Page 23 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

G t6r TO SUEZ. [CH.

lire neither better nor worse than they were
when they purchased Joseph of his brethren
on their way to Egypt; the Sheikhs possess
no other power or influence than they enjoyed

then ; the relations of the sexes have suffered
little or no changes; they eat, drink, clothe
themselves, educate their children, make war
and peace, just as they did in the day of the
Exodus. But on the opposite shores all has
been change, fluctuation, and decay. While
the Bedowins have wandered with their
camels and their flocks, unaspiring, unim­
proving, they have looked across the gulf and
beheld the Egyptian overthrown by the Per­
sian ; the Persian by the Greek; the Greek

by the Roman ; and the Roman in his turn
by a daring band from their own burning
deserts. They have seen empires grow up
like Jonah’s gourd. War has swept away
some, the vanities and luxuries of peace have
undermined and brought others to the ground;
and every spot along these shores is cele­
brated. Glance your eye along the map—
take your stand on the Posidian promontory,
and look towards the right and towards the
left; can you anywhere, save in Greece, find
clustered together so many names embalmed