according to the Bighlarnameh it was a custom of the people of Hind and Sindh whenever they devote themselves to death to bind themselves to each other by their mantles and waistbands it seems to have been an ancient practice in the west as in the east the Timbri took no other instances were tied together with cords when attacked by Marius tactic truly worthy of savages to prepare for victory by expecting a defeat and the footnote and the obstinacy produced by strong religious impressions gives a steadfastness to his spirit unknown to mere enthusiasm the history of the Bedouin tells this plainly some unobserving travelers indeed have mistaken his exceeding cautiousness for stark cowardice the incongruity is easily read by one who understands the principles of Bedouin warfare with them as amongst the red Indians one death dims a victory and though reckless when their passions are thoroughly aroused no heedless of danger and the voice of honor calls them the Bedouin will not sacrifice themselves for light motives besides there have been as has been said another and a potent incentive of cautiousness whenever peace is concluded they must pay for victory there are two things which tend to soften the ferocity of Bedouin life these are in the first place intercourse with citizens who frequently visit and entrust their children to the people of the black tents and secondly the social position of women the Reverend Charles Robertson author of certain lectures on poetry addressed to working men asserts that passion became love under the influence of Christianity and that the idea of a virgin mother spread over the sex as sanctity unknown to the poetry or to the philosophy of Greece and Rome footnote though differing in opinion on subject from the Reverend Mr. Robertson the lamented author of this little work I cannot refrain from expressing the highest admiration of those noble thoughts those exalted views and those polished sentiments combining the delicacy of the present with the chivalry of the past age appear in a style as smooth as woman and as strong as man would that it were in my power to pay a more adequate tribute to his memory and a footnote passing over the objections of dified arrows and immortal psyche and of the virgin mother a symbol of moral purity being common to every old and material faith I believe that the noble tribes of savages display that principle footnote even Juno the most meaningless idolatries became according to Pausanias a virgin once every year and be it observed that al-Islam the faith not the practice popularly decided to debase the social state of womankind exalts it by holding up to view no fear than to examples of perfection in the prophet's household Khadija his first wife was a minor saint and the lady Fatima is supposed to have been spiritually unspotted by sin and materially ever a virgin bringing birth to Hassan and al-Hussain and a footnote I believe that all the noble tribes of savages display the principle thus we might expect to find wherever the fancy the imagination and the ideality are strong some traces of sentiment innate in the human organization it exists as Mr. Catlin amongst the North American Indians and even the Galas and the Somali of Africa are not wholly destitute of it but when the barbarian becomes a semi-barbarian as are the most polished orientals or as were the classical authors of Greece and Rome the women fall from their proper place in society become mere articles of luxury and sink into the lowest moral condition in the next stage civilization they rise again to be highly accomplished and not a little frivolous Mrs. Partino when traveling through Egypt once visited a harem and there found among many things especially in ignorance of books and book making materials of a heartbroken whale over the degradation of her sex the learned lady indulges too in sundry strong and unsavory comparison between the harem and certain haunts of vice in Europe on the other hand male travelers generally speak lovingly of the harem and many no admirer of Egypt expatiates on the generous virtues the examples of magnanimity and affectionate attachment the sentiments are dented gentle forming a delightful unison with personal charms in the harems of the Mamluks as usual the truth lies somewhere between the two extremes human nature all over the world differs but in degree everywhere women may be capricious, coy and hard to please in common conjectures in the hour of need they will display devoted to heroism any chronicler of the Afghan war will bear witness that warm hearts, noble sentiments and an overflowing kindness to the poor, the weak and the unhappier found even in the harem Europe now knows that the Muslim husband provides separate apartments and a distinct establishment for each of his wives unless as sometimes happens one be an old woman and the other a child and confusing that and we hatred and malice often flourish in polygamy the Muslim asks is monogamy open to no objections as far as my limited observation go polyandry is the only state of society in which jealousy and quarrels about their sex are the exception and not the rule of life in quality of doctor I have seen little and heard much of the harem it often resembles a European home composed of a man, his wife and his mother I have seen in the West many a happy far side fitter to make Mr. Martino's heart ache than any harem in grand Cairo were it not evident that the spiritualizing or sexuality by sentiment of propensity by imagination is universal among the highest orders of mankind I should attribute the origin of love to the influence of the Arabs poetry and chivalry upon European ideas rather than to medieval Christianity certain fathers of the church it must be remembered did not believe that women have souls the Muslims though never went so far end of chapter 25 part 1 chapter 25 part 2 of building chapter 25 part 2 of pilgrimage to Al Medina and Mecca this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org chapter 25 part 2 of personal narrative of a pilgrimage to Al Medina and Mecca by Richard Francis Burton the Badawing of Al Hijaz in nomad life tribes often meet for a time live together whilst pastorage lasts and then separate perhaps for a generation under such circumstances youths who hold with the Italian that perduto etutto il tempo che in amor non si spende will lose heart to maidens whom possibly by the loss of the clan they may not marry and the lighter love will fly her home footnote there is no objection to intermarriage between equal clans but the higher will not give their daughters to the lower indignity and a footnote the fugitives must brave every danger for revenge at all times the Badawis idol now becomes the load star of his existence the Arab lover will dare all consequences men have died and the worms have eaten them but not for love may be true in the west it is false in the east this is attested in every tale where love and not ambition is the groundwork of the narrative footnote for instance a certain religious man was so deeply affected with the love of a king's daughter that he was brought to the brink of his death and his life is a favorite inscriptive formula usually the hero seconds in consequence of the heroine's absence and continues to the hour of his death in the utmost grief and anxiety he rarely kills himself but sometimes when in love with a pretty infidel he drinks wine and he burns the Quran the hated rival is not a formidable person but there are for good reasons and not a little fear of the beloved's kinsmen such are the material sentiments the spiritual part is a thread of mysticism upon which all the pearls of adventure and incident are strong end of footnote and nothing can be more tender more pathetic than the use made of these separations and long absences by the old Arab poets whoever peruses the suspended poem of Labid will find thoughts at once so plaintive and so noble that even Dr. Carlile's learned verse cannot wholly deface their charm the warrior bard returns from afar he looks upon the traces of hearth and home still furrowing the desert ground in bitterness of spirit he checks himself from calling aloud upon his lovers and his friends he melts at the remembrance of their departure and long indulges in the absorbing