Page 278 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

XII.] COAST OF ARABIA. 259

and possess boats, in the indulgence of a like
propensity for roving, move from place to
place, subsisting principally on the same
food, but occasionally varied by what they
are enabled to obtain by the sale of their
pearls. In this restlessness of disposition
alone, the Hute'imi resemble the JBedowins
of the Desert; but meagre, squalid, and
pusillanimous, we look in vain amidst the
former for the traits of character which dis­

tinguish the latter. A wild and fanciful
tradition preserved by the Bedowins throws
but little light on the subject. The prophet
Mohammed, in the course of a journey along
the sea-shore, having sought shelter within
these encampments, was surprised at the
appearance of a dog served up at their ban­
quet. Shocked and offended, he enjoined
his followers to shun them as a polluted sect,
and thenceforwards neither to eat, inter­
marry, nor associate with them. In pursu­
ance of this real or imaginary injunction, the
Bedowins of the Desert entertain and prac­

tise towards this tribe such contempt and
aversion, that they aver, when questioned
on the subject, if a person were to strike a
s 2