Now here, now there, the Bedouin’s home is as wide as the desert, and as movable as its drifting sands. The mode of encamping differs according to circumstances. When the tents are but few, they are pitched in a circle; if the number is considerable they extend in a straight line, in rows three or four deep. The sheik’s is always on the side where danger is apprehended, or where travellers are expected;-- it being his particular business to oppose the former and to honour the latter. Every chief sticks his lance into the ground in front of his tent, to which he ties his horse or camel; the pack-saddles forming the couch on which he and his guests recline. When wandering in search of water or pasture, they move in parties, slowly over the sandy plain. The armed horsemen ride foremost, the flocks with their young follow, and behind come the beasts of burden, loaded with the women and children, tents, baggage and provisions. Among pastoral tribes the possession of a well, of a few date-palms, or of a piece of pasture ground, easily leads to quarrels, and, as rude nations generally prefer settling their disputes by the right of the stronger, to sanguinary feuds and wars. Besides the causes of hostility arising from disputed property, the natural jealousy and fiery temperament of the Arab have always proved a source of the most implacable enmity among themselves. They betray the quickest sensibility to any affront or injury, and instances might be multiplied where a contemptuous word, an indecent action, or even the most trifling violation of etiquette can only be expiated by the blood of the offender. If one sheik say to another, ‘Thy bonnet is dirty,’ or ‘The wrong side of thy turban is out,’ it is considered a mortal offence. To spit on the beard of another, even accidentally, is an insult scarcely to be forgiven, and such is their patient inveteracy that they expect whole months and years the opportunity of revenge. A fine or compensation for murder is familiar to the barbarians of every age, but in Arabia the kinsmen of the dead are at liberty to accept the atonement, or to exercise with their own hands the law of retaliation. If the offer is deemed unsatisfactory, the homicide and all his kin comprised within the law of vengeance, make their escape to some friendly tribe. A sacred custom allows the fugitives three days and four hours during which their enemies abstain from the pursuit; the exiles are permitted to return as soon as a reconciliation can be effected. The fine for a murdered man varies among the different tribes. Among the Beni-Harb in Hedjaz the price of blood is rated at 800 dollars, or rather that sum imperfectly expressed by live stock. All the blood relations of the slayer assist to make up the required amount, rating each animal at three or four times its proper value. On such occasions violent scenes arise from the conflict of the Arab’s two darling passions, avarice and revenge. He longs to cut the foe’s