1

nor has fo great a length of time produced any very confiderable change. We may affert they have in every respect retained their primitive independence and fimplicity. See ARABIA, n° 186.

Bedouins. 500l. was voted to Bedloe by the Commons. He is faid to have afferted the reality of the plot on his deathbed: but it abounds with abfurdity, contradiction, and perjury; and still remains one of the greatest problems in the British annals. He died at Bristol 20th Auguft 1680. Giles Jacob informs us, that he was author of a play called The Excommunicated Prince, or the Falfe Relid, 1679. The printer of it having, without the author's knowledge, added a fecond title, and called it The Popish Plot in a Play, greatly excited the curiofity of the public, who were however much difappointed when they found the plan of the piece to be founded on a quite different flory. Anth. a Wood will not allow the Captain the merit of this play; but afferts that it was written partly, if not entirely, by one Tho. Walter, M. A. of Jefus College, Oxford.

BEDOUINS, or BEDOUIS, a modern name of the wild Arabs, whether in Asia or Africa. When speaking of the Arabs, we should diftinguish whether they are cultivators or paltors; for this difference in their mode of life occafions fo great a one in their manners and genius, that they become almost foreign nations with respect to each other. In the former cafe, leading a fedentary life, attached to the fame foil, and fubject to regular governments, the focial state in which they live, very nearly refembles our own. Such are the inhabitants of the Yemen; and fuch also are the defcendants of those ancient conquerors, who have either entirely, or in part, given inhabitants to Syria, Egypt, and the Barbary ftates. In the fecond inftance, having only a tranfient intereft in the foil, perpetually removing their tents from one place to another, and under fubjection to no laws, their mode of existence is neither that of polished nations nor of favages; and therefore more particularly merits our attention. Such are the Bedouins, or inhabitants of the vaft defarts which extend from the confines of Perfia to Morocco. Tho' divided into independent communities or tribes, not unfrequently hoftile to each other, they may ftill be confidered as forming one nation. The refemblance of their language is a manifeft token of this relationfhip. The only difference that exists between them is, that the African tribes are of a lefs ancient origin, being pofterior to the conqueft of thefe countries by the khalifs or fucceffors of Mahomet; while the tribes of the defart of Arabia, properly fo called, have defcended by an uninterrupted fucceffion from the remoteft ages. To thefe the orientals are accustomed to appropriate the name of Arabs, as being the most ancient and the pureft race. The term Bedaoui is added as a fynonimous expreffion, fignifying, "inhabitant of the Defart."

It is not without reason that the inhabitants of the defart boast of being the pureft and the best preferved race of all the Arab tribes: for never have they been conquered, nor have they mixed with any other people by making conquefts; for those by which the general name of Arabs has been rendered famous, really be long only to the tribes of the Hedjas and the Yemen. Thofe who dwelt in the interior of the country, never emigrated at the time of the revolution effected by Mahomet; or if they did take any part in it, it was confined to a few individuals, detached by motives of ambition. Thus we find the prophet in his Koran continually ftyling the Arabs of the defart rebels and infidels;

The wandering life of these people arifes from the very nature of their defarts. To paint to himfelf these defarts (fays M. Volney), the reader muft imagine a fky almoft perpetually inflamed, and without clouds,. immenfe and boundlefs plains, without houses, trces, rivulets, or hills, where the eye frequently meets nothing but an extenfive and uniform horizon like the fea, though in fome places the ground is uneven and ftony. Almost invariably naked on every fide, the earth prefents nothing but a few wild plants thinly fcattered, and thickets, whofe folitude is rarely diflurbed but by antelopes, hares, locufts, and rats. Such is the nature of nearly the whole country, which extends fix hundred leagues in length and three hundred in breadth, and ftretches from Aleppo to the Arabian sea, and from Egypt to the Perfian gulph. It must not, however, be imagined that the foil in fo great an extent is every where the fame; it varies confiderably in different places. On the frontiers of Syria, for example, the earth is in general fat and cultivable, nay even fruitful. It is the fame alfo on the banks of the Euphrates: but in the internal parts of the country, and towards the fouth, it becomes white and chalky, as in the parallel of Damascus; rocky, as in the Tih and the Hedjaz; and a pure fand, as to the eastward of the Yemen. This variety in the qualities of the foil is productive of fome minute differences in the condition of the Bedouins. For inftance, in the more fterile countries, that is, thofe which produce but few plants, the tribes are feeble and very diftant; which is the cafe in the defart of Suez, that of the Red Sea, and the interior of the great defart called the Najd. When the foil is more fruitful, as between Damafcus and the Euphrates, the tribes are more numerous and less remote from each other; and, laftly, in the cultivable districts, fuch as the Pachalics of Aleppo, the Hauran, and the neighbourhood of Gaza, the camps are frequent and contiguous. In the former inftances, the Bedouins are purely paftors, and fubfift only on the produce of their herds, and on a few dates and flesh meat, which they eat either fresh or dried in the fun and reduced to a powder. In the latter, they fow fome land, and add cheese, barley, and even rice, to their flesh and milk

meats.

