CHAPTER VIII.—The Bedaween and Fellaheen.
The Bedaween are rough but picturesque looking fellows, armed often with very long lances, spear at one end, spike to stick in the ground at the other, some such kind of weapon as that with which Abner killed Asahel, whom he smote with the hinder-part of the spear while being pursued; long guns with a short range, antique pistols and knives stuck into the girdle, making up a formidable looking martial equipment. Their horses are small, but swift and hardy. They live in tents still as in days of yore, as black as those of Kedar; are robbers by trade, but not naturally cruel, and they do not care to kill unless resistance is made. They rarely attack unless pretty sure of being able to overpower, and when on mere robbery bent, generally go about in small bands of three and four, keeping close together. If the travellers keep also close together they will probably get the worst of it, as the Bedaween are quick in attack, and seizing the reins, unhorse the rider in an instant. They seldom leave the traveller with more than one garment, and of course take the horses too. They do not attack large parties like Cook’s caravans. As we have only one guide with us, we have to keep a very sharp look-out in dangerous districts, travelling with about the distance of a pistol shot between us, so that if one is attacked, the other may have time to draw a revolver, which Bedaween will seldom face, as their game is to rob defenceless travellers, and not to risk their own lives. Three of them, mounted, dodged myself and dragoman for some time on the open plains of Esdraelon, and doubled upon us, but seeing that we were on the alert and not to be surprised, at last to our great relief left us. It is only the small bands that need be feared. A tribe on the march or in camp in Syria would never touch a traveller, as it would soon be known what tribe was near at the time, and vengeance would follow, as they cannot move en masse quickly, and for this reason (even in unsafe districts) it is safer in the neighbourhood of their camps than far from them. If two Bedaween of different tribes are coming in opposite directions in a lonely district, they will not meet face to face, but one goes to the right and the other in the contrary direction, in order that one shall not get behind the other, for if there were a blood feud between the tribes, and either could murder the other without risk, it would surely be done. They are so afraid of being taken unawares, that if two travellers were to meet three Bedaween, and one were to go straight up the road, and the other off the road to one side so as to get in their rear, they would not attack the traveller left alone. We know a case in which a party of three (with only one gun between them) escaped in this manner. They are nominally subject to the Sultan, but his tax gatherer does not trouble them much. They have a nasty knack of reaping what others have sown, swooping down from a distance in the middle of the night and clearing away before morning with half the harvest of a village—not very difficult to do when it is lying in heaps on the threshing floor ready for market.