When A Man Prepares Coffee, He
Drinks The First Cup:
The Sharbat Kajari of the Persians, and the
Sulaymani of Egypt,[FN#17] render this precaution necessary.
As a
friend approaches the camp,—it is not done to strangers for fear of
startling them,—those who catch sight of him shout out his name, and
gallop up saluting with lances or firing matchlocks in the air. This is
the well-known La’ab al-Barut, or gunpowder play. Badawin are generally
polite in language, but in anger temper is soon shown, and, although
life be in peril, the foulest epithets—dog, drunkard, liar, and infidel—are
discharged like pistol-shots by both disputants.
The best character of the Badawi is a truly noble compound of
determination, gentleness, and generosity. Usually they are a mixture
of worldly cunning and great simplicity, sensitive to touchiness,
good-tempered souls, solemn and dignified withal, fond of a jest, yet
of a grave turn of mind, easily managed by a laugh and a soft word, and
placable after passion, though madly revengeful after injury. It has
been sarcastically said of the Benu-Harb that there is not a man
“Que s’il ne violoit, voloit, tuoit, bruloit
Ne fut assez bonne personne.”
The reader will inquire, like the critics of a certain modern
humourist, how the fabric of society can be supported by such material.
In the first place, it is a kind of societe leonine, in which the
fiercest, the strongest, and the craftiest obtains complete mastery
over his fellows, and this gives a
[p.87] keystone to the arch. Secondly, there is the terrible
blood-feud, which even the most reckless fear for their posterity. And,
thirdly, though the revealed law of the Koran, being insufficient for
the Desert, is openly disregarded, the immemorial customs of the Kazi
al-Arab (the Judge of the Arabs)[FN#18] form a system stringent in the
extreme.
The valour of the Badawi is fitful and uncertain. Man is by nature an
animal of prey, educated by the complicated relations of society, but
readily relapsing into his old habits. Ravenous and sanguinary
propensities grow apace in the Desert, but for the same reason the
recklessness of civilisation is unknown there. Savages and
semi-barbarians are always cautious, because they have nothing valuable
but their lives and limbs. The civilised man, on the contrary, has a
hundred wants or hopes or aims, without which existence has for him no
charms. Arab ideas of bravery do not prepossess us. Their romances,
full of foolhardy feats and impossible exploits, might charm for a
time, but would not become the standard works of a really fighting
people.[FN#19] Nor would a truly valorous race admire
[p.88] the cautious freebooters who safely fire down upon Caravans from
their eyries. Arab wars, too, are a succession of skirmishes, in which
five hundred men will retreat after losing a dozen of their number. In
this partisan-fighting the first charge secures a victory, and the
vanquished fly till covered by the shades of night. Then come cries and
taunts of women, deep oaths, wild poetry, excitement, and reprisals,
which will probably end in the flight of the former victor. When peace
is to be made, both parties count up their dead, and the usual
blood-money is paid for excess on either side. Generally, however, the
feud endures till, all becoming weary of it, some great man, as the
Sharif of Meccah, is called upon to settle the terms of a treaty, which
is nothing but an armistice. After a few months’ peace, a glance or a
word will draw blood, for these hates are old growths, and new
dissensions easily shoot up from them.
But, contemptible though their battles be, the Badawin are not cowards.
The habit of danger in raids and blood-feuds, the continual uncertainty
of existence, the desert, the chase, the hard life and exposure to the
air, blunting the nervous system; the presence and the practice of
weapons, horsemanship, sharpshooting, and martial exercises, habituate
them to look death in the face like men, and powerful motives will make
them heroes. The English, it is said, fight willingly for liberty, our
neighbours for glory; the Spaniard fights, or rather fought, for
religion and the Pundonor; and the Irishman fights for the fun of
fighting. Gain and revenge draw the Arab’s sword; yet then he uses it
fitfully enough, without the gay gallantry of the
[p.89] French or the persistent stay of the Anglo-Saxon. To become
desperate he must have the all-powerful stimulants of honour and of
fanaticism. Frenzied by the insults of his women, or by the fear of
being branded as a coward, he is capable of any mad deed.[FN#20] And
the obstinacy produced by strong religious impressions gives a
steadfastness to his spirit unknown to mere enthusiasm. The history of
the Badawi tells this plainly. Some unobserving travellers, indeed,
have mistaken his exceeding cautiousness for stark cowardice. The
incongruity is easily read by one who understands the principles of
Badawi warfare; with them, as amongst the Red Indians, one death dims a
victory. And though reckless when their passions are thoroughly
aroused, though heedless of danger when the voice of honour calls them,
the Badawin will not sacrifice themselves for light motives. Besides,
they have, as has been said, another and a potent incentive to
cautiousness. Whenever peace is concluded, they must pay for victory.
There are two things which tend to soften the ferocity of Badawi life.
These are, in the first place, intercourse with citizens, who
frequently visit and entrust their children to the people of the Black
tents ; and, secondly, the social position of the women.
The Rev. Charles Robertson, author of a certain
[p.90] “Lecture on Poetry, addressed to Working Men,” asserts that Passion
became Love under the influence of Christianity, and that the idea of a
Virgin Mother spread over the sex a sanctity unknown to the poetry or
to the philosophy of Greece and Rome.[FN#21] Passing over the
objections of deified Eros and Immortal Psyche, and of the Virgin
Mother—symbol of moral purity—being common to every old and material
faith,[FN#22] I believe that all the noble tribes of savages display
the principle.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 29 of 170
Words from 28759 to 29813
of 175520