theme then he strengthens himself by the thought of Nawara's inconstancy how she left him and never thought of him again he impatiently dwells upon the charms of the places which detain her advocates flight from the changing lover and the false friend and in the exaltation with which he feels his swift dromedary start under him upon her rapid course he seems to seek and find some consolation for women's perfidy and forgetfulness yet he cannot abandon Nawara's name or memory again he dwells with yearning upon scenes of past felicity and he boasts of his prowess a fresh approach to her of his gentle birth and of his hospitality he ends with an incomium upon his clan to which he attributes as a noble Arab should all the virtues of man this is Goldsmith's deserted village in Al Hijaz but the Arab with equal simplicity and pathos has a fire a force of language and a depth of feeling which the Irishman, admirable as his verse is, could never rival as the author of the peninsular war well remarks women in troubled times throwing off their accustomed feebleness and frivolity become helpmates for men the same is true of pastoral life footnote it is curious that these pastoral races which supply poetry with nambi-pambi collinates figure as the great tragedians of history the Scythians the Huns the Arabs and the Tartars were all shepherds they first armed themselves with clubs to defend their flocks from wild beasts then they learned warfare and improved means of destruction by petty quarrels about pastures and finally united by the commanding genius of some skin-clad Caesar or Napoleon they fell like avalanches upon those valleys of the world Mesopotamia India and Egypt whose enervate races offered them at once temptations to attack uncertainty of success end of footnote the fear between the extremes of fierceness and sensibility the weaker sex remedying its great want power rises itself by courage physical as well as moral in the early days of al-Islam if history be credible Arabia had a race of heroines within the last century Ghalia the wife of a Wahhabi chief opposed Muhammad Ali himself in many a bloody field a few years ago when Ibn Assam popularly called Ibn Rumi chief of the Zubaid clan about Rabi was treacherously slain by the Turkish general Kordiy Osman his sister a fair young girl determined to revenge him she fixed upon the Arafat day of pilgrimage for the accomplishment of her designs disguised herself in malatar drew her kerchief in the form Lissam over the lower part of her face and with lighted match awaited her enemy the Turk however was not present and the girl was arrested to win for herself a local reputation equal to the maid of Salamanca thus it is that the Arab has learned to swear that great oath by the honor of my women the Badaween are not without a certain platonic affection which they call hawa or isk uzri pardonable love and a footnote even amongst the Indians as a race the least chivalrous of men there is an oath which binds two persons of different sex in the tie of friendship by making them brother and sister to each other and a footnote they draw the fine line between Amat and Amoru this is derided by the townspeople little suspecting how much such a custom says in favor Arabs like other Orientals hold that in such matters man is saved not by faith but by want of faith they have also a saying that unlike ours she partly is to blame who has been tried he comes too near who comes to be denied the evil of this system is that they like certain Southerns pensano sempre al male always suspect which may be worldly wise but in a way show their suspicions which is assuredly foolish for thus they demoralize their women who might be kept in the way of right by self respect and by a sense of duty from ancient periods of the Arabs history we find him practicing knight errantry the wildest form of chivalry footnote Richardson derives our knight from knight a tilter with spears a tip from kathaf a snatcher or ravisher and a footnote the songs of Antar says the author of the crescent and the cross show little of the true chivalry spirit what thinks the reader of sentiments like these footnote I am not ignorant that the greater part of Antar is of modern and disputed origin still it accurately expresses Arab sentiment and a footnote this valiant man remarks Antar who was ever interested for the weaker sex had defended the honor of women we read in another place mercy my lord is the noblest quality of the noble again it is the most ignominious of deeds to take free born women prisoners bear not malice or shibab cause the hero for of malice good never came is there no true greatness in this sentiment birth is the boast of the fainiant noble is the youth who beareth every ill who clotheth himself in male during the noontide heat and who wandereth through the outer darkness of night and why does the night of knights love Iblah because she is blooming as the sun at dawn with hair black as the midnight shades with paradise in her eye her bosom and enchantment and a form waving like the tamarisk when the soft wind blows from the hills of niche yes but his chest expands also with the thoughts of her faith purity and affection it is her moral as well as her material excellence that makes her the hero's hope and hearing and sight briefly in Antar one discern a love exalted high by all the glow of chivalry meant to see so many intelligent travelers misjudging the Arab after a superficial experience of a few debased Syrians or Sinaites the true children of Antar have not ceased to be gentlemen in the days of ignorance it was the custom for Badawim when tormented by the tender passion which seems to have attacked them in the form of possession for long years to sigh and wail doing the most traculent deeds to melt the obdurate fear when Arabia Islamized the practice changed its element for proselytism the fourth caliph is fabled to have traveled far redressing the injured punishing the injurer preaching to the infidel and especially protecting women the chief end and aim of knighthood the caliph al-Mutasim heard in the assembly of his courtiers that the woman of Sayid family had been taken prisoner by a Greek barbarian of Amoria the man on one occasion struck her when she cried help me al-Mutasim and the clown said derisively wait till he cometh upon his spied steed the chivalrous prince arose sealed up the wine cup which he held in his hand took oath to do his nightly devour and on the morrow with seventy thousand men each mounted on a piebald charger having taken the place he entered it exclaiming labai ki labai ki here am i at daikol he struck off the caliph's head released the lady with his own hands ordered the cup bearer to bring the sealed bowl and drunk from it exclaiming now indeed wine is good to conclude this part of the subject with another farfamed instance when al-Mutanabi the poet, prophet and warrior of hams a.h. 354 started together with his son on their last journey the father proposed to seek a place of safety for the night art thou the Mutanabi exclaimed his slave who wrote these lines i am known to the night the wild and the steed to the guest and the sword and read footnote i wish that the clever orientalist who writes in the saturday review would not translate al-lile by lenis sub-nok-te susuri the arab bard alluded to no such effeminacies end of footnote the poet in reply lay down to sleep on tiger's bank in a place haunted by thieves and this deeming flight during the arts of darkness it is the existence of the chivalry among the children of antar which makes the society of badawin damn saints, perchance and honorable villains so delightful to the traveler who like the late haji wali understand and is understood by them nothing more naive than his lamentations at finding himself in the lonesome company of persians in the townspeople whose filthy and cowardly minds he contrasts with the high and chivalry spirit of the true sons of the desert your guide will protect you with the blade and spear even against his kindred and he expects you to do the same for him you may give a man the lie but you must lose no time in bearing your sword if involved in dispute with overwhelming numbers and he will espouse your quarrel with greater heat and energy indeed than if it were his own