throat, but on the other hand he is equally desirous to increase his own possessions. He has always a project of buying a new dromedary, or of investing capital in some promising colt. The consequence is that he is insatiable. Still he receives blood money with a feeling of shame, as a man who has made some sacrifice of duty or fine feeling for the sake of filthy lucre. Hence this mode of arrangement is not common among the more wealthy tribes, and most of the great sheiks would deem themselves dishonoured by compromising in any degree for the slaughter of their relations. The matter being finally settled, a she camel is brought to the tent of the adversary and there killed that blood may be expiated by blood. The parties now reconciled feed upon the flesh of the animal, and at parting the homicide flourishes a white handkerchief on his lance as a public notification that he is free from blood. The simple unvaried life of the Bedouin must often cause time to hang heavy on his hands. To relieve this weariness and want of novelty he has recourse to various amusements which serve to fill up his vacant hours. A rover or a warrior, his favourite sports are those that imitate war. Throwing the jereed is a kind of rude tournament, which he frequently practises. This is a blunt spear, made of heavy wood, and about a yard long. The object of the game, in which the players evince the most astonishing dexterity, is for one party to pursue, and the other to fly, and try to elude being struck by the weapon. Sometimes they amuse themselves with sham fights; and nothing can be more picturesque, than to see a group of these wild men huddled together in the greatest apparent confusion, with drawn swords and couched lances. The more domestic pastimes are chess, draughts, dancing, singing, the reciting of poetry and story-telling, for which they have a singular passion. Captain Burton, who witnessed one of their war dances, describes it as wild in the extreme, resembling rather the hopping of bears than the inspirations of Terpsichore. The dancers raised both arms high above their heads, brandishing a dagger or some other small weapon. They followed each other by hops on one or both feet; sometimes indulging in the most demented leaps, whilst the by-standers accompanied them with clapping of hands and various motions of the body. There is a species of song, common all over the desert, in which the youths of both sexes join in the chorus. It is called the _mesamer_, and is the only opportunity which the lover has of serenading his mistress; the verses are often composed extempore, and relate, of course, to the beauty and qualities of the beloved object, who is sometimes apostrophized in epithets that sound rather oddly to European ears: ‘O Ghalia! if my father were a jackass, I would sell him to purchase Ghalia.’