supporting the roof, and by a pile of household goods, such as they
are. Sometimes a rude loom is fastened to the poles, and at it a woman
sits working on the floor. The framework--made of canes--is kept in
place by rigging to pegs in the ground. The woman's hand is her only
shuttle, and she threads the wool through with her fingers, a span at
a time, afterwards knocking it down tightly into place with a heavy
wrought-iron comb about two inches wide, with a dozen prongs. She
seems but half-dressed, and makes no effort to conceal either face or
breast, as a filthy child lies feeding in her lap. Her seat is a piece
of matting, but the principal covering for the floor of trodden mud is
a layer of palmetto leaves. Round the "walls" are several hens with
chicks nestling under their wings, and on one side a donkey is
tethered, while a calf sports at large.

The furniture of this humble dwelling consists of two or three large,
upright, mud-plastered, split-cane baskets, containing corn, partially
sunk in the ground, and a few dirty bags. On one side is the mill, a
couple of stones about eighteen inches across, the upper one convex,
with a handle at one side. Three stones above a small hole in the
ground serve as a cooking-range, while the fuel is abundant in the
form of sun-dried thistles and other weeds, or palmetto leaves and
sticks. Fire is obtained by borrowing from one another, but should it
happen that no one in the encampment had any, the laborious operation
of lighting dry straw from the flash in the pan of a flint-lock would
have to be performed. To light the rude lamp--merely a bit of cotton
protruding from anything with olive-oil in it--it is necessary to blow
some smoking straw or weed till it bursts into a flame.

Little else except the omnipresent dirt is to be found in the average
Arab tent. A tin or two for cooking operations, a large earthen
water-jar, and a pan or two to match, in which the butter-milk is
kept, a sieve for the flour, and a few rough baskets, usually complete
the list, and all are remarkable only for the prevailing grime. Making
a virtue of necessity, the Arab prefers sour milk to fresh, for with
this almost total lack of cleanliness, no milk would long keep sweet.
Their food is of the simplest, chiefly the flour of wheat, barley, or
Indian millet prepared in various ways, for the most part made up into
flat, heavy cakes of bread, or as kesk'soo. Milk, from which butter is
made direct by to