Page 198 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

X.] TRAVELS IN OMAN. 159

one is invited to begin; then, after “ Bis-
* , millah ” which is echoed by all present, a

dozen hands are thrust at once into the dish.
No beverage is called for during the meal,

and a single draught of water concludes it:
then, " Al hum’d Allah fthe guests rise,
and the remains of the meal are abandoned to

the servants and slaves.
The character of the Bedowin presents

some singular contradictions. With a soul
capable of the greatest exertions, he is natu­

rally indolent. He will remain within his
encampment for weeks, eating, drinking

coffee, and smoking his nargyl, and then
mount his camel, and away off to the Desert,
on a journey of two or three hundred miles:

whatever there may be his fatigues or priva­

tions, not a murmur escapes his lips. In ex­
cuse for their slothful habits at other periods,
it may, however, be observed that the Koran

prohibits all games of chance, and that their
own rude and simple manners completely

relieve them from the artificial pleasures and
cares of more civilized life. In the account
of my stay with the Beni-Abu-’Ali Bedowins,

* “ In the name of God.” t “ Praise be to God.”