footnote the subject of daco has been thoroughly exhausted by a work heart and lyard it only remains to be said that the turks through ignorance of the custom have in some cases made themselves contemptible by claiming the protection of women end of footnote but why multiply instances? the language of love and war and all excitement is poetry and here again the badawi excels travelers complain that the wild men have ceased to sing this is true if poet be limited to a few authors whose existence everywhere depends upon the accidents of patronage or political occurrences a far stronger evidence of poetic feeling is afforded by the phrasology of the Arab and the highly imaginative turn of his commonest expressions the astute of the poetic taste as we define it he certainly is as in the relation with and fancy vivacity and passion are too strong for reasoning judgment the reins which guide a polo's car footnote it is by no means intended to push this comparison of the Arabs with the hibernian's poetry the former has an intensity which prevents our feeling that there are too many flowers for the fruit the latter is too often a mere blaze of words which dazzle and startle but which they composed by reflection are found to mean nothing witness the diamond turrets of Shaddoukiam and the fragrant bowers of Amberabad end of footnote and although the badawi no longer boast alabid or a maizuna yet they are passionately fond of their ancient bards footnote I am informed that the Benokatan still improvise but I never heard them the traveler in Arabia will always be told that some remote clans still produces mighty bards and uses in conversation the terminal vowels of the classic tongue but he will not believe this assertion still personally convinced of their truth the badawi dialect however though debased is still as of yore pureer than the language of the citizens during the days when philology was a passion in the east those Stevens and Johnson's of Semitic lore Ferozabadi and Azamakshari wandered from tribe to tribe and from tent to tent collecting words and elucidating disputed significations the grammatical expeditions are still remembered and our favorite stories with scholars end of footnote a man skilful in reading Al-Mutanabi and the suspended poems would be received by them with the honors paid by civilization to the traveling millionaire footnote I say skilful in reading because the Arabs like the Spaniards hate to hear their language mangled by mispronunciation when Brockhart who spoke badly began to redverse to the badawi they could not refrain from a movement of impatience and used to snatch the book out of his hands end of footnote and their elders have a goodly store of ancient and modern war songs legends and love ditties which all enjoy I cannot well explain the effect of Arab poetry to one who has not visited the desert footnote the civilized poets of the Arab cities throw the charm of the desert over their verse by images borrowed from its scenery the dromedary the mirage and the well as naturally a certain of our songsters confessedly haters of the country babble of lowing kind shady groves spring showers and pearling reels end of footnote apart from the pomp of words and the music of the sound there is a dreaminess of idea and a haste thrown over the object infinitely attractive but indescribable footnote some will object to this expression Arabic being a harsh and guttural tongue but the sound of language in the first place defends chiefly upon the articulator who thinks German rough in the mouth of a woman with the suspicion of a lisp or that English is the dialect of birds when spoken by an Italian secondly there is some music far more in harshness than in softness the languages of Castile and of Tuscany are equally beautiful yet who does not prefer the sound of the former the gutturality of Arabia is less offensive than that of the highlands of Barbary Professor Willis of Cambridge attributes the broad sounds and the guttural consonants of mountaineers and the people of elevated plains to the physical action of cold considering these to be a partial cause I would rather refer the phenomenon to the habit of loud speaking acquired by the dwellers intense and by those who live much in the open air the todas of the Nilgeri heels have given the soft a meal all the harshness of Arabic and he who hears them calling to each other from the neighboring peaks can remark the process of broadening vowel and gutturalizing consonant on the other hand the galas and the persians also a mountain people speak comparatively soft tongues the carines actually omit some of the harshest sounds of Arabia turning makas into maas and saka into saa it is impossible to help remarking the bellowing of the badawi when he first enters a dwelling place and the softening of the sound when he has become accustomed to speak within walls moreover it is to be observed there is a great difference of articulation not pronunciation among the several badawi clans the benu a'ouf are recognized by their sharp loud and sudden speech which the citizens compare to the barking of dogs the benu amir on the contrary speak with a soft and rolling sound the hotaim in addition to other peculiarities add a pleonastic a to soft and determination of words as a'atini hawa jia for hawaiji give me my clothes end of footnote description indeed would wrap the song of indistinctness its essence to borrow a simile from a sister art, the ara poet sets before the mental eye the dim grand outlines of picture which must be filled up by the reader, guided only by a few glorious touches powerfully standing out and by the sentiment which the scene is intended to express whereas we Europeans and moderns by stippling and minute touches produce a miniature on a large scale so objective as to exhaust rather than to arouse reflection as the poet is a creator the arabs is poetry the Europeans versical description footnote the Germans have returned for inspiration to the old eastern source Rokkert was guided by Jalal al-Din to the fountains of Sufism and even the French have of late made an inroad into Teutonic mysticism successfully enough to have astonished Racine and horrified Laharp end of footnote the language, like a faithful wife following the mind and giving birth to its offspring and free from that luggage of particles which clogs our modern tongues leaves a mysterious vagueness between the relation of word to word which materially assists the sentiment, not the sense of the poem when verbs and nouns have each one many different significations only the radical or general idea suggests itself footnote this however does not prevent the language becoming optionally most precise in meaning hence its high philosophical character the word farce for instance means radically cutting secondarily ordering or paying a debt after which come numerous meanings foreign to the primal sense such as a shield, part of a tinderbox an unfettered arrow and a particular kind of date in theology it is limited to a single signification namely a divine command revealed in the Quran under these circumstances the Arabic becomes in grammar, logic rhetoric and mathematics as perfect and precise as Greek I have heard Europeans complain that it is unfit for mercantile transactions, perhaps and a footnote rich and varied synonyms illustrating the finest shades of meaning are artfully used now scattered to start alas by distinctness now to form as it were a star about which dimly seen satellites revolve and to cut short a disquisition which might be prolonged indefinitely there is same the Semitic dialect a copiousness of rhyme which leaves the poet almost unfettered to choose the desired expression footnote as a general rule there is a rhyme at the end of every second line and the unison is a mere fringe along a for instance throughout the poem sufficing for the delicate ear of the Arab in this they were imitated by the old Spaniards who, neglecting the consonants merely required the terminating vowels to be alike we speak of the sort of harmonious simple flow which atones for the imperfect nature of the rhyme but the fine organs of some races would be hurt by that ponderous unison which a people of blunter senses find necessary to produce an impression the reader will feel