In The Absence Of A Fixed
Home, Without A City, Or Even A Village That Is Permanent, There
Can Be No Change Of Custom.
There is no stimulus to competition
in the style of architecture that is to endure only for a few
months; no municipal laws suggest deficiencies that originate
improvements.
The Arab cannot halt in one spot longer than the
pasturage will support his flocks; therefore his necessity is
food for his beasts. The object of his life being fodder, he must
wander in search of the ever-changing supply. His wants must be
few, as the constant changes of encampment necessitate the
transport of all his household goods; thus he reduces to a
minimum the domestic furniture and utensils. No desires for
strange and fresh objects excite his mind to improvement, or
alter his original habits; he must limit his impedimenta, not
increase them. Thus with a few necessary articles he is
contented. Mats for his tent, ropes manufactured with the hair of
his goats and camels, pots for carrying fat; water-jars and
earthenware pots or gourd-shells for containing milk; leather
water-skins for the desert, and sheep-skin bags for his
clothes,--these are the requirements of the Arabs. Their patterns
have never changed, but the water-jar of to-day is of the same
form that was carried to the well by the women of thousands of
years ago. The conversation of the Arabs is in the exact style of
the Old Testament.
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