In thofe districts where the foil is ftony and fandy, as in the Tih, the Hedjaz, and the Najd, the rains make the feeds of the wild plants fhoot, and revive the thickets, ranunculi, wormwood, and kali. They caufe marfhes in the lower grounds, which produce reeds and grafs; and the plain affumes a tolerable degree of verdure. This is the feafon of abundance both for the herds and their masters; but on the return of the heats, every thing is parched up, and the earth converted into a a grey and fine duft, prefents nothing but dry ftems as hard as wood, on which neither horses, oxen, nor even goats, can feed. In this flate the defart would become uninhabitable, and must be totally abandoned, had not nature formed an animal no lefs hardy and frugal than the foil is fterile and ungrateful. No creature feems fo peculiarly fitted to the climate in which it exifts. Defigning the camel to dwell in a

country

Bedouins. country where he can find little nourishment, Nature (fays M. Volney) has been fparing of her materials in the whole of his formation. She has not bestowed on him the plump flefhinefs of the ox, horfe, or elephant; but limiting herfelf to what is ftrictly neceffary, fhe has given him a small head without ears at the end of a long neck without flefh. She has taken from his legs and thighs every mufcle not immediately requifite for motion; and in fhort, has bestowed on his withered body only the veffels and tendons neceffary to connect its frame together. She has furnished him with a ftrong jaw, that he may grind the hardest aliments; but left he fhould confume too much, fhe has ftraitened his ftomach, and obliged him to chew the cud. She has lined his foot with a lump of fiefh, which fliding in the mud, and being no way adapted to climbing, fits him only for a dry, level, and fandy foil like that of Arabia : she has evidently deftined him likewise to slavery, by refufing him every fort of defence against his enemies. Deftitute of the horns of the bull, the hoof of the horfe, the tooth of the elephant, and the swiftnefs of the ftag, how can the camel refift or avoid the attacks of the lion, the tiger, or even the wolf? To preferve the fpecies, therefore, nature has concealed him in the depth of the vaft defarts, where the want of vegetables can attract no game, and whence the want of game repels every voracious animal. Tyranny muft have expelled man from the habitable parts of the earth before the camel could have loft his liberty. Become domeftic, he has rendered habitable the most barren foil the world contains. He alone fupplies all his master's wants. The milk of the camel nourishes the family of the Arab under the varied forms of curd, cheese, and butter; and they often feed upon his ftefh. Slippers and harness are made of his fkin, tents and clothing of his hair. Heavy burdens are transported by his means; and when the earth denies forage to the horse, fo valuable to the Bedouin, the she camel fupplies that deficiency by her milk at no other cost, for fo many advantages, than a few ftalks of brambles or wormwood and pounded date kernels. So great is the importance of the camel to the defart, that were it deprived of that useful animal, it muft infallibly lofe every inhabitant.

Such is the fituation in which nature has placed the Bedouins, to make of them a race of men equally fingular in their phyfical and moral character. This fingularity is fo ftriking, that even their neighbours the Syrians regard them as extraordinary beings; efpecially thofe tribes which dwell in the depths of the defarts, fuch as the Anaza, Kaibar, Tai, and others, which never approach the towns. When in the time of Shaik Daher, fome of their horfemen came as far as Acre, they excited the fame curiofity there as a vifit from the favages of America would among us. Every body viewed with furprife thefe men, who were more diminutive, meagre, and fwarthy, than any of the known Bedouins. Their withered legs were only compofed of tendons, and had no calves. Their bellies feemed to cling to their backs, and their hair were frizzled almoft as much as that of the negroes. They on the other hand were no lefs aftonished at every thing they faw; they could neither conceive how the houfes and minarets could stand erect, nor how men ventured to dwell beneath them, and always in the fame spot; but above

