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
205 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
206 converse in this manner are less esteemed. Their evening amusemen