KHADIM. ARAB. Servant ; and in India applied to persons in charge of tombs, mosques, etc. In Arabia, it is a term applied to the servile races, and thereby denotino. that they are polit ically and socially inferior denoting the native Arab. They are only to be found in Yemen, and do not extend farther than the country of the Aseer on the north, and Balad-ul-Jehaf on the east,—in fact, in that part of the country which included the dominions proper of the ancient Himyarite Tobba. Physically, they differ considerably from the Arabs, and bear a resemblance to the races which inhabit the African coast. They have smooth hair, with a very dark complexion ; their nose is aquiline, their lips thick ; their stature is greater than that of the Arab ; the latter are thin and angular, the former rounded, with a predia position to obesity. They are considered in Yemen in the same light as are the Pariah of India. They are not admitted to cat with Arabs, nor can a Khadim marry an Arab woman. They are musicians, blacksmiths, public criers, etc., and their women have usually a lower stamp of character than the men ; considerable numbers flock to Aden. It has been suggested that they are the remnant of the ancient Himyarites, or the descendants of the Persian conquerors of Yemen, but the legend related to M. d'Arnaud
is probably more near the truth. It is as follows: —' When tho Arabs succeeded in shaking off the Abyssinian yoke (which they did with the assist- ' :mice of the Persians), a number of Ethiopian families were scattered over the country. The Arabs, in order to perpetuate the remembrance of their victory, condemned them to the condition of serfs. Their chief men were subjected to a more infamous degradation,—they became barbers from father to son.' Khadima, a woman-servant.
The wages of such male servants are in many eastern countries very small, but they receive many presents, and this habit of irregular remu neration in lieu of fixed wages has been held by some observers to lead to the preservation of those domestic relations that exist there between masters and servants. In some respects they are often familiar in their manners to their master, even laughing and joking with him. In others, they are very submissive, paying him the utmost honour, and bearing corporal chastisement from his hand with childlike patience.—D'Arnaud's les Akhdam de l'Yemen in' Playfair's Aden ; Lane's Modern Egyptians; Urguhart's Spirit of the East.