We may imagine that the Arabs of the frontiers are not fuch novices; there are even several small tribes of them, who living in the midft of the country, as in the valley of Bekaa, that of the Jordan, and in Palestine, approach nearer to the condition of the peasants; but thefe are defpifed by the others, who look upon them. as baftard Arabs and Rayas, or flaves of the Turks. In general, the Bedouins are fmall, meagre, and tawny; more fo, however, in the heart of the defart than on the frontiers of the cultivated country; but they are always of a darker hue than the neighbouring pealants. They alfo differ among themfelves in the fame camp; and M. Volney remarked, that the fhaiks, that is, the rich, and their attendants, were always. taller and more corpulent than the common class. He has feen fome of them above five feet five and fix inches high; though in general they do not (he fays) exceed five feet two inches. This difference can only be attributed to their food, with which the former are fupplied more abundantly than the latter: And the effects of this are equally evident in the Arabian and Turkmen camels; for thefe latter, dwelling in countries rich in forage, are become a fpecies more robuft and fleshy than the former. It may likewife be affirmed, that the lower clafs of Bedouins live in a ftate of habitual wretchedness and famine. It will appear almost incredible to us, but it is an undoubted fact, that the quantity of food ufually confumed by the greatest part of them does not exceed fix ounces a day. This abftinence is most remarkable among the tribes of the Najd and the Hedjaz. Six or seven dates foaked in melted butter, a little fweet milk or curds, ferve a man a whole day; and he esteems himself happy when he can add a fmall quantity of coarse flour or a little ball of rice. Meat is referved for the greatest festivals; and they never kill a kid but for a marriage or a funeral. A few wealthy and generous fhaiks alone can kill young camels, and eat baked rice with their victuals. In times of dearth, the vulgar, always half famifhed, do not difdain the moft wretched kinds of food; and eat locufts, rats, lizards, and ferpents broiled on briars. Hence are they fuch plunderers of the cultivated lands and robbers on the high roads: hence also their delicate conftitution and their diminutive and meagre bodies, which are rather active than vigorous. It may be worth while to remark, that their evacuations of every kind, even perfpiration, are extremely fmall; their blood is fo deftitute of ferofity, that nothing but the greatest heat can preferve its fluidity. This, however, does not prevent them from being tolerably healthy in other refpects; for maladies are lefs frequent among them than among the inhabitants of the cultivated country.

From thefe facts we are by no means juftified in concluding that the frugality of the Bedouins is a virtue purely of choice, or even of climate. The ex treme heat in which they live unquestionably facilitates. their abftinence, by deftroying that activity which cold gives to the ftomach. Their being habituated alfo to fo fparing a diet, by hindering the dilatation of the flomach, becomes doubtlefs a means of their fupporting fuch abftemioufnefs; but the chief and primary motive of this habit is with them, as with the

reft

Bedouins, reft of mankind, the neceffity of the circumstances in which they are placed, whether from the nature of the foil, as has been before explained, or that state of society in which they live, and which remains now to be examined.

It has been already remarked, that the Bedouin Arabs are divided into tribes, which conftitute fo many diftinct nations. Each of thefe tribes appropriates to itself a tract of land forming its domain; in this they do not differ from cultivating nations, except that their territory requires a greater extent, in or der to furnish fubfiftence for their herds throughout the year. Each tribe is collected in one or more camps, which are difperfed through the country, and which make a fucceffive progrefs over the whole, in proportion as it is exhaufted by the cattle; hence it is, that within a great extent a few fpots only are inhabited, which vary from one day to another; but as the entire space is neceffary for the annual fubfiftence of the tribe, whoever encroaches on it is deemed a violator of property; this is with them the law of nations. If, therefore, a tribe, or any of its fubjects, enter upon a foreign territory, they are treated as enemies and robbers, and a war breaks out. Now, as all the tribes have affinities with each other by alliances of blood or conventions, leagues are formed, which render thefe wars more or lefs general. The manner of proceeding on fuch occafions is very fimple. The offence made known, they mount their horfes and feek the enemy; when they meet, they enter into a parley, and the matter is frequently made up; if not, they attack either in fmall bodies, or man to man. They encounter each other at full speed with fixed lances, which they fometimes dart, notwithstanding their length, at the flying enemy: the victory is rarely contested; it is decided by the firft fhock, and the vanquished take to flight full gallop over the naked plain of the defart. Night generally favours their escape from the conqueror. The tribe which has loft the battle ftrikes its tents, removes to a distance by forced marches, and feeks an asylum among its allies. The enemy, fatisfied with their fuccefs, drive their herds farther on, and the fugitives foon after return to their former fituation. But the flaughter made in these engagements frequently fows the feeds of hatreds which perpetuate these diffenfions. The intereft of the common fafety has for ages established a law among them, which decrees that the blood of every man who is flain must be a venged by that of his murderer. This vengeance is called Tar, or retaliation; and the right of exacting it devolves on the nearest of kin to the deceased. So nice are the Arabs on this point of honour, that if any one neglects to feek his retaliation he is difgraced for ever. He therefore watches every opportunity of revenge if his enemy perifhes from any other caufe, ftill he is not fatisfied, and his vengeance is directed against the nearest relation. Thefe animofities are tranfmitted as an inheritance from father to children, and never ceafe but by the extinction of one of the families, unless they agree to facrifice the criminal, or purchase the blood for a ftated price, in money or in - flocks. Without this fatisfaction, there is neither peace, nor truce, nor alliances, between them, nor fometimes even between whole tribes: There is blood between us, fay they on every occafion; and this expreffion is an

