manding of their sheik a writing to shield them from the fascinations of the women of that place; and from the conversation that ensued, I inferred that licentiousness prevails among the Ghawarineh with hardly a check, both among the married and the unmarried. And on inquiring of the sheik the next morning, I had the information confirmed.

The same race of people inhabit the valley of the Jordan, north of the lake of Tiberias. I have formerly found their reed tents scattered along the basin of the Hooleh ; and on this journey, having occasion to visit the northern shore of the lake of Tiberias, where the Jordan enters it, we found there some 150 of their tents of the same material. In an atmosphere raising the mercury in the thermometer to above 90 degrees, with a strong breeze blowing over them from the lake as they lay in their frail, open habitations, upon the very margin of its waters, they seemed to be enjoying the very luxury of indolence. A more fertile and better irrigated plain does not exist in Palestine, than the one we found here. And as I rode over it at sunset, and met large droves of buffaloes and oxen slowly moving towards the tents of their owners, I got some idea of the wealth of its occupants. We had found no tribe of Bedaweens so well off.

I have now gone over the ground which I laid out for myself, at the beginning of this letter. But for the misfortune which deprived me of the manuscript of a former journey, I could add a fifth division of country, the Hauran. But since that accident, I am left with only a bare list of some thirty names of tribes and divisions of tribes, and a few indistinct recollections. The one would not interest you, and to the other I am not willing to trust; and besides, the war that is now raging in that region will probably exterminate many of them. I will therefore bring my letter to a close with a few general remarks. In perusing them, you are requested to bear in mind two considerations ;-one, that they have specially in view the real Bedaweens of the desert, and are not so fully applicable to those who are surrounded by the inhabited parts of Palestine as the spirit and character of the latter, if not their habits, have been more or less modified by intercourse with the resident population;-the other, that I do not profess fully to understand the Bedaween character; such an understanding being only to be obtained by a much longer and more intimate acquaintance than I have yet had opportunity to cultivate. You will receive my impressions for what they are worth, remembering that they are my own, and not borrowed, any more than the information already given, from other travellers.

Prevailing Ignorance among the Bedaweens -State of Mohammedanism.

1. Mohammedanism assumes among the Bedaweens a perceptibly different character from what it has among the citizen Moslems. Two important circumstances help to account for this variety. One is their ignorance; the other their mode of life. It is a fact, which I wish you distinctly to mark, that among all the tribes with which we have had intercourse, or respecting which we have made inquiries, we have not heard of one Bedaween that could read. The only exception to this remark is the sheik and priest of the tribe on the western side of the Dead Sea, which I have already spoken of, as having approached so near to the habits of peasants as hardly to be acknowledged to be Bedaweens by other tribes. On being asked if he can read, the Arab of the desert replies, with a negative motion of the head, "I am a Bedaween;" as if the very name implied an ignorance of letters. One sheik, indeed, acknowledged that he had heard of some tribes far east in Arabia, who knew how to read; but among all the tribes with whom he was acquainted in these parts, he had never heard of an individual who had this knowledge. When the sheik of all the Tawarah receives a letter, or an order from government, he sends to the convent or to Toor, to have it read. The Amrans resort in like manner to the castle of Akabah; and the Haweitat of the south to Meeweihih, a similar castle on the road to Mecca.

A very great ignorance of the theoretical doctrines of their religion, and especially of those nice and multifarious distinctions which have been introduced by the Ulema, could not but result from such a universal ignorance of the art of reading. Among the ignorant peasantry some doctrinal know. ledge is kept up by frequent intercourse with the cities, and by the sermons of preachers, who go abroad among them during the sacred month of Ramadan. But who will go to preach to the Bedaweens? They are as much despised by the citizen Arabs, as the latter are by them; and such a missionary work as that of preaching to them, is not, in any case that I know of, attempted. But their ignorance is not limited to theoretical doctrines; it shows itself in their neglect of ceremonial and positive injunctions. Among the external rites of the Mohammedan religion, which actually assume the greatest prominence, are the five prayers, the fast of Ramadan, circumcision, and the pilgrimage to Mecca. The Mohammedan religion enjoins upon each of its professors, certain forms of wor ship five times a day, upon penalty of long and excruciating torments in hell for each

