How Nomads are Governed.—Nomads who live in tents and go on raids are almost invariably a source of trouble to an ordinary government, for not only are they lawless raiders, but they bitterly resent any outside interference. As the camps are small and widely scattered it is extremely difficult to punish evil doers. Hence archal government, or the "rule of the father" still persists. Each camp is apt to consist of relatives. The father sets up his tent sur rounded by the families of his sons and nephews, and often of his grandsons. His word is law. Where several families live together the power is given to a sheikh. Sometimes the office of sheikh passes from father to son, but only when the son's character justifies his authority in the eyes of the clan. Otherwise, the sheikh is elected because of his wisdom, courage, and liberality.
Good Qualities in the Desert.—The desert promotes good qualities as well as bad. The traveler is struck by the proud and manly bearing of the bronzed Bedouins. Although fierce and reckless when pushed by necessity, they are faithful unto death when once they have given their word. Hospitality, too, is a universal trait. As the nomad travels about the desert in search of stray animals or on his way to an oasis to buy dates or sell animals he would often suffer severely or even perish if the occasional people whose tents he passes were not willing to entertain him. Even in the tents of his enemies a man finds food and shelter and can remain safely from the evening of one day till the morning of the second day after. So strong is the sense of hos pitality that an Arab will make a feast for a guest even if he and his family are obliged to go hungry.
The Frozen Deserts of the North.—In cold deserts the nomads depend partly on land animals and partly on those of the sea. Among the Lapps who live in the tundra the reindeer takes the place of the camel. Unlike the Arabs, however, the Lapps are not great raiders. This is partly because famine does not beset them so sorely as it does the Arabs, and partly because they cannot travel so easily.
The Eskimos who depend on sea animals have a harder time than do the reindeer people. In extremely cold countries not only is the vegetation of the sea more abundant than that of the land, but the amount of small floating animal life is more than in any other part of the ocean. Hence along the northern coasts of Asia and America the sea is inhabited by seals and fish which furnish food for polar bears, wolves, foxes, gulls, and other sea birds. All of these animals can be used by man for food. The land furnishes much less food than
the sea, for although musk oxen and caribou are sometimes found, they cannot be depended on. Unfortunately the sea animals cannot be domesticated. The seals, fish, bears, and gulls come and go as they choose and the Eskimos, Aleuts, and other coast nomads who depend on them must follow as best they can.
During the summer the nomads live in tents—crude little shelters made of skins and supported in the center on sticks of precious drift wood or large bones like the ribs of whales. The Eskimos have even less furniture than the Arabs, and their tents are less pretentious. In winter such tents are too cold, for the thermometer remains far below zero for months during the long, depressing Arctic night. At that season little hunting can be done, and so far as possible the Eskimo must live on meat that they have stored during the summer. There fore, having moved to the most southern part of the region which they frequent, they shelter themselves in huts of stone, sod, and skins. Sometimes, however, they are obliged to migrate in search of food even in winter. Then at each camping place they build houses of blocks of snow, with sheets of ice for windows.
The only domestic animal that the Eskimo can keep is the dog, which draws his sledge and helps him in his hunting. The dog can live in the far north because he eats flesh, whereas all other domestic animals except the comparatively useless cat live almost wholly on grass, grain, or other vegetable products. Since most of the animals that are hunted by the Eskimos live in the water, boats are of far more importance than dogs as means of transportation. They are constructed with the greatest skill from sealskin, bones, and driftwood. Few races are more clever than the Eskimo in making the most of scanty resources.
The Eskimos are as notable for their peaceable character as are the Arabs for raids. This does not mean that the Eskimos have higher standards of right and wrong than the Arabs, or that they have greater prosperity. They steal from outsiders whenever they get a chance, and are so poverty stricken most of the time that they would plunder if they could. They refrain from raids simply because raids do not pay. The next encampment may be 100 miles away, for along the whole northern coast of America and part of Asia tne Eskimos number only about 30,000. No one has flocks, herds, or other wealth. The chances are nine out of ten that at times when one community is •suffering from hunger, their neighbors, even though far distant, are also suffering.