infurmountable barrier. Such accidents being neceffa Bedouins rily numerous in a long course of time, the greater part of the tribes have ancient quarrels, and live in an habitual state of war; which, added to their way of life, renders the Bedouins a military people, though they have made no great progress in war as an art. Their camps are formed in a kind of irregular circle, compofed of a fingle row of tents, with greater or lefs intervals. Thefe tents, made of goat or camels hair, are black or brown, in which they differ from those of the Turkmen, which are white. They are fretched on three or four pickets, only five or fix feet high, which gives them a very flat appearance; at a distance, one of these camps feems only like a number of black fpots; but the piercing eye of the Bedouin is not to be deceived. Each tent inhabited by a family is divided by a curtain into two apartments, one of which is appropriated to the women. The empty space within the large circle ferves to fold their cattle every evening. They never have any intrenchments; their only advanced guards and patroles are dogs; their horfes remain faddled and ready to mount on the first alarm; but as there is neither order nor regularity, thefe camps, always easy to surprise, afford no defence in cafe of an attack: accidents, therefore, very frequently happen, and cattle are carried off every day; a fpecies of marauding war in which the Arabs are very experienced.

The tribes which live in the vicinity of the Turks are still more accustomed to attacks and alarms; for thefe ftrangers, arrogating to themfelves, in right of conqueft, the property of the whole country, treat the Arabs as rebel vaffals, or as turbulent and dangerous enemies. On this principle, they never ceafe to wage fecret or open war against them. The pachas ftudy every occasion to harass them. Sometimes they conteft with them a territory which they had let them, and at others demand a tribute which they never agreed to pay. Should a family of fhaiks be divided by intereft or ambition, they alternately fuccour each party, and conclude by the deftruction of both. Frequently too they poifon or affaffinate those chiefs whofe courage or abilities they dread, though they fhould even be their allies. The Arabs, on their fide, regarding the Turks as ufurpers and treacherous enemies, watch every opportunity to do them injury. Unfortunately, their vengeance falls oftener on the innocent than the guilty. The harmless peafant generally fuffers for the offences of the foldier. On the flighteft alarm, the Arabs cut their harvefts, carry off their flocks, and intercept their communication and commerce. The peafant calls them thieves, and with reafon; but the Bedouins claim the right of war, and perhaps they alfo are not in the wrong. However this may be, these depredations occafion a mifunderstanding between the Bedouins and the inhabitants of the cultivated country, which renders them mutual enemies.

why, in fhort, their manners are fo much more fociable Bedouins. and mild. The following reafons are proposed by M. Volney as the true folution of this difficulty. It seems at firft view (he obferves), that America, being rich in pafturage, lakes, and forefts, is more adapted to the paftoral mode of life than to any other. But if we confider that these forefts, by affording an eafy refuge to animals, protect them more furely from the power of man, we may conclude that the favage has been induced to become a hunter instead of a shepherd, by the nature of the country. In this state, all his habits have concurred to give him a ferocity of character. The great fatigues of the chace have hardened his body; frequent and extreme hunger, followed by a fudden abundance of game, has rendered him voracious. The habit of fhedding blood, and tearing his prey, has familiarifed him to the fight of death and fufferings. Tormented by hunger, he has defired flesh; and finding it easy to obtain that of his fellowcreature, he could not long hesitate to kill him to fatisfy the cravings of his appetite. The first experiment made, this cruelty degenerates into a habit; he becomes a cannibal, fanguinary and atrocious; and his mind acquires all the infenfibility of his body.

