With Ample
Means Of Observation He Has Not Failed To Remark The Similarity Between
The Lowest Type Of Badawi And The Indigens Of India, As Represented By
The Bhils And Other Jungle Races.
This, from a man of science who is
not writing up to a theory, may be considered strong evidence in favour
of variety in the Arabian family.
The fact has long been suspected, but
few travellers have given their attention to the subject since the
downfall of Sir William Jones’ Indian origin theory. I am convinced that
there is not in Arabia “one Arab face, cast of features and expression,” as
was formerly supposed to be the case, and I venture to recommend the
subject for consideration to future observers.
[FN#4] Of this Mesopotamian race there are now many local varieties.
The subjects of the four Abyssinian and Christian sovereigns who
succeeded Yusuf, the Jewish “Lord of the Pit,” produced, in Al-Yaman, the
modern “Akhdam” or “Serviles.” The “Hujur” of Al-Yaman and Oman are a mixed race
whose origin is still unknown. And to quote no more cases, the “Ebna”
mentioned by the Ibn Ishak were descended from the Persian soldiers of
Anushirwan, who expelled the Abyssinian invader.
[FN#5] That the Copts, or ancient Egyptians, were “Half-caste Arabs,” a
mixed people like the Abyssinians, the Gallas, the Somal, and the
Kafirs, an Arab graft upon an African stock, appears highly probable.
Hence the old Nilotic race has been represented as woolly-headed and of
negro feature. Thus Leo Africanus makes the Africans to be descendants
of the Arabs. Hence the tradition that Egypt was peopled by AEthiopia,
and has been gradually whitened by admixture of Persian and Median,
Greek and Roman blood. Hence, too, the fancied connection of Aethiopia
with Cush, Susiana, Khuzistan or the lands about the Tigris. Thus
learned Virgil, confounding the Western with the Eastern Aethiopians,
alludes to
“Usque coloratos Nilus devexus ad Indos.”
And Strabo maintains the people of Mauritania to be Indians who had
come with Hercules. We cannot but remark in Southern Arabia the
footprints of the Hindu, whose superstitions, like the Phoenix which
flew from India to expire in Egypt, passed over to Arabia with Dwipa
Sukhatra (Socotra) for a resting place on its way to the regions of the
remotest West. As regards the difference between the Japhetic and
Semitic tongues, it may be remarked that though nothing can be more
distinct than Sanscrit and Arabic, yet that Pahlavi and Hebrew (Prof.
Bohlen on Genesis) present some remarkable points of resemblance. I
have attempted in a work on Sind to collect words common to both
families. And further research convinces me that such vocables as the
Arabic Taur [Arabic] the Persian Tora [Persian] and the Latin “Taurus”
denote an ancient rapprochement, whose mysteries still invite the
elucidation of modern science.
[FN#6] The Sharif families affect marrying female slaves, thereby
showing the intense pride which finds no Arab noble enough for them.
Others take to wife Badawi girls: their blood, therefore, is by no
means pure. The worst feature of their system is the forced celibacy of
their daughters; they are never married into any but Sharif families;
consequently they often die in spinsterhood. The effects of this custom
are most pernicious, for though celibacy exists in the East it is by no
means synonymous with chastity. Here it springs from a morbid sense of
honour, and arose, it is popularly said, from an affront taken by a
Sharif against his daughter’s husband. But all Arabs condemn the practice.
[FN#7] I use this word as popular abuse has fixed it. Every Orientalist
knows that Badawin (Bedouin) is the plural form of Badawi, an “ism
al-nisbah,” or adjective derived from Badu, a Desert. “Some words
notoriously corrupt,” says Gibbon, “are fixed, and as it were naturalised,
in the vulgar tongue.” The word “Badawi” is not insulting, like “Turk” applied to
an Osmanli, or “Fellah” to the Egyptian. But you affront the wild man by
mistaking his clan for a lower one. “Ya Hitaymi,” for instance, addressed
to a Harb Badawi, makes him finger his dagger.
[FN#8] This coarseness is not a little increased by a truly Badawi
habit of washing the locks with—[Arabic]. It is not considered wholly
impure, and is also used for the eyes, upon which its ammonia would act
as a rude stimulant. The only cosmetic is clarified butter freely
applied to the body as well as to the hair.
[FN#9] “Kurun” ([Arabic]) properly means “horns.” The Sharifs generally wear
their hair in “Haffah” ([Arabic]), long locks hanging down both sides of
the neck and shaved away about a finger’s breadth round the forehead and
behind the neck.
[FN#10] This traveller describes the modern Mesopotamian and Northern
race, which, as its bushy beard—unusual feature in pure Arab blood—denotes,
is mixed with central Asian. In the North, as might be expected, the
camels are hairy; whereas, in Al-Hijaz and in the low parts of
Al-Yaman, a whole animal does not give a handful fit for weaving. The
Arabs attribute this, as we should, to heat, which causes the longer
hairs to drop off.
[FN#11] “Magnum inter Arabes et Africanos discrimen efficit [Greek].
Arabum parvula membra sicut nobilis aequi. Africanum tamen flaccum,
crassum longumque: ita quiescens, erectum tamen parum distenditur.
Argumentum validissimum est ad indagandam Egyptorum originem: Nilotica
enim gens membrum habet Africanum.”
[FN#12] Whereas the Saxon thumb is thick, flat, and short, extending
scarcely half way to the middle joint of the index.
[FN#13] A similar unwillingness to name the wife may be found in some
parts of southern Europe, where probably jealousy or possibly Asiatic
custom has given rise to it. Among the Maltese it appears in a truly
ridiculous way, e.g., “dice la mia moglie, con rispetto parlando, &c.,”
says the husband, adding to the word spouse a “saving your presence,” as if
he were speaking of something offensive.
[FN#14] Dr. Howe (Report on Idiotcy in Massachusetts, 1848,) asserts
that “the law against the marriage of relations is made out as clearly as
though it were written on tables of stone.” He proceeds to show that in
seventeen households where the parents were connected by blood, of
ninety-five children one was a dwarf, one deaf, twelve scrofulous, and
forty-four idiots—total fifty-eight diseased!
[FN#15] Yet the celebrated “Flying Childers” and all his race were
remarkably bred in.
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