this after producing in purses relics rio verde, rio verde and a footnote hence it is that a stranger speaking Arabic becomes poetical as naturally as he would be with the in French and philosophic in German truly speak Mohammed Al-Damiri wisdom had alighted upon three things the brain of the Franks the hands of the Chinese and the tongues of the Arabs the name of Harami brigand is still honorable among the Hijazi Badawind slain in raid or foray Amani said to die gandur or a brave he on the other hand who is lucky enough as we should express it to die in his bed is called fatis carion the coarse crevée of the clefts his weeping mother will exclaim oh that my son had perished of a cut throat and her attendant Crohn's will suggest with deference that such evil came of the will of Allah it is told of the lahaba a sect of the Auf Nira B that a girl will refuse even her cousin unless in the absence of other opportunities he planters some article from the Hajj caravan in front of the pashas links detected 20 years ago the delinquent would have been impaled now he escapes with a re-roasting fear of the blood feud and the certainty of a shut road to future travelers prevent the Turks proceeding to extremes they conceal their weakness by pretending that the sultan hesitates to wage a war of extermination with the thieves of the holy land it is easy to understand disrespect for brigands whoso revolts against society records an iron mind in an iron body and this mankind instinctively admires however misdirected be their energies thus in all imaginative countries the brigand is a hero even the assassin who shoots his victim from behind the hedge appeals to the fancy in tipirari or on the abruzian hills romance invests his loneliness with grandeur if he have a wife or a friend's wife romance becomes doubly romantic and a tithe of the superfluity rubbed from the rich and bestowed upon the poor will wean to gasparoni the hearts of a people the true badawi style of plundering with its numerous niceties of honor and gentlemanly manners gives the rubber a consciousness of moral rectitude strip off that coat of certain person and that turban exclaims the highwayman they are wanted by the daughter of my paternal uncle wife you will of course if necessary lend ready ear to an order thus politely attributed to the wants of the fair sex if you will add a few obliging expressions to the bundle and offer lateral a cup of coffee and the pipe you will talk half your toilet back to your own person and if you can quote a little poetry you will part the best of friends leaving perhaps only a pair of sandals behind you but should you hesitate lateral lamenting the painful necessity touches up your back with the heel of his spear if this hint suffice not he will make things plain by the land's point and when blood shows the tiger part of humanity appears between badawin to be tamely plundered especially of the mirror is a lasting disgrace a man of family lays down his life rather than yield even to overpowering numbers footnote in our nightly ages the mirror was written only by jugglers and charlatans they discustom arise from the hatred and contempt for the habits of the Arabs imported into Europe by the crusaders certainly the popular eastern idea of a franc was formed in those days and survives to these and a footnote this desperation has raised the courage of the badawin to high repute amongst the settled Arabs who talk of single braves capable like the humoric heroes of overpowering 300 men I will meet general details about the often described sar or vendetta the price of blood is 800 dollars or 200 pounds or rather that some imperfectly expressed by livestock all the kamsa or amam blood relations of this layer assist to make up the required amount rating each animal at three or four times its proper value on such occasions violent scenes arise from the conflict of the Arabs to pet passions avarice and revenge the avenger of blood longs to cut the foes throat on the other hand how let sleep an opportunity of enriching himself his covetousness is intense as are all his passions he has always a project of buying a new drama diary or of investing capital in some marvelous cult the consequence is that he is insatiable still he receives blood money with a feeling of shame and if it be offered to an old woman the most revengeful variety of our species be it remarked she will dash it to the ground and clutch her knife and fiercely swear by Allah that she will not eat her son's blood the badawi considers himself a man only when mounted on horseback, lands in hand bound for a foray or a fray and caroling some such a steed, a steed of much less speed a sword of metal keem all else to noble minds is drose all else on earth is mean even in his sports he affects those that imitate war preserving the instinctive qualities which lie dormant in civilization he is an admirable sportsman the children men in miniature begin with a rude system of gymnastics when they can walk and play upon the backs of camels was the reply made to me by a jahini badawi when offered some egyptian plaything the men passed their time principally in hawking, shooting and riding the soccer i am told is the only falcon in general use they trained to pursue the gazelle which greyhounds pulled down when fatigued footnote baroned one hammer pergstal in the focner he calls this bird the saker foc hence the french and english names sacre and saker the learned jan backman history of inventions, discoveries and origins sabbose derives falconry from india where as early as the time of stesias hairs and foxes were hunted by means of rapacious birds i believe however that no trace of this sport is found in the writings of the hindus backman agrees with kiraudus against other literati that the ancient greeks knew the art of hawking and proves from Aristotle that enthrase men trained falcons but Aristotle alludes to the use of the bird as an owl is employed in italy the falcon is described as frightening not catching the birds elian corroborates Aristotle's testimony pleini however succinctly asserts that the hawks strike their prey down in italy it was very common says the learned backman for marshal and apuleus speak of it as a thing everywhere known hence the science spread over europe and reached perfection at the principal courts in the 12th century the emperor fredrick the second wrote the arte venandi kumabibus and the royal author was followed by a host of imitators in the vulgar tongue i'm not aware that the hindus ever cultivated the art elian it must be confessed describes their style of training falcons exactly similar to that in use among the modern persians syndians and arabes the emperor fredrick osta capella or hudu the badawi and talks of the most expert falconer sent to him with various kinds of birds by some of the kings of arabia the origin of falconry is ascribed by almasudi on the authority of adham bin muriz to the king al-haris bin muawiyah and in doctor sprangers admirable translation the reader will find pages 426 and 428 much information upon the subject the persians claim the invention for their just king anushira one contemporary with muhammed then the sport passed into turkey where it is said the sultans maintained a body of 6,000 falconers and fredrick barbarossa in the 12th century brought falcons to italy we may fairly give the honor of the invention to central asia end of footnote i have heard much of their excellent marksmanship but so only moderate practice with the long matchlock rested and fired at standing objects double-barreled guns are rare amongst them footnote here called bandukia biruhain or the two-mouthed gun the leathern cover is termed gushat it is a bag with a long ring tassel at the top of the barrel and a strap by which it is long to the owner's back end of footnote their principal weapons are matchlocks and farlocks, pistols, javelins, spears, swords and the dagger called jambia the sling and the bow have long been given up the guns come from egypt syria and turkey for the badawi cannot make although he can repair this arm he particularly values a good old barrel seven spans long and would rather keep it than his coat consequently a family often boasts of four or five guns which descend from generation to generation