" On sudden alarms, or when any chieftain is in distress, they give notice to their clans, or those in al liance with them, by sending a man with what they call thefiery ciNs, which is a stick, in the form of a :cross, burnt at the end,—who send it forward to the .next tribe or clan. They carry with it a written pa per, directing them where to assemble ; upon sight of which, they leave their habitation, and with great expedition repair to the place of rendezvous, with arms, ammunition, and meal for their provision.
" The imposition commonly called black-mail, is levied by the Highlanders on almost all the low coun try bordering thereon. But as it is equally criminal by the laws of Scotland to pay this exaction, or to ex tort it, the inhabitants, to avoid the penalty of the laws, agree with the robbers, or some of their corre spondents in the lowlands, to protect their houses and eattle, who are in effect hut their stewards, or factors; and as long as this payment continues, the depreda tions cease upon their lands ; otherwise the collector of this illegal imposition is obliged to make good the loss they have sustained. They give regular receipts for the same safe-guard money ; and those who refuse to submit to this imposition are sure of being plun slered.
" Those who are robbed of their cattle, (or persons employed by them,) follow them by the tract, and often recover them from the robbers, by compound ing for a certain sum of money agreed on. But if the pursuers are armed, and in numbers superior to the thieves, and happen to seize any of them, they are seldom or never prosecuted, the poorer sort being unable to support the charge of a prosecution. They are likewise under the apprehension of lcoming the object of their revenge, by having their houses and stacks burnt, their cattle stolen or hockt, and their lives at the mercy of the tribe or clan to whom the banditti belong. The richer sort (to keep, as they call it, good neighbourhood,) generally compound with the chieftain of the tribe or clan for double restitu tion, which he willingly pays to save one of his clan from prosecution ; and this is repaid him by a con tribution from the thieves of his clan, who never re fuse the payment of their proportion to save one of their own fraternity. This composition is seldom paid in money, but in cattle stolen from the opposite siae of the country, to make reparation to the person injured." The situation of the Bedouins owes some of its most material comforts to the camel, an animal which nature seems to have expressly designed for in habiting the desert, and enduring the hardships and privations which are inseparable from such a mode of life. He is of a form muscular and robust, without having any superfluous flesa to support : on his legs and thighs we find absolutely nothing but the muscles indispensible for motion. He is furnished with a strong jaw, that he may grind the hardest aliments ; and with a straitened and ruminating stomach. that he may not consume too much. His foot is lined with a lump of flesh, which, sliding in the mud, and being in no way adapted to climbing, fits him for a dry, level, ' and sandy soil like that of Arabia. Nature has also evidently destined him to slavery, -by refusing him every sort of defence against his enemies. To pre serve the species, therefore, she has concealed him in the depth of the vast deserts, where the want of ve getables can attract no game, and whence the want of game expels every voracious animal. Here his absti nence enables him to support his strength on the scanty herbage which the arid soil-produces ; and he is capable of existing without water for several days to gether. Reduced to the domestic state, he has render ed habitable the most barren soil that the world con tains ; and is alone sufficient for all his master's wants. The milk of the camel nourishes the family of the Arab, under the various forms of curd, cheese, and butter ; and his flesh furnishes a repast upon extra ordinary occasions. Slippers and harness are made of his skin, tents and clothing of his hair. Heavy burdens are transported by his means ; and when the earth denies forage to the horse, the camel, for so many advantages, seeks no other recompense than a few stalks of brambles or wormwood, and pounded date kernels.
The ordinary rate of motion of the camel greatly exceeds the journeying pace of the horse ; but there is a peculiar species called the desert camel, of which the velocity is so great, as almost to exceed credibi lity. Mr Jackson, in his recent account of Morocco, has given the following account of the desert camel of the Sahara, in Africa. " Nature, ever provident, and seeing the difficulty of communication, from the immense tracts of desert country in Sahara, has af forded the Saharanans a means, upon any emergency, of crossing the great African desert in a few days.
