The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1905-08-12
THE INTERnOUNTAIN COLORADO CATHOLIC AUGUST IT,

iabane quite ready to be swallowed as
MS soup. Then the Sheikh took up the
camel legs, cut them in pieces, and
gave every one his share. With teeth
ana myers the meat was torn into
scraps, and, favored with labane,
| which was the chief dish. The Arabs
being abstemious, the meal was over
III ten minutes. and a second batch of
guests replaced the first. The SER
wants, children, and curious bystand-
| ers were the last to be served and
! they soon finished the remains of the
| banquet leaving only few bones to
De thrown to the dogs. Then every
| one washed his hands. mouth and
| beard, and the meal was ended. This
particular, wedding banquet was still
further increased by a fine and very
unusual dessert of cucumbers and half
ripe aprlcots sent as a present in two
baskets from Accoura. Coffee was
served round. as usual, in one cup, re-
flled for each guest. Smoking was
next the order of the day. or rather
morning, and the children and young
men danced round the bonfires The
women, of course, Toasted apart, and
occasionally singing could be heard
from their tent, as a Bedouin girl with
a me voice chanted verses in praise of
the beauty and virtues of the bride
which the men tried to drown by hur-
rains and songs
Inc Arab encampments, true nomad
villages, are increasing in the Libanus,
with their camels and asses to carry
tents, utensils, etc. Each tent has a
mat that serves as a carpet and bed;
sometimes there is a loom to weave
coarse materials, or sleeves of horse
mar There is a cooking pot, leather
pag for drawing water from we'll or
river some wooden basins a hand
mill a grtddle for roasting barley or
baking bread and a tambourine con-
slstlng of skin tightly drawn over a
baked earthen framework. All this
can in an hour be picked up in the
tent sheeting or skins, and hoisted on
camels or asses for speedy departure
Nothing can exceed the ignorance of
these Bedouins. The sight of the sea
or OF towns amazes them beyond
measure. They despise folks who pre-
Ter TO live in houses, comparing them
TO birds in 4 cage When they are
feproached, IN turn, for their love of
thleV1ng and pilfering, they will an
sWer that they are better than the
BIRDS and ants, who also live on the
produce of the earth, and cannot be
prevented by either angels or men,
me government harnesses them, be
cause, owing to their wandering exist
ence, they cannot be taxed, and can
be subjected to no law being able in
night to vanish silently into some
inaccessible mountain gorge, by paths
known only to themselves. Their
filthy habits render the Bedoufns very
dlsagreeable neighbors, and the chill
dren are dreadful to behold. 1t would
be necessary to live among them, and
as they do, to be able to instruct and
civilize them; but it is by no means
an easy thing. as hardly do you begin
to know them than they disappear as
If by magf No negro tribe in the
interior of frica could be more
grossly ignorant, and their love of
wandering would soon hinder any at
tempt to tame them
However, says Father Angel, some
day, perhaps flying mission may be
found to follow these nomad Bedouin
tribes, to civilize them by degrees. and
teach them the sublime truths of the
Catholic religion.