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or supper is served at sunset. If there is plenty of pasture, camels' milk is handed round after dinner. The Arabs eat heartily, and with much eagerness. The boiled dish set before them being always very hot, it requires some practice to avoid burning one's fingers, and yet to keep pace with the voracious

company.

The women eat in the meharrem what is left of the men's dinner; they seldom are permitted to taste any meat, except the head, feet, and liver of the lambs.

Of the arts but little is known: two or three blacksmiths to shoe the horses, and some saddlers to mend the leather-work, are the only artists found even in the most numerous tribes.

"An Arab's property," says Burckhardt, "consists almost wholly in his horses and camels. The profits arising from his butter enable him to procure the necessary provisions of wheat and barley, and occasionally a new suit of clothes for his wife and daughters. No Arab family can exist without one camel at least; a man who has but ten is reckoned poor; thirty or forty place a man in easy circumstances; and he who possesses sixty is rich. I once inquired of an Arab in easy circumstances what was the amount of his yearly expenditure, and he said that in ordinary years he consumed

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Wealth, however, among the Arabs is extremely precarious, and the most rapid changes of fortune are daily experienced. The bold incursions of robbers, and sudden attacks of hostile parties, reduce, in a few days, the richest man to a state of beggary; and we may venture to say that there are not many fathers of families who have escaped such disasters.

The hospitality of the Bedouin is proverbial. To be a Bedouin is to be hospitable; his condition is so intimately connected with hospitality, that no circumstances, however urgent and embarrassing, can ever palliate his neglect of that social virtue.

The influx of foreign manners, however, by which no nation has ever benefited, seems to be pernicious in its effects upon the Bedouins,

for they have lost much of their excellent qualities in those parts where they are exposed to the continual passage of strangers. Thus, on the pilgrim road, both of the Syrian and Egyptian caravan, little mercy is ever shown to hadjys in distress. The hospitality or assistance of the Bedouins in those places can only be purchased by foreigners with money; and the stories related by pilgrims, even if not exaggerated, would be sufficient to make the most impartial judge form a very bad opinion of Bedouins in general. This is also the case in Hedjaz, and principally between Mecca and Medina, where the caravan travellers have as little chance of obtaining anything from the hospitality of the Bedouins on the road, as if they were among the treacherous inhabitants of the Nubian desert.

Yet even in those places a helpless solitary traveller is sure of finding relief; and the immense distance of space between Mecca and Damascus is often traversed by a poor single Syrian, who trusts altogether to Bedouin hospitality for the means of subsistence during his journey. Among such poor people as Bedouins generally are, no stronger proof of hospitality can be given than to state that, with very few exceptions, a hungry Bedouin will always divide his scanty meal with a still more hungry stranger, although he may not himself have the means of procuring a supply; nor will he ever let the stranger know how much he has sacrificed to his necessities.

Somewhat inconsistent with this spirit of hospitality is the inordinate love of gain and money which forms a principal feature in the Levantine character. This pervades all classes, from the Pasha to the wandering Arab, and there are few individuals who, to acquire wealth, would not practise the meanest or most illegal act. Thus with the Bedouin, the constant object of his mind is gain; interest appears the motive of all his actions. Lying, cheating, intriguing, and other vices arising from this source, are as prevalent in the desert as in the market-towns of Syria; and on the common occasions of buying and selling (where his dakheil is not required), the word of an Arab is not entitled to more credit than the oath of a broker in the bazaar of Aleppo.

The Arab displays his manly character when he defends his guest at the peril of his own life, and submits to the reverses of fortune, to disappointment and distress, with the most patient resignation. He is, besides, distin

guished from a Turk by the virtues of pity and of gratitude, which the Turk seldom possesses. The Turk is cruel, the Arab of a more kind temper; he pities and supports the wretched, and never forgets the generosity shown to him, even by an enemy.

In his tent, the Arab is most indolent and lazy; his only occupation is feeding the horse, or milking the camels in the evening, and he now and then goes to hunt with his hawk. A man, hired for the purpose, takes care of the herds and flocks, while the wife and daughters perform all the domestic business. They grind wheat in the handmill, or pound it in the mortar; they prepare the breakfast and dinner; knead and bake the bread; make butter, fetch water, work at the loom, mend the tent-covering, and are, it must be owned, indefatigable; while the husband or brother sits before the tent smoking his pipe, or, perceiving that a stranger has arrived in the camp, by the extraordinary volume of smoke issuing from the meharrem (or women's apartment) of the tent, where the stranger has been received as a guest, to that tent he goes, salutes the stranger, and expects an invitation to dine and drink coffee with him.

