Bedouin

“ The Bedouin, on the contrary, is a Nomad; his horizon is bounded by the desert or the mountain; his property is limited to his weapons, his horse, or his camel; he lives by pillage alone, and his ideas of religion and morality are of the vaguest possible description. A story is told of a Bedouin, convicted of murder and theft, having been asked by a Frenchman—"What would you say to God, if you were summoned to appear before Him?" ”

“ Thus bred entirely in the open air, the only shelter being the tattered sackcloth of the tent, the true Bedouin can endure no other life. He is as miserable within the walls of a town as a wolf in a trap. His eyes, accustomed to range over the vast expanse of desert, are affronted by the walls over which he cannot see. The streets oppress him, and within the atmosphere of a room he can scarcely breathe. Both he and his camel are equally out of their element when among civilized people, and they are ever looking forward to the happy moment when they may again breathe the free air of the desert. ”

“ A true picture of Bedouin society, in the centuries before Mohammed had conquered the Arabian peninsula, is given us in the charming episodes of Antar. We see the encampments of the tribe, the camels yielding milk and flesh for food, the women friends and councillors of their husbands, the boys inured to arms from early days, the careful breeding of horses, the songs of poet and minstrel stirring all hearts, the mail-clad lines of warriors with lance and sword, the supreme power of the King--often dealing out justice with stern, sudden, and inflexible ferocity. ”

“ His independent spirit is admired by those who could not exist without the comforts and conveniences of life, which he disdains. It is no uncommon sight, either at Cairo or Alexandria, to see a handsome young Bedouin, splendidly attired, lodging in the open street by the side of his camel, for nothing will persuade him to sleep in a house; he carries the habits of the desert into the city, and in the midst of congregated thousands, dwells apart. ”

“ When, however, after many a day of toil the distant minarets at length appear, the poor Bedouin relaxes the vigour of his pace, his steps become faltering and undecided, every moment his uneasiness increases, and at length he fairly sobs aloud, and embracing your knees, implores with the most piteous cries and gestures that you will dispense with him and his camels, and find some other means of entering the city. ”

“ Now a certain Bedouin heard one man say to another, ‘Praised be God for thy safe return! Where hast thou been?’ ‘In Baghdad,’ answered the other, ‘where I breakfasted on honey-fritters.’ Quoth the Bedouin to himself, ‘Needs must I go to Baghdad and eat honey-fritters;’ for in all his life he had never entered Baghdad nor seen fritters of the sort. So he mounted his horse and rode on towards Baghdad, saying in himself, ‘It is a fine thing to eat honey-fritters! ”

“ The Bedouin answered: "O my lord, king of the world, what is your
Majesty's will?"
The King of Yemen replied: "There is a man named Hatim-Thai, of the tribe of Thai, on the confines of Syria. Go to this country, and employ all the tricks you can to kill him. When you have killed him bring me his head. If you succeed in doing as I wish, whatever you ask, it shall be given you."
These words of the King filled with joy the Bedouin's heart. He said to himself: "Here is a good piece of work. For an old tattered cloak I will kill a man. ”

“ I use the word “dromedary” for a swift riding camel, the Deloul of the Arabs, and Hejin of the Turks: it is so applied generally, although incorrectly, by Europeans in the East.
[106] Burckhardt, the English traveller best acquainted with the Bedouin character, and admirably correct in describing it, makes the following remarks: “With all their faults, the Bedouins are one of the noblest nations with which I ever had an opportunity of becoming acquainted.... The sociable character of a Bedouin, when there is no question of profit or interest, may be described as truly amiable. ”

“ No nation equals the Bedouins in numerical exaggeration. Ask a Bedouin who belongs to a tribe of three hundred tents, of the numbers of his brethren, and he will take a handful of sand, and cast it up in the air, or point to the stars, and tell you that they are as numberless. ”

“ But Helouan soon comes down to see. Few of them tarry here; they go straight through; the Bedouin do not like the people, houses, tourists. They resent the cameras, flourish their whips of buffalo-hide and trot past almost fiercely. ”

