Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/402

346 they must treat the Bedooeen, they would never have to complain of their inattention or want of hospitality.

Another bad feature in the Arab character is covetousness: they are seldom satisfied with the remuneration offered for their services, and will beg the traveller's boots, handkerchief, gun, or any thing else, with the greatest importunity and barefacedness. They are dirty to a proverb, both in their food and clothing, and are frequently known to put on a shirt which is never changed or washed until it is worn out and replaced by a new one. They know nothing of letters, and are consequently very ignorant: each tribe has a Moollah or two, whose chief business is to write for the Sheikh, and to recite passages of the Korân, but their office is not held in high repute, for the Arabs are an irreligious people, though in many respects bigoted in their attachment to Mohammed. They seldom observe the set times of prayer, and there are generally a few in each encampment who pray for the remainder in rotation, which they deem equivalent to their performance of the duty individually. I have occasionally spoken with the Bedooeen respecting the state after death, and was not a little surprised to find that their idea of future happiness was not unlike that of the American Indians. The desert Arab appears to believe that his favourite mare will be his companion hereafter, and that in the revelry of sensual delights he shall enjoy beyond the grave the paradise of the False Prophet.

It is deeply to be regretted, that instead of seeking to improve the moral and social condition of this people, the Turks have done all in their power to render every thing like subjection to authority obnoxious to them, insomuch that the very name of Osmanli is execrated by the Bedooeen. For, what is there in the circumstances of the other subjects of the Porte to induce the Arabs to give up their present freedom, and to follow some more settled and useful occupation than that of incessantly roving about from place to place, doing nothing more than tending their flocks and breeding horses, not to speak of their freebooting propensities, from which they doubtless derive no little profit? They would have every thing to lose by the exchange, and nothing to gain, and hence we may conclude that they will remain just what they are until a more equitable