The privations and hardships of life in the deserts and steppes discourage obesity. The Koko-Nor Mongols of the high Tibetan plateau are of slight build, never fat.[1138] The Bedouin's physical ideal of a man is spare, sinewy, energetic and vigorous, "lean-sided and thin," as the Arab poet expresses it.[1139] The nomadic tribesmen throughout the Sahara, whether of Hamitic, Semitic or Negro race, show this type, and retain it even after several generations of settlement in the river valleys of the Sudan. The Bushmen, who inhabit the Kalahari Desert, have thin wiry forms and are capable of great exertion and privations.[1140]
Checks to population.
Though the conquering propensities of nomadic tribes make large families desirable, in order to increase the military strength of the horde, and though shepherd folk acquiring new and rich pastures develop patriarchal families, as did the Jews after the conquest of Canaan, nevertheless the limited water and food supply of desert and grassland, as well as the relatively low-grade economy of pastoral life, impose an iron-bound restriction upon population, so that as a matter of fact patriarchal families are rare. When natural increase finds no vent in emigration and dispersal, marriage among nomads becomes less fruitful.[1141] Artificial limitation of population occurs frequently among desert-dwellers. In the Libyan oasis of Farafeah, the inhabitants never exceed eighty males, a limit fixed by a certain Sheik Murzuk.[1142] Poverty of food supply explains the small number of children in the typical Turkoman family. Among the Koko-Nor Tibetans, monogamy is the rule, polygamy the exception and confined to the few rich, while families never include more than two or three children.[1143] According to Burckhardt, three children constitute a large family among the Bedouins, much to the regret of the Bedouins themselves. Mohammedans though they are, few practice polygamy, while polyandry and female infanticide existed in heathen times.[1144] Desert peoples seem to be naturally monogamous.[1145]
Trade of nomads.
The prevailing poverty, monotony and unreliability of subsistence in desert and steppe, as well as the low industrial status, necessitate trade with bordering agricultural lands. The Bedouins of Arabia buy flour, barley for horse feed, coffee and clothing, paying for them largely with butter and male colts. The northern tribes resort every year to the confines of Syria, when they are visited by pedlers from Damascus and Aleppo.[1146] The tribes from Hasa and the Nejd pasture land bring horses, cattle and sheep to the city of Koweit at the head of the Persian Gulf to barter for dates, clothing and firearms; and large encampments of them are always to be seen near this town.[1147] Arabia and the Desert of Kedar sold lambs, rams and goats to the markets of ancient Tyre.[1148] The pastoral tribes of ancient Judea in times of scarcity went to Egypt for grain, which they purchased either with money or cattle. The picture of Jacob's sons returning from Egypt to Canaan with their long lines of asses laden with sacks of corn is typical for pastoral nomads; so is their ultimate settlement, owing to protracted famine, in the delta land of Goshen. The Kirghis of the Russian and Asiatic steppes barter horses and sheep for cereals, fine articles of clothing, and coarse wooden utensils in the cities of Bukhara and the border districts of Russia. Occasionally the land of the nomad yields other products than those of the flocks and herds, which enter therefore into their trade. Such is the salt of the Sahara, secured at Taudeni and Bilma, the gums of the Indus desert, and balm of Gilead from the dry plateau east of Jordan.
Pastoral nomads as middlemen.
The systematic migrations of nomads, their numerous beasts of burden, and the paucity of desert and steppe products determine pastoral tribes for the office of middlemen;[1149] and as such they appear in all parts of the world. The contrast of products in arid regions and in the bordering agricultural land, as also in the districts on opposite sides of these vast barriers, stimulates exchanges. This contrast may rest on a difference of geographic conditions, or of economic development, or both. The reindeer Chukches of Arctic Siberia take Russian manufactured wares from the fur stations on the Lena River to trade at the coast markets on Bering Sea for Alaskan pelts. The sons of Jacob, pasturing their flocks on the Judean plateau, saw "a company of Ishmaelites come from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt."[1150] This caravan of Arabian merchants purchased Joseph as a slave, a characteristic commodity in desert commerce from ancient times to the present. The predatory expeditions of nomads provide them with abundant captives, only few of which can be utilized as slaves in their pastoral economy. In the same way the Kirghis manage the caravan trade between Russia and Bukhara, sometimes adding captured travelers to their other wares. In ancient times Nubian shepherd folk acted as migrant middlemen between Egypt and Meroe near the junction of the Atbara River and the Nile, as did also the desert tribe of the Nasamones between Carthage and interior Africa.[1151] From remote ages an active caravan trade was carried on between the productive districts of Arabia Felix and the cities of Mesopotamia, Syria and Egypt. Mohammed himself was a caravan leader; in the faith which he established religious pilgrimages and commercial ventures were inextricably united, while to the mercantile spirit it gave a fresh and vigorous impetus.[1152] The caravan trade of the Sahara was first organized by Moorish and Arab tribes who dwelt on the northern margin of the desert, rearing herds of camels. These they hired to merchants for the journey between Morocco and Timbuctoo, in return for cereals and clothing. Hence Morocco has been the chief customer of the great desert town near the Niger, and sends thither numerous caravans from Tendouf (Taredant) Morocco, Fez and Tafilet. Algiers dominates the less important route via the oasis of Twat, and Tripolis that through Ghadames to the busy towns in the Lake Chad basin.[1153]