Mounted upon the heirie, or desert camel, (which is in figure similar to the camel of burden, but more elegantly formed,) the Arab, with his loins, •breast, and ears bound round, to prevent the percussion of air proceeding from a quick motion, rapidly traverses, upon the back of this abstemious animal, the scorch ing desert, the, fiery atmosphere of which parches and impedes respiration, so as almost to produce suf focation. The motion of the heirie is violent, and can be endured only by those patient, abstemious, and hardy Arabs, who are accustomed to it. The most inferior kind of heiric are called talatayee, a term expressive of their going the distance of three days journey in one ; the next kind is called sebayee, a term appropriated to that which goes seven days journey in one, and this is the general character ; there is also one called tasayee, or the heirie of nine days ; these are extremely rare." p. 39, 40. The swiftness of this useful animal, Mr Jackson informs us, is thus described by the Arabs in their figurative manner. " Whcn thou shalt meet a heirie, and say to the rider Salen•Aick, peace be between us ;' ere he shall have answered thee, Alick-Salem, there is peace between us,' he will be afar off, and nearly out of sight, for his swiftness is like the wind." The arts of the Bedouins are few and simple, and consist in weaving their clumsy tents and clothing, and in making mats and butter. They preserve their butter in leathern bags, and their water in coat skins. Their hearth consists of a hole in the ground, laid with stones, and covered with an iron plate, on which they hake their bread, made into small cakes. In their excursions they carry with them a supply of meal ; and their other provisions arc, dates, milk, cheese, and honey. Their whole commerce extends only to the exchanging of camels, kids, stallions, and milk, fur aims, clothing, a little rice or cotton, and some money, which they bury. They are totally ignorant of science, and nothing is more uncommon among them than to know how to read. Their only literature consists in singing love-songs, or in reciting tales and histories, in the manner of the Arabian _Nights Entertainments. For such stories they have a peculiar passion ; and in the evening they seat themselves on the ground, at the door of their tents, or under cover, if it be cold ; and there, ranged in a circle, round a small fire of dung, with their legs crossed, and their pipes in their mouths, after indul ging for some time in silent meditation, they amuse themselves with the recital of tales of this kind. They profess the religion of Mahomet, but are far from being strict in the observance of its ceremo nies, or fervid in their professions of devotion. They excuse themselves for this laxity, by demanding, " How shall we make ablutions, who have no water ? How can we bestow alms, who are not rich ? Why should we fast in the Ramadan, since the whole year with us is one continued fast ? And what necessity is there for us to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, if -God be present every where'?" We shall conclude this account of the Bedouins, with extracting from the Travels of Sonini in Egypt, a very lively and interesting detail of a rencounter which that traveller had in the desert with a troop of these marauders, in consequence of which he had an opportunity of seeing the peculiarities of their cha racter in a very striking light. He was on his way from Alexandria to Cairo, under- the guidance and safeguard of Hussein, who was scheik of a tribe of half civilized Bedouins stationed not far from Alex andria, and had entered the desert which skirts the famous lakes of uatron. I staid, some days," says our traveller, " near the lakes, the borders of which I traversed ; at length we resumed our journey, con tinuing our course to the south-west. The sand over which we travelled was completely covered with har dened natron, which rendered our progress toilsome and fatiguing, both to us and our beasts. We arri ved within a short distance of a large square edifice, in which a few Coptic monks live shut up from the world. I do not think that there is upon earth a more horrible or repulsive situation than this sort of convent. Built in the midst of the desert, its walls, though very lofty, are not distinguishable at any con siderable distance from the sand, of which they have the reddish tinge, and bare aspect. There is no ap parent entrance ; no tree, no plant of any height, is seen around it ; no path leads to it ; no trace of hu man footstep is observable in its vicinity ; and, if a few be imprinted, they are soon covered by the sand, or obliterated by the tread of wild and ferocious beasts, the proper inhabitants of these frightful soli tudes.