CAUTIONS
TO BE USED IN TRAVELLING.
Danger of travelling after Sun-set.--The Emperor holds himself accountable for Thefts committed on Travellers, whilst travelling between the rising and the setting Sun.--Emigration of Arabs.--Patriarchal Style of living among the Arabs; Food, Clothing, domestic Looms, and Manufactures.--Riches of the Arabs calculated by the Number of Camels they possess.--Arabian Women are good Figures, and have personal Beauty; delicate in their Food; poetical Geniuses; Dancing and Amusements; Musical Instruments; their Manners are courteous.
Travellers in West and South Barbary should never be out after sun-set: it is not safe to travel in many parts of the country during the night. The emperor holds himself accountable for thefts committed between the rising and the setting sun; so that, if a traveller be robbed of property, the value should be ascertained, and an application being made to the bashaw of the province where the robbery was committed it will be restored forthwith; but if there be any demur, an application should be made to the Emperor, personally, if possible, but if not, by letter; and the district is immediately ordered to pay double the loss, one half to the person robbed, and the other half to the Imperial treasury. These robberies, however, rarely occur; for the bashaws of the provinces and the alkaids of the douars feel it a duty incumbent on them to protect all travellers and strangers; so that they would, in the event of a robbery being committed, expose themselves to a severe reprimand from the emperor, and an intimation that they were, by suffering such irregularity, incompetent to their situation, and would be liable to a heavy fine, or a discharge from their office, for neglect of vigilance, which, in this country, is considered very reprehensible.
Travelling through the province of Suse, I once witnessed the emigration of an extensive douar of Arabs, amounting to about 200 families. They were just leaving their habitation, where they had been encamped only a few months: it was a fine grazing country; the camels, horses, mules, asses, oxen and cows, were all laden with the tents and baggage of these wanderers. On enquiring the cause of this emigration, I was told that the inhabitants were infested with musquitoes and fleas to such a degree, that they had all unanimously resolved to emigrate to another place, which they had fixed upon, and that they would reach it by night. These wandering Arabs, without any fixed habitation, are of a restless, ungovernable spirit: they never cultivate the earth, as do the Arabs of the plains of Marocco, but live, for the most part, on camels' milk, occasionally killing a camel or a goat for food; grazing their camels in the adjacent country: they live in the true Patriarchal style, and seek the means of supplying all their wants within themselves. To effect this purpose, they barter a few of their camels for wool, and thus supply themselves with that article for clothing, which is made in every (keyma) Arab tent, by the women, at their own respective looms; each female being the manufacturer for her own family. The cloth is wove in pieces of seven cubits long and about two and a half broad, of the natural colour of the wool: these pieces of cloth are afterwards converted into cloaks, mantles, and tunics. Those who choose to indulge in the luxury of dress, by wearing linen, or turbans, send a few goat-skins, collected from the goats that have served them occasionally for food, to Mogodor, or Marocco, or barter them with some Jews for linen or shoes, and thus supply all their wants; so that their resources considerably exceed their wants, for some of them have several thousand camels which cost them nothing. These animals browse on the bushes in the environs of their habitations, and are continually increasing and multiplying. They never kill any animal for food until full grown: this custom, from which the Arab never departs, is manifestly calculated to increase property, which, being invested in camels, is transportable, without trouble or expense, wherever they choose.
The Arabs are gay and cheerful; the brow of care is rarely seen among them. The more children they have, the greater the blessing. They turn their hands in early youth to some useful purpose: so soon as they can walk they attend the camels, or are put to some domestic occupation; thus forming a useful link in the chain of their patriarchal society. The independence of these Arabs is depicted in their physiognomy; they are oppressed by no cankering care, no anxiety, no anticipation of distress. The food and clothing of the Arab is always at hand; fuel is not required in this warm country; and a glass of cool water is all that is desired to allay the thirst. This simple and abstemious mode of living is congenial to the human constitution; accordingly they enjoy uninterrupted health: sickness is so uncommon with them that to be old and to be sick are synonymous terms. They think one cannot happen without the other. Some of the women of these people, whilst young, are extremely delicate, handsome, and have elegant figures. They account it gross to swallow food, that would, they say, fatten them like their Moorish neighbours; they therefore masticate it only. Their physiognomy is very interesting and animated; their features are regular; large black expressive eyes; a ready wit, poetic fancy, expressing themselves in poetic effusions, in which, from constant habit, some of them have become such adepts, that they with facility speak extempore poetry; those who are unable to converse in this manner are less esteemed. Their evening amusements consist in dancing and music, vocal and instrumental. Generally, throughout all the Arab provinces, but particularly in Suse, among the Mograffra Arabs, the Woled Abbusebah, and Woled Deleim, the whole country is in a blaze of light of a summer's evening; music, dancing, and rejoicing, is heard in every direction. Their music consists of a kettle-drum, a flute or reed, similar to what Homer describes as the instrument of the ancient shepherds, a rhabeb or two-stringed fiddle, played with a semicircular bow, a tamboureen, and brass castanets. They play in precise time; and the ladies arrange themselves at the entrance of the sheik's tent. It is pleasant to observe the beauty of their fine-formed feet, uninjured by tight shoes, and free from corns and all excrescences. They dance some dances barefooted, making very short steps, scarcely raising the foot from the ground, in a peculiar manner. They have elegant and circular ankles; and their light motions fascinate the eyes of the spectators and the admiring strangers, who occasionally exclaim, (Allah éhrduh alikume ia Elarb) "the protection of God be upon you, O Arabs!" (makine fal Elarb,) "there are none comparable to the Arabs!" They have a very elegant shawl-dance: in the management of the shawl they display singular grace, and practise elegant figures, sometimes concealing their faces, sometimes showing their brilliant eyes through an opening in the shawl. The manners of these ladies is courteous, but chaste; perfectly modest, but without reserve; and the other sex pay them courteous attention.