omission. These prayers are commonly attended to with great strictness. But among all the Bedaweens with whom we have had to do, we never saw one at prayer; the single sheik already mentioned, always excepted. They confessedly do not know how to pray. After many inquiries, I am satisfied that not more than six or eight per cent. of the men even know the forms and the words of prayer.

The rest, when in the company of these, occasionally join with them in their devotions; at other times they never pray. Of the pilgrimage they are still more neglectful, and a much smaller proportion of them have ever been to Mecca. Circumcision and the fast they observe; but of the latter it is said the women are very neglectful.

Their nomadic mode of life has produced other modifications, especially in their domestic and legal institutions, which, as the Koran meddles so much even in these matters, may be considered, to a certain extent, as modifications of Mohammedanism. While the Ulema, by their traditions and commentaries, have been adding to and twisting the precepts of Mohammed, to fit them to the wants of a civilized resident life, the nomadic customs of the desert, readily gaining the ascendency where the Koran is not read, have, it is believed, to a considerabie extent, been producing a counter modification

among the Bedaween tribes. But to follow out this inquiry, would lead me aside from my present object, and in fact carry me farther than my own investigations have hitherto extended. While under this head, 1 may be allowed to remark that the Bedaweens, separated as they are by distance and mode of life from all resident citizens and peasants, have a less distinctive prejudice against Christians and Christianity, than other Moslems. They are more apt to associate them, both Christians and Mohammedans, all together, as one body of resident people, or as they call them, hudher: and as such, they have little fellow feeling with them. For the Bedaween despises the hudhery. He considers himself of a noble race, of the purity of which he is as choice as are the kings of Europe of theirs. To intermarry with the hudher, would be to taint this ingenuous blood, and is never dreamed of. Their common intercourse with each other is in keeping with this sense of personal dignity; and were you merely to overhear the conversation of two of them accidentally met, you might, from the high titles and compliments used, imagine yourself listening to the formal intercourse of two nobles of royal blood, and be sadly disappointed on turning round, to find yourself in the presence of two half-starved barbarians, clothed in rags. But when they ap

proach the dwellings of the hudher, all this self-esteem goes for nothing, and they are treated according to their mean appearance, without compliments, and without respect. Hence a strong dislike and feeling of repulsion is generated in their minds towards all the hudher; but so far as I have observed, Moslems share about as largely in it as Christians, and feelings of religious bigotry towards the latter have very little to do with it. This is particularly true of the Tawarah. We had an illustration of this in our intercourse with them, which, though a little circumstance, is worth mentioning. The Bedaweens have the custom of offering sacrifices, which they call feda, i. e. redemption. Our Tawarah guides, as we were encamped one Sabbath in the desert, purchased a kid, and sacrificed him as a feda, they said, for the benefit of themselves, their camels, and us. With the blood they marked all their camels; and though Moslems generally avoid, with the greatest care, making in any way what shall look like a cross, this blood was in every instance put on in the shape of a cross.

Of the moral character of the Bedaweens I need say little more than that it does not, so far as I know, differ materially from that of the labouring Moslem peasantry of Palestine. In general it is believed to be less demoralized. But in one respect the Bedaween habits are shocking. I have never met with so profane a people. Almost every sentence contains an oath. They can hardly answer a question without one. The Arabic language contains four affirmative particles corresponding to our yes. One of these is intended to be always accompanied with an oath. This, with its oath, is the one they use.

Remarks relative to the Establishment of Christian Missions amony the Bedaweens.

