New-York tribune., 1906-07-08

traveller will have difficulty in persuading
Hadari sheikh TO change a paltry Turkish
mejedi.
These settled Arabs have their little mosques
and medresehs or schools, in which squatting
turbanned fitch teaches small boys to recite un-
ending Suras of the Koran. The Hadari are
found in Palestine proper, the Hauran, the
Bekaa and North Syria.
The Bedouins, on the other hand, are found in
numerous shifting tribal camps to the south of
the Dead Sea. The Bedawi refuse to cultivate
the SOIL but the Hadari do practise a weird sort
of agriculture. scratching the stony ground with
a forked branch dragged by grumbling camel,
and sowing seed which is expected to produce
(and commonly does a most generous crop.
But it is in the free nomad Bedouin Arabs
that finds true children of Nature-stalwart,
brave and hOspitabe, without fixed dwellings,
living in patriarchal tribes, ruled by chief
shepherd, or man of age, and of wealth esti-
mated in sheep and oxen, goats and camels
horses, mules. dogs and women.
The chief occupation of the men is fighting
and robbery. They may tan a little necessary
leather with bark of the pomegranate tree. but
beyond such minor industries the women do all
the work. while the men go off fighting or rob-
bling. They spend their lives in the open air.
these children of the desert. Their club" is
quiet, shady corner, where nargilehs may be
smoked and quiet game of "tric-trac' INDUCED
ina kind of chess known to these nOmads from
time immemOrial. They will sit playing thus
the whole day long. uttering sound save an
occasional VA waled,' 30 boy'' (for more cof-
fee) "Ghayyin en- nefesv' Bring another
piper
The women weave the coarse black felt for
the tents out of camel hair. The material is
thick and waterproof, and is stretched on poles
one side being left open to height of five or six
feet. Each tent is divided into two cOmpart-
ments-One for men and the other for women
In the wOmen's half is the fireplace, where all
cooking is done with brushwood and dried camel
litter as fuel Round about the camp roam the
herds of camels and cattle, sheep and goats
dogs, mules, fine horses and the superb white
asses for which the BedOuins of the Syrian
Desert are especially famous common sight
in the desert ways is a big Arab mounted on
tiny donkey which sight irresistibly reminds one
of the unfortunate in the parable of the
Good Samaritan, who was travelling between
Jericho and Jerusalem in just this way, when he
fell among thieves'-as he may do to-day
The hospitality of these nomads is wonderful
They will kill a goat, a sheep. a camel even
for guest whether MOslem or Frank, and a
sit down" banquet without tables or chairs) is
given with unlimited coffee and pious ejacula-
tions of "Bismillahr' AS they eat they hear the
women pounding coffee berries in wooden NOR
tars, or grinding corn between two stones, the
strokes rhythmical and musical accompanied il
may be, by low croOned love song.
Although the women are Moslems they are
never veiled Their menfolk depend on them
for material as we'll moral support in the
tent, the pasture, and in plunder and war. They
can throw spear with any warrior.
The life is one of utter freedom from care
Their dress, for example, is simplicity itself-a
blue cotton robe for the women, a burnOus for
the men, with perhaps sheepskin cloak for ths
cold attitudes of the mountains. The house may
be here to-day and packed a camePs back
tomorrow, to seek pastures new" in the most
literal sense. Furniture is Of the simpIest-a
Iew earthenware pots and pans some stones for
grinding corn, a few knives and sleeping quilts