clonal character ts its greatest purity. Of these, the ." tribe denoinine:ad " Beni Khaleb" is one of the most powerful, on account of its conquests and wealth, and the number of other tribes subjected to it. It has advanced from the desert of Najd to the sea, and conquered the country of Lachsa. The tribe of " Koab" inhabits north of the Persian Gulf,•and has possessions in the province of Chusistan, in Persia, where there are five different considerable tribes of Bedouins. The tribe " Beni Lam" dwells between Korne and Bagdad, upon the banks of the Tigris, and receives duties upon goods carried from Bassora to Bagdad ; sometimes pillaging caravans. The Montefidhi," or " Montefik,- ' is the most power ful tribe north from the desert, with respect to ex tent of territory, and the number of subaltern tribes acknowledging their authority. They possess all the country on both sides of the Euphrates, from Kerne to Ardie. In Egypt there are various tribes of Be douins, which migrate every year from the heart of Africa, after the inundation of the Nile, to profit by the fertility of the country, and in spring retire again into the depths of the desert. There are others which are stationary, and farm lands, which they sow, and annually change. Mr Sonnini speaks highly in praise of the stationary Bedouins of Egypt. The males, he says, are in general handsome ; they live to be very . old, and, in their advanced age, are conspicuous for a respectable and truly patriarchal appearance. The women, when young, arc not destitute of beauty, notwithstanding their tawny hue, and those disfigu ring compartments which they impress on the lower part of their faces with a needle and a black dye. He found a very singular opinion prevalent with a tribe which he visited, which tradition had rendered sacred among them. They asserted, that their an cestors were Europeans, and Christians, who, having been shipwrecked on the coast of Egypt, were plun dered, and reduced to live in the desert. The whole, however, that they retained of the pretended Chris tianity of their forefathers, was the sign of the cross, which they made with their fingers, or traced in the sand. Travels in Egypt, ch. xxv.
The customs and manners of life of all the Be douins, whether African or Asiatic, are very nearly the same, and present a lively picture of the rude simplicity of the pastoral stage of society. The camps of the Bedouins are formed in a kind of irregular cir cle, composed of a single row of tents, with greater less intervals. These tents are made of goats or camels hair, black or brown, or striped black and white, by which they are distinguished from those of the Turcomans, which are white. They are only rive or six feet high, stretched on three or four pickets, so that at a distance they appear like a number of black spots, or mole-hills. The length of these tents is much greater than their breadth ; and they are entirely open on one of their long sides, be ing that from which the wind most rarely blows. The tent of the scheik is distinguished from the rest by nothing but a plume of ostrich feathers placed at . the top. Each tent inhabited by a family is divided by a curtain into two apartments, one of which is ap.
propriated to the women. The empty space within the circle serves to fold their cattle every evening. In these tents the Bedouins, when they go to rest, stretch themselves out upon the ground, without bed, mat trass, or pillow ; wrapping themselves in their hides or blankets, and lying upon a mat, wherever they can find room. They have no entrenchments, nor any advanced guards except their dogs ; their horses re main saddled, and ready to be mounted upon the first alarm ; but being utter strangers to order and cipline, their camps are always open to surprise, and then afford no sufficient means of defence.
The wealth of a Bedouin is extremely circumscri bed. It generally consists of a few male and female camels ; some goats or sheep, and poultry ; a mare, with her bridle and saddle, which he prefers to it horse, because she seldom neighs, is more docile, and yields him milk, which occasionally satisfies both his hunger and thirst in the desert ; add to this his tent ; alance 16 feet long ; a crooked sabre ; a rusty mus ket, or matchlock ; a pipe ; a portable mill ; a pot for cooking ; a leathern bucket ; a small coffee-roaster ; a straw mat, which serves equally for a seat, a table, and a bed ; some clothes which are put up in leathern bags ; a mantle of black woollen ; a few glass or silver rings which the women wear upon their legs or arms ; and perhaps a little money which he buries. The wealth of a scheik is somewhat more considerable. M. Vol. ney resided with one in the country of Gaza, about the end of 1784, who was reckoned very great and powerful ; and %whose expenditure he compares to that of an opulent farmer; and estimates his effects, consist ing of a few pelisses, carpets, arms, horses, and camels, at about 50,000 livres, or A'2000 sterling. With such scanty possessions, and dwelling in a desert, we cannot suppose that the Bedouins live very luxurious ly, or even plentifully. The greater part of them, indeed, may be said to lead lives of habitual wretched ness and famine. The length Co which they are able to carry their abstinence by the force of habit and the impulse of necessity, is truly astonishing. The whole food consumed by the greatest part of them does not usually exceed six ounces a day, and that too of the simplest kind. A few dates soaked in but ter, a little sweet milk or curds, will serve a man for a whole day ; and he esteems himself happy when he can add a small quantity of coarse flour, or a little ball of rice. Meat is used only at the greatest festi vals ; and they never kill a kid but for a marriage or a funeral. The scheiks, indeed, can afford to live more generously, and have a better appearance is their persons, in consequence of their more comfort able fare; but, in times of dearth, the vulgar, always half famished, do not disdain the most wretched kinds of food ; and eat locusts, rats, lizards, and serpents, broiled on briars. " An Arab," says Mr Jackson, " will go 50 miles a day tvithout tasting food, and at night will content himself with a little barley meal mixed with cold water. The term that is applied to the richest men among the Arabs is, that they eat meat every day." Account of the Empire gf Mo rocco, p. 228.