2. In reference to missionary labours among the Bedaweens, the following thoughts have occurred to me :

It should be adopted as one of the objects of these labours, to change their nomadic mode of life. That must be tolerated, for the simple reason, that, in the desert, no other is applicable. The desert must be inhabited by nomads, or so much of the earth's surface be left uninhabited. Moreover, so strong is the attachment of the Bedaween to his mode of life, that to interfere with it is attempting almost a useless task. I believe he will give up his religion sooner. It is associated in his mind with his most cherished ideas of nobility and freedom, and to become a cultivator of the soil, and an inhabitant of a house, he regards a degradation. Fragments of differ. ent tribes of the desert, have been residing

for years along the eastern branch of the Nile, where Jacob and his descendants doubtless settled: but with all the temptations before them to change, they still tenaciously adhere to their former habits, and remain Bedaweens, which was probably the case, in part, with the Israelites, and enabled them so readily to return to the nomadic state. It is said that such a life is unfavourable to religion. I refer to the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whose wandering life, a happy emblem of their spiritual pilgrimage, helped them to cultivate the feeling that they were strangers on earth.

Should a Missionary go among them, he must live like them, dwelling in tents, and moving about as they do. This, in the first place, would be the only way in which he could actually live among them; and in the second place, it would be the most effectual method by which he could overcome their prejudices against him as a hudhery, and produce in them a fellow feeling in his favour. Probably such a step would be effectual to produce this result; and they might, in favourable circumstances, be even gratified to welcome him as a member of their encampment. In one case such a course has been adopted by a French gentleman among the Tawarah, for a year or two; and he lived among them on terms of the most unreserved friendship, gaining their esteem and confidence. But the missionary's Bedaween life must be a real onc, and not consist in name only, while he surrounds himself with comforts. He must be ready to suffer hunger and privation with his neighbours. If he make a show of wealth, and it takes but little to constitute wealth in the estimation of a Bedaween, he will never be at ease. Generosity is the crowning virtue of an Arab. He will divide his last morsel with his friend. This would be expected of the missionary, and such insatiable beggars are they, that they would not be long without an opportunity of doing it. He would only be at ease when he was as poor as they.

The Missionary would have some strong suspicions to overcome at first. The Bedaweens have a prejudice against their country's being visited, and especially described in writing. The prejudice is universal, and it is strong. Their first thought on seeing a Frank, is that he has come to write down their country. We encountered this feeling continually, and the objection uniformly made was, that by our writing, we would deprive them of rain, and condemn their country to drought. Yet this feeling is not invincible. Among the Tawarah who are

accustomed to conduct travellers, it has nearly disappeared. And with our other guides, I generally succeeded in very much allaying it after a day or two, so that we uniformly noted down our information as we obtained it, while on our camel's backs, and yet got generally answers to all our questions. I am persuaded that a missionary, already acquainted with their language, might, by a judicious deportment, in a short time fully acquire their confidence. From religious prejudice, I am confident he would have a lighter impediment to encounter than among any other class of Moslems. This is the interesting point from which to look at the Bedaween character. I believe I am not mistaken in it. And notwithstanding all the other obstacles, I am not sure but it will be found, that the Bedaweens are the most accessible part of the Mohammedan sect. Such a field presents hardships almost too severe for an American missionary to endure. But it is an interesting one for native labour. Had we native helpers, properly qualified by Divine grace, and by education, for such a work, I should love to send them forth among these Arab tribes. They could endure the chimate and the privations better than we. The native brother who accompanied Dr. Dodge and myself in the Hauran, had a strong desire which he often expressed, to engage in such a work; and had the direc tion been given, he would readily have left his home, and penetrated among these wild people. I sympathise with him in this interest in the Bedaween. No class of people in this journey have interested me so much. We have been served so well by none, and have found none so easily managed. The simplicity of their minds gives one, who touches the right string, ready control over them. Their confidence is easily won. And when once friends, there is nothing they will not do for you. And with all their proverbial revengefulness, when once the occasion is given which their law recognizes; they are long suffering and patient, far beyond any thing to which we are accustomed.