their price values from two to sixty dollars the badawin collect nighter in the country make excellent charcoal and import sulfur from egypt and india their powder however is coarse and weak for hairs and birds they cut up into slugs a bar of lead hammered out to a convenient size and they cast bullets in molds they are fond of ball practice firing as every sensible man does at short distances and striving at extreme precision they are ever backing themselves with wagers and will shoot for a sheep the looser inviting his friends to a feast on festivals they boil the head and use it as mark and price those who affect excellence are said to fire at a bullet hanging by a thread curious however to relate the badawin of al hijaz have but just learned art general impertia and barbarie of shooting from horseback at speed pistols have been lately introduced into the hijaz and are not common amongst the badawin the citizens incline to this weapon as it is derived from Constantinople in the desert a tolerable pair with flint locks may be worth 30 dollars ten times their price in england the spears called kanat or reeds are made of male bamboos imported from india footnote I described elsewhere the mirzak or javelin and a footnote they are at least 12 feet long iron shad with a tapering point beneath which are one or two tops of black ostrich feathers footnote ostriches are found in al hijaz where the badawin shoot after coursing them the young ones are caught and tamed and the eggs may be bought in the madina bazaar throughout arabia there is a belief that the ostrich throw stones at the hunter the superstition may have a reason from the pebbles being flung up behind by the words large feet in his rapid flight or it may be a mere folary of fancy even in lands which have long given up animal worship wherever a beast is conspicuous or terrible it becomes the subject of some marvelous tale so the bear in persia imitates amulas dress the wolf in france is a human being transformed and the beaver of north america also a metamorphosis belts trees so as to fell them in the direction most suitable to his after purpose end of footnote besides the merzak or javelin they have a spear called shalfa a bamboo or a palm stick garnished with a head about the breath of a man's hand no good swords are fabricated in al hijaz the kalawiya and other desert clans have made some poor attempts at blades they are brought from persia india and egypt but i never saw anything of value the daraka or shield also comes from india it is the common catch article supposed to be made of rhinoceros hide and displaying as much brass knob and gold wash as possible the badaween still use in the remotor parts dira or coats of mail worn by horsemen over buff jackets the dagger is made in al yaman in other places it has a vast variety of shapes each of which as usual has its proper names generally they are but little curved whereas the gadaimi of al yaman in hasramaut is almost a semicircle with tapering blade wooden handle and scabbard of the same material overlaid with brass the scabbard is around nub and the weapon is so long that the man when walking cannot swing his right arm in narrow places he must enter sideways but it is the mode always to appear in dagger and the weapon, like the french soldier's coupe shoe is really useful for such bloodless purposes as cutting wood and gathering grass in price they vary from 1 to 30 dollars the badaween boast greatly of swordplay he is apparently confined to delivering a tremendous slash into jumping away from the return cut instead of parrying either with sword or shield the citizens have learned the turkish cimetar play which in grotesqueness and general absurdity rivals the east indian school none of these orientals knows the use of the point which characterizes the highest school of swordmanship the hijazi badaween have no game of chance and they're not i am told ferment the juice of the down palm as proximity to aden has taught the wild men of al yaman footnote not that the agrebi of bir hamid and other parts have much to learn of us in vice the land of al yaman is i believe the most demoralized country and sana the most depraved city in arabia the fair sex distinguishes itself by a peculiar laxity of conduct which is looked upon with an indulgent eye and the men drink and gamble to say nothing of other peccadillos with perfect impunity end of footnote their music is in a rude state the principal instrument is the tabel or kettle drum which is of two kinds one the smaller used at festivals the other a large copper tom-tom for martial purposes covered with leather and played upon pulpit like with feast and not with stick besides which they have the one string rubava or guitar that monotonous bachami instrument of the desert in another place i have described their dancing which is an ignoble spectacle the badawin of al hijaas have all the knowledge necessary for procuring and protecting the riches of savage life they are perfect in the breathing of the battle they know sufficient of astronomy to guide themselves by night and are acquainted with the names of the principal stars their local memory is wonderful and such is their instinct in the art of pasar or tracking that it is popularly said of the zubait clan which lives between mega and al madina a man will lose a she camel and know her four year old cold by its foot they have learned a kind of furriery and a simple system of surgery in cases of fracture they bind on splints with cloth bands and the patient drinks camel's milk and clarified butter till he is cured cuts are carefully washed sprinkled with milgan powder and sewn up they dress gunshot wounds with raw camel's flesh and rely entirely upon nature and diet when bitten by snakes they scarify the wound with eraser recite a charm and apply to it a dressing of garlic footnote in al yaman it is believed that if a man eat three heads of garlic in good mountain salmon or clarified butter for forty days his blood will kill the snake that draws it end of footnote the wealthy have face or ring stones brought from India and used with a formula of prayer to extract venom some few possess the tariak of al iraq the great counter poison internal as well as external of the east the poor classes all wear the zaal or hebas of al yaman two yarns of black ships full tide round the leg under the knee and above the ankle when bitten the sufferer tightens these cords above the injured part which he immediately scarifies thus they act as tourniquets these ligatures also cure cramps and there is no other remedy the Badawi knowledge of medicine is unusually limited in this part of Arabia where even simple are not required by a people who rise with dawn, eat little always breathe desert air and at night make the camels their curfew the great tonic is clarified butter and the kai or actual coterie used even for rheumatism these counter irritant together with the curious and artful phlebotomy blood being taken as by the Italians from the toes, the fingers and other parts of the body are the Arab panaceas they treat scarred head with grease and sulfur ulcers which here abound without however assuming the fearful type of the helcoma yemenense are cauterized and stimulated by verde grease the evil of which fracastroius sang is combated by sudorifics by angoins of oil and sulfur and especially by the sand bath the patient buried up to the neck remains in the sand fasting all day in the evening he is allowed a little food this rude course of packing lasts for about a month it suits some constitutions but others especially Europeans have tried the sand bath and died of fever, mules teeth roasted and imperfectly pounded removed cataract teeth are extracted by the farrier spincers and the worm which throughout the east is supposed to produce tooth ache, falls by fumigation and finally after great fatigue or when suffering from cold the body is copiously greased with clarified butter and exposed to a blazing fire Muhammad and his followers are finally the more civilized Badawim and there is even to this day little or no religion amongst the wild people except those on the coast or in the vicinity of cities the faith of the Badawi comes from Ali Slam whose hold is weak but his customs and institutions the growth of