“ Another has various ornaments of sandal wood, delicately wrought fans, and other trifles. His next-door neighbor, whose quarters are only a degree more dingy, offers pipes, curiously made, with carved amber mouthpieces, and others with long, flexible, silken tubes. Turbaned crowds stroll leisurely about. Now a strong and wiry Bedouin passes, leading his horse and taking count of everything with his sharp, black eyes, and now a Nile boatman. Yonder is an Abyssinian slave, and beyond is an Egyptian trader, with here and there a Greek or a Maltese. ”

“ CHAPTER XXV. A solitary Bedouin joined the expedition which set out in search of the Europeans. This was Abou-Zamil, the man whose horse M. de Morin had so unceremoniously appropriated. Anxious to regain his steed; attracted, on the one hand, by the arguments and brilliant inducements held out by the interpreter, Ali; dismayed, on the other, by the threats of the Consul, who seemed disposed to hold him responsible for the abduction of Joseph, the Bedouin, after a period of hesitation, ended by offering his services to the expedition. ”

“ The Arab above loudly remonstrated; but Robin could not understand him, and did not choose to listen.
The Bedouin dare not lose sight of his comrades in front; he must press on or their track might be lost. Yet pity for the brave boy who was willing to share the fate of his mother (such the Bedouin supposed the lady to be) , touched the heart of the wild son of the desert. The Arab stopped his camel for a brief minute, and, unfastening the limp, almost empty mashale which hung at its side, threw it down, and then rode away. ”

“ The sheepskin water-vessels dangle limply on either side of the camels.
We do not talk very much in the desert. The desert breeds silence. And when we are in trouble we avoid one another’s eyes. There is no need for speech. Everybody knows what is happening, and everybody bears it with fortitude and dignity, for to grumble is to throw blame on the Almighty, a thing that no Bedouin will do. To the Bedouin, this is the life that was intended for him; it is the route that God decreed him to take ”

“ A great deal of nonsense has been written about the noble character of the Bedouin Arabs, their bravery, scrupulous honor, and other commendable qualities. Of course there are exceptions, and it would be strange indeed if a people numbering many thousands should all be rascals. But, taken as a whole, the Bedouins are a race of thieves, and their few redeeming traits are not sufficient to offset their bad qualities. ”

“ The South was jealous of the North; the Bedouins of the desert scorned the population settled in towns and villages; every tribe had some cause of rivalry with its neighbour; new feuds were ever arising out of the law of blood. Even in Medîna, the cradle of the faith, the Beni Aus were impatient of the Beni Khazraj, and both were jealous of the Refugees from Mecca. The only authority recognised by a Bedouin is the authority of his tribal chief, and even that sits lightly. To him freedom is life; and dependence on a central power most hateful. ”

“ Shortly there was a bustle and stir therein, and many small energetic men of the Bedouin tribe came running toward the central tent, into which El Sareuk had vanished. The Bedouins were a cheerful and healthy lot, inured to hardship, habituated to a rough nomadic life. ”

“ The young man observing the state of the Bedouin said to him: "O servant of God, your embarrassment is evident; you fear to open your heart to me. God alone, in truth, knows the secrets of his servants. ”

“ In their forays the Bedouins never kill an unresisting foe unless tempted by blood-revenge.”
The real Bedouin is not a large personage. He is rarely taller than five feet and seven or eight inches, and is not inclined to corpulence. ”

“ The reader will remember that the Bedouin takes the man to his tent after he has robbed him. Had he begun operations by allowing the traveller to enter his tent, and partake of his food, he could not have robbed his guest afterward. There is a chivalrous sort of feeling in the Arab mind that the person of a guest is sacred; and if the fiercest Bedouin had received a man under the shadow of his tent, he would be bound to protect that man as if he were his own son. ”

“ The Bedouin are still masters of the desert road, and established order is helpless before the lawless independence of the tribes. The truth is that nomad life and civilization are incompatible terms: the peaceful cultivator and the merchant cannot exist side by side with the sheikh, and either the settled population must drive the Bedouin from out their borders, or the Bedouin will put progress and the accumulation of wealth beyond the power of the most industrious. ”

