DE LAMARTINE. NARRATIVE OF THE RESIDENCE OF FATALLA SAYEGHIR AMONG THE WANDERING ARABS OF THE GREAT DESERT: COLLECTED AND TRANSLATED BY THE CARE OF M. DE LAMARTINE. [Illustration] _PHILADELPHIA_: CAREY, LEA & BLANCHARD. 1836. ADVERTISEMENT OF THE AMERICAN PUBLISHERS. In presenting to the public the curious and interesting Narrative of Fatalla Sayeghir, it is proper to explain that it formed an appendix to the English edition of “De Lamartine’s Pilgrimage to the Holy Land;” but having no immediate connexion with it, the publishers thought, it proper to defer the publication of this work (as mentioned in their advertisement) until they should know what reception the “Pilgrimage” would meet with. A second edition being called for and nearly expended, it has induced the publication of the “Narrative” in a separate volume, which they hope will be acceptable to the public. INTRODUCTION. BY ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE. We were encamped in the midst of the desert which extends from Tiberias to Nazareth, and were speaking of the Arab tribes we had met in the day, of their manners, and the connexions between them and with the great population by whom they are surrounded. We endeavoured to elucidate the mystery of their origin, their destiny, and that astonishing endurance of the spirit of race, which separates this people from all other human families, and keeps them, like the Jews, not without the pale of civilization, but within a civilization of their own, as unchangeable as granite.