his climate his nature and his wants are still those of his ancestors cherished Air Mecca had sent forth a prophet the day when every vestige of the Kaaba shall have disappeared of this nature are the hijazi spagan oaths his hithinish names few being muslim except Muhammad his ordeal of licking red hot iron his sock or scarification proof of mindliness his blood revenge and his eating carrion that is the body of an animal killed without the usual formula and his lending his wives to strangers all these I hold to be remnants of some old creed nor should I despair of finding among the Badawim bordering upon the great desert some lingering system of idolatry the Badawim of Al Hijaz call themselves Shafi but what is put into the mouths of their brethren in the west applies equally well here we pray not because we must drink the water of ablution we give no arms because we ask them we fast not the Ramazan month because we starve throughout the year and we do no pilgrimage because the world is the house of Allah their blunders in religious matters supply the citizens with many droll stories and it is to be observed that they do not like the Greek pirates or the Italian bandits preserve a religious element in their plunderings they make no vows and they carefully avoid offerings the ceremonies of Badawi life are few and simple circumsitions, marriages and funerals of the former rider are two forms tahara as usual in Al Islam and Saq an Arab invention derived from the times of paganism footnote the most often in the Arabic Al Saq scarificatio virility animum che ostendendimo di sese vide eksseunt amici paterche ed juvenem subdio sedentem circumsant capituk pugionem ton soret prepucio abciso, tetrahitpelem ab umbiliko pipiens, aot parum infra vendremque, usque ad femora nudat juvenis autem dextra pugionem supertergum ton soris vibrans magna clamat voce caides inetimore veisi heisitet ton sor aut sitre me atmanus pater etiam filium si dolore ululet statim ochidit reconfecta surgi juvenis et gloria deo intonans attentoria tendit statim nefando opresus dolore humi procumbit remedia sal et tomerica cibus lacamelli non nulos ochidit in gen supuratio dekem autem excoriatis supersun plerumche octo hipecten habent nulum vendremque palida degit kutis end of footnote durring wahabi rule it was forbidden under pain of death but now the people have returned to it the usual age for tahara is between 5 and 6 among some classes however it is performed 10 years later on such occasions fistings and merry makings take place as at our krisenings women being a marketable commodity in barbarism as in civilization the youth in al hijaz is not married till his father can afford to buy him a bride there is little pomp or ceremony save firing of guns dancing singing and eating mutton the settlement is usually about 30 sound spanish dollars half paid down and the other owed by the bridegroom to the father, the brothers or the kindred of his spouse footnote the spanish dollar is most in hal hijaz in al yaman, the maria theresa the spanish government has refused to perpetuate its pillar dollar which at one time was so great a favorite in the east the traveler wonders how maria theresa still supply both shores of the red sea the marvel is easily explained the austrians receive silver at milan and stamp it for a certain percentage this coin was doubtless preferred by the badawing the priority to the currency of the day they make from it ornaments for their women and decorations for their weapons the generic term for dollars is rial fransa end of footnote some tribes will take animals in lieu of ready money a man of wrath not contented with his bride puts her away at once if peaceably inclined by a short delay he avoids scandal divorces are very frequent among badawing and if the settlement money be duly paid no evil comes of them footnote in arabia the bet is a crument maritos a theme human yore etiamsi absy sanguis crore palumbino mapam tingit et gaudium fingens coniatis parentibus que ostendit paululum postia pele no nulla causada divorcium hik urbis et ruris mos idem est end of footnote the funerals of the wild men resemble those of the citizens only they are more simple the dead being buried where they die the corpse after ablution is shrouded in any rags procurable and women and hired weepers not being permitted to attend it is carried to the grave by men only a holist dug according to muslim custom dry wood which everywhere abounds is disposed to cover the corpse and an oval of stone surrounding amount of earth keeps out jackals and denotes the spot these badawin have not like the wild sindis and baluchis favorite cemeteries to which they transport their dead from afar end of chapter 25 part 2 recording by shenna ser fresno california chapter 25 part 3 of pilgrimage to almadina and mecca this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org chapter 25 part 3 of personal narrative of a pilgrimage to almadina and mecca by Richard Francis Burton the traveler will find no difficulty in living amongst the hijazi badawin trust to their honor and you are safe as was said of the crow indians to their honesty and they will steal the hair of your head but the wanderer must adopt the wild man's motto omnia mea mecumporto he must have good nerves be capable of a taken hardship possess some knowledge of drugs shoot and ride well speak arabic and turkish know the customs by reading and avoid offending against local prejudices by causing himself for instance to be called taga the payment of a small sum secures to him arabic and this friend after once engaging in the task will be faithful footnote an explanation of this term will be found below end of footnote we have eaten salt together it is still a bond of friendship there are however some tribes who require to renew the bond every 24 hours as otherwise to use their own phrase the salt is not in their stomachs caution must be exercised in choosing a companion who has not too many blood feuds there is no objection to carrying a copper watch and a packet compass and the Quran could be fitted with secret packets for notes and pencil should especially avoid handsome weapons this tempt the badawin's cupidity more than gold the other extreme defenselessness is equally objectionable it is needless to say that the traveler must never be seen writing anything but charms and must on no account sketch in public he should be careful in questioning and rather lead up to information than ask directly it offends some badawin to be asked their names or those of their clans a man may be living incognito and the tribes distinguish themselves when they decide to do so by dress personal appearance voice, dialect and accentuation points of difference plain to the initiated a few dollars suffice for the road and if he would be respectable a taste which I will not deprecate some such presence as razors and tarbushes are required for the chiefs the government of the Arabs may be called almost an autonomy the tribes never obey their shakes unless for personal considerations and as in civilized army there generally is some sharp witted and brazen faced individual whose voice is louder than the generals in their leonine society the sword is the greater administrator of law relations between the badawee tribes of al-hijjaz are of a threefold character they are either a shab, qiman or akwan a shab or comrades are those who are bound by oath to an alliance offensive and defensive the intermarry and are therefore closely connected qiman or foes are tribes between whom a blood feud the cause and effect of deadly enmity exists footnote which means rising up in rebellion or enmity against as well as the popular signification a people in some parts of arabia it is used for a plundering party and a footnote akhawat or brotherhood denotes the tie between the stranger and the badawee who asserts an immemorial and inalienable right to the soil upon which his forefathers fed their flocks trespassed by a neighbor he causes war territorial increase is rarely attempted for if of a whole clan but a single boy escape he will one day assert his claim to the land and be assisted by all the ashab or allies of the slain by paying to man woman or a child a small sum varying according to your means from a few pens worth of trinkets