Bedonins. But what the poor man ftands moft in need of, and what he takes most pleasure in, is his mare; for this animal is his principal fupport. With his mare the Bedouin makes his excurfions against hoftile tribes, or feeks plunder in the country and on the high-ways. The mare is preferred to the horfe, becaufe fhe is more docile, and yields milk, which on occafion fatisfies the thirst and even the hunger of her master. Thus confined to the most abfolute neceffities of life, the Arabs have as little induftry as their wants are few; all their arts confift in weaving their clumfy tents and in making mats and butter. Their whole commerce only extends to the exchanging camels, kids, ftallions, and milk; for arms, clothing, a little rice or corn, and money, which they bury. They are totally ignorant of all science; and have not even any idea of aftronomy, geometry, or medicine. They have not a fingle book; and nothing is fo uncommon among the Shaiks as to know how to read. All their literature confifts in reciting tales and hiftories in the manner of the Arabian Nights Entertainments. They have a peculiar paffion for fuch ftories, and employ in them almost all their leifure, of which they have a great deal. In the evening they feat themselves on the ground, at the threshold of their tents, or under cover, if it be cold; and there, ranged in a circle round a little fire of dung, their pipes in their mouths, and their legs croffed, they fit a while in filent meditation, till on a fudden one of them breaks forth with, Once upon a time, and continues to recite the adventures of fome young Shaik and female Bedouin: he relates in what manner the youth first got a fecret glimpfe of his miftrefs; and how he became defperately enamoured of her: he minutely defcribes the lovely fair; boasts her black eyes, as large and foft as thofe of the gazelle; her languid and empaffioned looks, her arched eye-brows, relembling two bows of ebony; her waift ftraight and fupple as a lance: he forgets not her fteps, light as thofe of the young filley; nor her eye-lafhes, blackened with kohl; nor her lips painted blue; nor her nails, tinged with the golden coloured henna; nor her breafts, refembling two pomegranates; nor her words, fweet as honey. He recounts the fufferings of the young lover, fo wafed with defire and paffion, that his body no longer yields any fhadow. At length, after detailing his various attempts to fee his mistress, the obftacles of the parents, the invafions of the enemy, the captivity of the two lovers, &c. he terminates, to the fatisfaction of the audience, by refloring them, united and happy, to the paternal tent, and by receiving the tribute paid to his eloquence, in the Ma cha allah (an exclamation of praife, equivalent to admirably well!) he has merited. The Bedouins have likewife their love fongs, which have more fentiment and nature in them than thofe of the Turks and inhabitants of the towns; doubtless, because the former, whofe manners are chafle, know what love is; while the latter, abandoned to debauchery, are acquainted only with enjoyment.

When we confider how much the condition of the Bedouins, efpecially in the depths of the defart, refembles in many refpects that of the favages of America, we shall be inclined to wonder why they have not the fame ferocity; why, though they fo often experience the extremity of hunger, the practice of devouring human flesh was never heard of among them; and

N° 43.

2

The fituation of the Arab is very different. Amid his vaft naked plains, without water and without forefts, he has not been able, for want of game or fish, to become either a hunter or a fisherman. The camel has determined him to a paftoral life, the manners of which have influenced his whole character. Finding at hand a light, but conftant and fufficient nourish ment, he has acquired the habit of frugality. Content with his milk and his dates, he has not defired flesh; he has fhed no blood: his hands are not accustomed to flaughter, nor his ears to the cries of fuffering creatures; he has preferved a humane and fenfible heart.

No fooner did the favage fhepherd become acquainted with the ufe of the horse, than his manner of life muft confiderably change. The facility of paffing rapidly over extensive tracts of country, rendered him a wanderer. He was greedy from want, and became a robber from greedinefs; and fuch is in fact his prefent character. A plunderer, rather than a warrior, the Arab poffeffes no fanguinary courage; he attacks only to defpoil; and if he meets with refiftance, never thinks a fmall booty is to be put in competition with his life. To irritate him, you must shed his blood; in which cafe he is found to be as obftinate in his vengeance as he was cautious in avoiding danger.

The Bedouins have often been reproached with this fpirit of rapine; but without wifhing to defend it, we may obferve that one circumftance has not been fufficiently attended to, which is, that it only takes place towards reputed enemies, and is confequently founded on the acknowledged laws of almost all nations. Among themselves they are remarkable for a good faith, a difintereftedness, a generofity, which would do honour to the most civilized people. What is there more noble than that right of afylum fo refpected among all the tribes? A ftranger, nay even an enemy, touches the tent of the Bedouin, and from that inffant his perfon becomes inviolable. It would be reckoned a difgraceful meannefs, an indelible fhame, to fatisfy even a juft vengeance at the expence of hofpitality. Has the Bedouin confented to eat bread and falt with

his