Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-11-20
THE eEpou,Ns.
The Manner and Customs of a Romantic
Eastern Race.

IHe BEOOUiNS.
The Manners and Customs of a Romantic
Eastern Race.
In conversation with a party of Syri-
ans, n OF them gave to a reporter an
account OF the Bedouins, that mysteri-
Gus people who have inhabited the
desert of the Orient and lived in a
nomadic state for centuries. Their
origin is vailed in ~obscurity, and is
older than any civilization. They are
as much a distinct and peculiar race as
the Jews, and have manners and GUS
toms, governmental and domestic,
that characterized them before the
time of Genghis Khan or Tamerlane,
The Syrian who spoke of them, said:
"They number about half a million
of different tribes. They never dwell
under a stationary roof, but live in
movable tents. the fabric of camel hair
or goat hair, as the tribe is opulent or
INDECENT. They roam the desert, re-
naming in a place only as long as the
pasturage continues sufficient for their
locks and herds. Each tribe is gov
erned by a Sheikh, who has %autocratic
power over life, liberty and property.
Some OF the tribes are powerful, and
number as many as fifteen thousand
tents. and none less than two hundred
tents. They are governed be no writ
ten law, but are subject alone to the
will and conscience of the Sheikhs,
who pay but slight regard to El-Koran.
Their wealth is estimated according to
the number of their cattle, and their
power according to the number of
their horses. Theirs are the finest
horses on the globe and they the best
riders. Their care and attention for
their horses equal the affection of a
tender Christian father for his off.
spring.
"The children of the desert are re-
markedly quick and intelligent. Their
sense of sight is wonderfully acute.
and equal to a field glass of consider
able power. They excel the American
Indian in the pursuit of stolen or
strayed cattle, horses or camels, and
trace them for hundreds of miles
across the desert, even though inn
mense caravans have travelled the same
paths.
"They are proverbial for their hos
pitality. l lived with them for four
years, and they were very necessary to
me in protecting my silk farms. some
hundreds of miles in the interior from
Damascus. They would protect and
guard q guest from harm at the ex-
pense of their lives and fortunes. Their
tents are a sanctuary for any man, no
matter what his crime, who invokes
their protection. If the host be Sheikh
OF shepherd, it is all the same, the
whole tribe would spill the last drop
OF blood in defense Of the guest, though
he We're the lowest outcast and most
miserable beggar that claimed asylum.
Breach Of hospitality is the greatest of
crimes, and they look upon it with
emotions Of horror. Whoever eats of
their salt or their bread, or drinks of
their packeto, or ties a handkerchief to
the cord of their tent, is their brother
forever. II ones enemy recaptures
him after being their guest they will
tight for him to the death, or pay their
last maravedi for a ransom, though it
beggggar the clan.
they give no quarter, and in battle they
are as savage as they arc brave, and
commit deeds of atrocity in the hour
of victory that makes humanity shud-
der. They celebrate their victory by
feats of Workmanship on the part Of
the males, and dances and songs by the
females, concluding with a sword
dance, in which both sexes participate
and in which all are exceedingly ex-
pert.
"Near their encampment they keep
fires burning upon elevations. and
place beside it food and drink to &C.
commodate the hungry and the weary
who may be exhausted in j%ourneyine
across the desert. Although few Of
them can read and write, they speak
the Arabic language with its purest &c
cent, and are poets by nature. Each
tribe has it's FL Shaar, or poet, who
sings the glory of war and the virtues
of hospitality after the of the
Scotch H%ighlanders and Welchmen o.
three or four centuries ago. He arouses
his tribe to the greatest enthusiasm
and stimulates them to heroic feats Of
daring.
"a Bedouin is never separated from
his horse. He claims that his horse j:
part of his life, and the purer strains
have never been sold from the tribes
All the gold of Ophir, all the jewels o
Golconda, could not purchase n o
the fine strains of horses which they
possess, and whose purity has been I'm
, detiled for centuries. Their horses az,
not large, but exquisitely proportionet
for speed and endurance. "--LouisuiM
:, COurier-Jou7ndL.
Fraudulent Mendicants.