to a couple of dollars you share bread and salt with the tribe the courts become duck hill protected and everyone must afford you brother help if traveler or trader attempt to pass through the land without paying alakawa or alrifka as it is termed he must expect to be plundered and resisting to be slain it is no dishonor to pay it and he clearly is in the wrong who refuses to conform to custom there are fake under different names exists throughout this part of the world at Sinai he was called Agafir Erabia in Eastern Arabia amongst the Somal and Aban and by the Gala's Amogasa I have called the tax blackmail it deserves a better name being clearly the rudest form of those transit dues and octra which are in no wise improved by progress the albite or dwellers in the black tents levied the tax from the al height or the people of walls that is to say townsmen and villagers who have forfeited right to be held by the wind footnote bite in the plural buyut is used in this sense to denote the tents of the nomads bite radically means a knight in place then a tent, a house, a lair etc etc end of footnote it is demanded from bastard Arabs and from tribes who like the Hutaim and the Kalaouia have been born basely or have become nidering and these people are obliged to pay it at home as well as abroad then it becomes a sign of this grace and the pure clans like the Benu Harb will not give their damsels in marriage to brothers besides this akawa tax and the pensions by the Porte to chiefs of clans the wealth of the Badawi consists in his flocks and herds his mare and his weapons some clans are reaching horses others are celebrated for camels and not a few for sheep asses or greyhounds the Ahamida tribe as has been mentioned possesses few animals it subsists by plunder and by presence from pilgrims the principal wants of the country are sulfur, lead clots of all kinds sulfur, spices coffee, corn and rice arms are valued by the men and it is advisable to carry a stack of Birmingham jewelry for the purpose of conciliating women kind in exchange the Badawi give sheep cattle, clarified butter milk, wool and hides which they use for water bags as the Egyptians and other Easterns do potteries footnote for their sheep keeping them for guests or feasts and a footnote but as there is now a fair store of dollars in the country it is rarely necessary to barter the Arab stress marks his simplicity it gives him a nationality as according to John Evelyn prodigious breaches did to the Swiss it is remarkably picturesque and with sorrow we see it now as a wildest Badawi and a few sheriffs to the practised eye Ahidjazi in Tarbush and Kaftan is ridiculous as a Basque or a Catalonian girl in a Kashmir and a little cheap the necessary dress of a man is his saub, tob a blue calico shirt reaching from neck to ankles tight or loose sleeved opening at the chest in front and rather narrow below to make it into his belt the latter article called Hakau is a plated leathern thong twisted around the waist very tightly so as to support the back the trousers and the futta or loin cloth of cities are looked upon as signs of effeminacy in cold weather the chiefs wear over the shirt and abba or cloak these garments are made in niched and the eastern districts they are of four colours brown striped the best are of camel's hair and may cost fifteen dollars the worst of sheep's wool are worth only three both are cheap as they last for years the Marama head cloth comes from Syria which with niched supplies also the kofia or headkerchief the ukal filets bound over the kerchief are of many kinds the Bishir tribe near Mecca the gloria round a saint's head with beets of wood in which are set pieces of mother or pearl footnote so the word is pronounced at Mecca the dictionaries give aakal which in eastern Arabia is corrupted to Igal end of footnote sandals too are of every description from the simple sole of leather tied on with thongs to the handsome and elaborate the price varies from a piastre to a dollar and a very poor walk barefooted a leathern bandolier called Majdal passed over the left shoulder and reaching to the right heap supports a line of brass cylinders for cartridges footnote called the tariff plural of the tarifa a cartridge end of footnote the other crossbelt Almasdar made of leather ornamented with brass rings hangs down at the left side and carries a khariza or hide case for bullets and finally the hizam or waist belt holds the dagger and extra cartridge cases about the we never appears in public unarmed women wear like their masters dark blue cotton tobs but larger and looser when abroad they cover the head with a yashmak of black stuff a happy colored burka nose gay of the egyptian shape they wear no pantaloons and they rarely affect slippers or sandals the hair is twisted into much dual little pigtails and copiously anointed with clarified butter the rich perfume the skin with rose and cinnamon scented oils and adorn the hair with al shai absintheum sweetest herb of the desert their ornaments are bracelets, colors and nose rings of gold, silver or silver gilt the poorer classes have strings of silver coins hung around the neck the troubadawi is an abstemious man capable of living for six months on ten ounces of food per diem the milk of a single camel and a handful of dates dry or fried in clarified butter suffice for his wants he despises the obese and all who require regular and plentiful meals and knows neither luxury nor comfort freezing during one quarter and frying for three quarters of the year but though he can endure hunger like all savages he will gorge when an opportunity offers I never saw the man who could refrain from water upon the line of march and in this point they contrast this advantageously with the hardewa habis of the east and the rugged mountaineers of jabal shamar they are still acridofagi and the citizens far prefer a dish of locus to the fasik which act as anchovies, sardines and herrings in Egypt they light a fire at night and as the insects fall dead, they coat this couplet to justify their being eaten we are allowed two carions and two bloods the fish and locus the liver and the spleen footnote the liver and the spleen are both supposed to be congealed blood and they are exhausted the names in the description of the locus in alhijaz they have many local and fantastic terms the smallest kind for instance is called jarad iblis satan's locus end of footnote where they have no crops to lose the people are thankful for a full of locus in alhijaz the flights are uncertain during the last five years al-madina has seen but few they are prepared for eating by boiling in salt water and drying four or five days in the sun a wet locus to an arab is a snail to a britain the head is plucked off the stomach drawn the wings and the prickly part of the legs are plucked and the insect is ready for the table locus are never eaten with sweet things which would be nauseous the dish is always hot with salt and pepper or onions fried in clarified butter when it tastes nearly as well as a plate of stale shrimps the favorite food on the line of march is meat cut into strips and sun dried this with a bag of milk balls and a little coffee must suffice for journey or campaign footnote this is the croot of cind and the cask of persia the buttermilk separated from the butter by a little water is simmered over a slow fire about a handful to a gallon well mixed so that no knots remain in it and allowed to cool the mixture is then put into a bag and strained after which salt is sprinkled over it the mass begins to harden after a few hours when it is made up into balls and dried in the sun and a footnote the badawi no neither fermented nor distilled liqueurs although ix yal kamar fai apandi drunkard is a popular phrase preserving the memory of another state of things some clans though not all smoke tobacco it is generally the growth of the country called hijazi or kazimia a green weed very strong with a foul smell and costing about one piastre per pound the badawi do not relish persian tobacco and cannot procure latakia it is probably the pungency of the native growth offending the delicate organs of the desert men that cost nicotiana to be prescribed by the wahabis who revived against its origin a senseless and obsolete