A Narrative Of Captivity In Abyssinia With Some Account Of The Late Emperor Theodore, His Country And People By Henry Blanc
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We Had Agreed With The Hababs That We Would Exchange Camels At This
Spot, But None Could Be Obtained For Love Or Money.
It was lucky
for us that the Bedouins had by this time found out that all white
men are not Turks, otherwise we should have been cast helpless in
the very centre of Barka.
The Beni Amers could never be induced
even to acknowledge that they had camels, though more than 10,000
were grazing under our very eyes.
The Beni Amers are Arabs, speak the Arab language, and have preserved
up to the present day all the characteristics of their race. A
roving Bedouin of the Yemen and a Beni Amer are so much alike that
it seems hardly credible that the Beni Amers possess no record of
their advent on the African coast, or of the causes that induced
them to leave the land of their ancestors. Their long, black, silky
hair has not acquired the woolly texture of that of the sons of
Ham, and the small extremities, the well-knit limbs, the straight
nose and small lips, the dark bronzed complexion, distinguish them
alike from the Shankallas and the Barias, and from the mixed races
of the plateaus. They wear a piece of cloth a few yards in length,
folded round the body, with an elegance peculiar to the savage.
Even with this dirty rag, they must be admired, like the Italian
beggar, not only for their beautiful forms, but also for the look
of impudence and roguery displayed in the bright glare of their
dark eyes.
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