“ Acting as scout for Arabi, it was easy for his men to pass from camp to camp, and so convey intelligence. There was nothing specially to be ashamed of in this treachery, according to Bedouin morals, for to the Arab tribes Egyptians and Turks and Franks are equally outside the sphere of their allegiance, and in serving them it is merely a question of what suits their interest best. On the east of the Nile the Bedouins have exceedingly little religious feeling to prevent their siding with the infidel, if their advantage lies that way, and no love was ever yet lost between Bedouin and Fellah. ”

“ Shift the scene from Scotland to Arabia, and no more appropriate words could have been put into the mouth of a dying Bedouin chief.
With characters so impatient of control, it is evident that there can be no government worthy of the name. Like the Son of the Mist, they acknowledge no lord, and there is no one who bears even by courtesy the title of King of the Bedouins. Each clan is governed by its own sheikh, and occasionally a few clans unite for some raid under the presidency of the eldest or most important sheikh, and remain united for some time. ”

“ The real, untamed Bedouin differs from the shabby counterfeit we see around Jerusalem and Beyrout as a five dollar gold piece differs from a bogus cent. The real Bedouin rides a fine horse (which is almost always a mare) , and he gets himself up in a style sufficiently gorgeous to be a partial compensation to the traveller for being robbed by him. He is a dignified, high-toned thief, and transacts business on the square; he is never impolite, even when plundering you, and his hospitality is unbounded.
When you go to a Bedouin encampment you must stop at the first tent ”

“ Their empire, obtained by conquest, was ruled by despotism and preserved by force. The incalculable benefits conferred by their wise and enlightened administration were never appreciated by those who enjoyed them. The savage ferocity of the Bedouin, [Pg 597] transmitted through countless generations, dominated every other impulse. It exercised its baleful influence in the gorgeous palace of the sovereign, in the busy haunts of commerce, in the hut of the stolid and irascible peasant, even in the temple where were publicly inculcated the obligations of forgiveness and peace. ”

“ It is highly entertaining to see the soldiers haggling with the Bedouins for fruit, eggs, &c. The soldier comes with the full intention of overreaching the Bedouin (lui tirer une carotte) , and of robbing him by force or fraud, of a fowl or of some eggs, for in Africa everything is a lawful prize. The Bedouin, on the other hand, who most likely has been cheated two or three times before, stands resolutely on the defensive and never parts with anything until the money is paid into his hand. ”

“ Where our prophet would have been most likely to have erred would have been in under-estimating the recuperative power of the Latin end of Europe and in ignoring the latent forces of the Arabian desert. Arabia would have seemed what it had been for times immemorial, the refuge of small and bickering nomadic tribes. No Semitic people had founded an empire now for more than a thousand years.
Then suddenly the Bedouin flared out for a brief century of splendour. They spread their rule and language from Spain to the boundaries of China. They gave the world a new culture. ”

“ His story, which he was at length induced to tell, was characteristic of Bedouin education. He was of the Boraij tribe, and related to Suttum. His father was too poor to equip him with mare and spear, and he was ashamed to be seen by the Arabs on foot and unarmed. He had now become a man, for he was about fourteen years old, and he resolved to trust to his own skill for his outfit as a warrior. Leaving in his father’s tent all his clothes, except his dirty keffieh and his tattered aba, and, without communicating his plans to his friends, he bent his way to the Euphrates. ”

“ The Hatstand executes a cumbrous caper by way of repartee, and stumbles on.
A Folly (to a highly respectable Bedouin in a burnous and gold spectacles) . Well, all I can say is, you don't seem to me to behave much like an Arab!
The Bedouin (uneasily, as he waltzes with conscientious regularity) . Don't I? How ought I to behave then?
The Folly. I should have thought you'd jump about and howl, the way Bedouins do howl. You know!
The Bed. (dubiously) . Um—well, you see, my dear, I—I don't feel up to that sort of thing—before supper. ”