calamny the almost absolute independence of the arabs and of that noble race the north american indians of a former generation has produced a similarity between them worthy of note because it may warn the anthropologist not always to detect in coincidence of costume identity of origin both have the same wild chivalry the same fiery sense of honor and the same boundless hospitality elopements from tribe to tribe the blood viewed and the vendetta are common to the two both are grave and cautious in demeanor and formal in manner princess in rags or paint the arabs plunder pilgrims the indians bands of trappers both glory in forests raids and cattle lifting both rob according to certain rules both are alternately brave to desperation and shy of danger both are remarkable for nervous and powerful eloquence dry humor, satire, whimsical tales frequent tropes boasts and ruffling style p.c. proverbs extemporary songs and languages wondrous in their complexity both recognizing no other occupation but war and the chase and effeminate people of cities as the game cocks burns the vulgar roosters of the poultry yard footnote the North American trappers adapted this natural prejudice the free trapper called his more civilized confreer mangur the lord end of footnote the chivalry of the western worlds like that of the eastern wilds salutes the visitor by a charge of cavalry by discharging guns and by wheeling around him with shouts and yells the brave stamps a red hand upon his mouth to show that he has drunk the blood of a foe of the otaiba harami it is similarly related that after mortal combat he tastes the dead man's gore of these two chivalrous races of barbarians the badawi claims a preference on account of his treatment of women his superior development of intellect a glorious page of history which he has filled the tribes of Alhijaz are tediously numerous it will be sufficient to enumerate the principal branches of the badawi tree without detailing the hundred little offshoots which it has put forth in the course of ages footnote Burkhardt shrunk from the intricate pedigree of the mekan sharifs I have seen a work upon the subject in four folio volumes in point of matter equivalent to travel the number in Europe the best known genealogical works are Al-Kalkash-Handi originally in 75 books extended to 100 the Umdat Al-Tulab by Ibn Khaldun the Tofat Al-Arab Fi Ansar Al-Arab a well-known volume by Al-Siyuti and lastly the Sirat Al-Halabi in six volumes of the latter work there is an abridgment al-Dimyati in two volumes but both are rare and consequently expensive end of footnote those ancient clans the absin ad-nan have almost died out the latter it is said still exists in the neighborhood of Taif and the abs I am informed are to be found near Kosser on the African coast but not in Al-Hijaz of the aus, Ghazraj and Nazir details have been given in a previous chapter the Benu Harb is now the ruling clan in the Holy Land it is divided by genealogists into two great bodies first the Benu Salim and secondly the Masru or Roman tribes footnote I give the following details of the Harb upon the authority of my friend Omar Effendi who is great in matters of genealogy end of footnote of divisions namely this clan owns for chief Sheikh Sa'ad of the mountains it is said to contain about 3,500 men its principal sub-clan is the Hadari footnote the first word is the plural the second the singular form of the word end of footnote the rival tribe 3,000 in number it is again divided into Muzaini and Zahiri 3 sub subhi 3,500 habitat near Al-Bader 4 Salayma Salimi also called Awulad Salim 5 Sa'adin Sa'adini 6 Mohamed Mamadi 8,000 7 Rahalla Rihayli 1000 8 Timam Tamimi the Masrutri splits into two great branches Benu-Auf and Benu-Amur footnote in the singular Awfi and Amri end of footnote the former is a large clan extending from Wadi Nakia near Nij to Rabiq and Al-Madina they have few horses but many dromedaries camels and sheep and are much feared by the people on account of their warlike and savage character they separate into ten subdivisions namely 1 Siliya Sili about 2000 in number 2 Sawaid Saidi 1000 3 Rukhasa Rakhis 4 Kasanin Kasanin this sub-clan claims origin from the old Kasan stock and is found in considerable numbers at Wadi Nakia and other places near Al-Madina 5 Ruba'a Rabay 6 Kazara Kuzayri 7 Lahaba Lahaybi 1500 in number 8 Farada Faradi 9 Benu-Ali Alawi 10 Zubaid Zubaydi Nirmeka a numerous clan of fighting thieves also under the Benu-Amur as the word is popularly pronounced are 10 sub-families 1 Marabita Murabti they principally inhabit the land about Al-Fara a collection of settlements 4 marches south of Al-Madina number about 10,000 men and have droves of sheep and camels but few horses 2 Husar Hasir 3 Benu-Jabir Jabiri 4 Rabayka Rabayki 5 Hisnan Bizan Bayzani 7 Badarin Badrani 8 Biladiya Biladi 9 Jaham the singular employer forms are the same 10 Shatara Shitairi footnote to this Mr. Cole adds 7 other subdivisions namely 1 Ahali Al-Qura the people of Qura 5000 2 Radada 800 3 400 4 Dubaia 1500 5 Benu-Karb 2000 6 Baizana 800 7 Benu-Yaya 800 and he makes a total of the Benu-Harb about Al-Jadayda amount to 35,000 men I had no means of personally ascertaining the correctness of this information end of footnote the great Anissa race now I was told inhabit Skybar and it must not visit Al-Madina without Arafik or protector properly speaking there are no outcasts in Al-Hijaz as in Al-Yaman and the Somali country but the Hitman plural of Hutaym or Hitaym inhabiting the seaboard about Yambu are taxed by other Badawin as low and vile of origin the Anchacity of the women is connived ad by the men who however are brave and celebrated as marksmen make, eat and sell cheese for which reason that food is despised by the Harb and the Kalawiyah, plural of Kalawi are equally despised they are generally blacksmiths have a fine breed of greyhounds and give asses as a dowry which secures for them the deletion of their fellows Mr. C. Cole his British Majesties Vice Consul at Jeddah was kind enough to collect for me notices of the different tribes in southern Hijaz his informants divide the great clan Juhaina living about Yambu and Yambu are called into five branches namely 1. Benu Ibrahimah in number about 5,000 2. Ishran 700 3. Benu Malik 6000 4. Arwah 5000 5. Kauna 3000 thus giving a total of 19,700 men capable of carrying arms footnote the reader will remember that nothing like exactitude in numbers can be expected from an Arab some rate the Benu Harb at 6000 others equally well inform at 15,000 others again at 80,000 the reason for this is that whilst one is speaking of the whole race another may be limiting it to his own tribe and its immediate allies end of footnote the same gentleman first in eastern Arabia during the coast survey of the Palinurus a well known to the Indian world gives the following names of the tribes under allegiance to the Sharif of Mecca 1. Saqif Saqif al-Yaman 2000 2. Saqif al-Sham 1000 footnote Sham which properly speaking means the mascus or Syria in southern Arabia in eastern Africa is universally applied to al-Hijaz end of footnote 3. Benu Malik 6000 4. Nasira 3000 5. Benusaad 4000 6. Huzai Houdhai 5000 7. Bakum Begu'um 5000 8. Aduda 500 9. Bashar 1000 10. Sa'id 1500 11. Zubaid 4000 12. Aida 1000 The following is a list of the southern Hijazi tribes kindly forwarded to me by the Abbey Hamilton after his return from a visit to the Sharif at Taif 1. Ghamid al-Badawi of the Nomads 3000 2. Ghamid al-Hazar the settled 4000 3. Zaran 3000 4000 4. Benu Malik 3000 3000 5. Nasira 5000 6. Asir 4000 7. Tamum 8. Bilqarn together 8009 Benu Amar 1000 10. Utaiba living north of Mecca no number given 11 Shua Bin 12 the Raish 2000 13 Benu Sufyan 1500 14 Al-Hulad 3000 It is evident that the numbers given by this traveler include the women and probably the children of the tribes. Some exaggeration will also be suspected. The principal clans which practice the pagan south or excreation are in Al-Hijaz, the Huzail and the Benu Sufyan together with the following families in Artahama. 1. Duhadila 2. Kabaka 3. Benufam 4. Benu Mamud 5. Saramu 6. Majarish 7. Benuyazid I now take leave of a subject which cannot but be most uninteresting to English readers. End of Chapter 25 Part 3 Recording by Shana Serre, Fresno, California.