The Arabs salute a stranger with the "salam aleyk!" (Peace be with you!) This they address even to Christians; if the stranger is an old acquaintance, they embrace him; if a great man, they kiss his beard. When the stranger has seated himself upon a carpet (which the host always spreads out for him on his arrival), it is reckoned a tribute of politeness due to the whole company that he should ask each individual bow he does. The conversation then becomes animated; they ask the stranger

for news of his tribe and his neighbours, and the politics of the desert are discussed.

In matters of religion the Bedouins are lax Mohammedans. That peculiar form of Islamism which was originated in the latter end of the twelfth century by Abd el Wahab, sought to extend its influence over them. This may be described as a Mohammedan puritanism, incorporated with a Bedouin government, in which the great chiefs stand forth as political and religious leaders. This system reckoned among its followers some of the Bedouin tribes, who attached themselves to it with a view to the promotion of their own temporal interests. But when its power was broken by Mohammed Ali Pasha, they forsook it, and lapsed into greater irregularities than before. They are described by Burckhardt as "the most tolerant of Eastern nations;" yet it would be erroneous to suppose that an avowed Christian going among them would be well treated, without some powerful means of commanding their services. They class Christians with the foreign race of Turks, whom they despise most heartily. Both Christians and Turks are treated in a manner equally unkind, because their skins are fair, and their beards long, and because their customs seem extraordinary; they are also reckoned effeminate, and much less hardy than the tawny Bedouin.

Those Bedouin sheikhs who are connected with the government towns in the vicinity of their tribes, keep up the practice of prayer whenever they repair to a town, in order to make themselves respected there. But the inferior Arabs will not even take that trouble, and very seldom pray either in or out of town. C. A. H. B.

THE HISTORY OF A FLEECE OF WOOL.

BY A PRACTICAL FARMER.

NE hot day in the month of June a splendid Lincolnshire hogget was observed to be greatly oppressed with heat, and being "as silly as a sheep," was, of course, continually moving from place to place-now under the stately oak, now under the tall chesnut; then to the shady hedge, and again to the spreading trees; but the more he moved the hotter he grew, till he was wellnigh overcome; and well he might be, for he bore upon his back one of the most

valuable fleeces on record. At length the shepherd entered the field, and gently drove the noble fellow to the fold to be shorn, and presently he took off his fleece, which proved to be a large bundle of fine wool weighing full twenty pounds. It is the history of this identical fleece that I am about to give: or rather I intend to permit the fleece, in as concise a form as possible, to give its own history.

"I was grown" (said the fleece) "upon the

back of a splendid Lincolnshire hogget sheep, and was taken off and wound into a fleece on or about the 15th of June, 1863. The shepherd who took me from the sheep, spread me out to my greatest length and breadth; he then tore me into two parts, and, laying one half upon the other, rolled me up compactly. He next drew from my midst a sufficient length of my wool, which, being twisted, he put round me, and tied and tucked me into proper form, pronouncing me to be one of the finest fleeces, and weighing full twenty pounds. He proudly placed me in the 'pile.' I was there visited and admired by several 'wool buyers' and the pile of wool was at length sold by my owner for the sum of sixty-three shillings per tod-my own value being taken to be about forty-eight shillings upon the day of weighing, i.e., allowing a trifle for my extra size and quality.

"I was speedily taken up to what are termed the manufacturing districts, and consigned to an intermediate man of business, called a woolstapler, who assorts' wool, and thus prepares it for the manufacturer. He soon opened me out, and with his quick eye and delicate touch separated me into no less than ten different parcels, which he thus designated: the picklock, the prime, the choice, the super, the head, the downrights, the seconds, the abb, the livery, and the breech wool. For all these 'sorts' he had separate baskets into which they were thrown. To my credit be it known, I was subsequently found, with but trifling deduction, in the first four named baskets; so that, with the exception of small portions of me, that came from the head, legs, breech, &c., of the hogget, I was taken for sound good wool, and thus offered to the manufacturers.

"I was first bought by a spinner of woollen yarn, and sold as yarn to a manufacturer of alpaca cloths. According to my varied quality I was appropriated-the picklock for the finest qualities, and so in degree for the other qualities of alpaca cloths. Before, however, I was put under process of manufacture, an examination of my qualities took place. It was found that it would take above 500 of my fibres to cover the diameter of an inch; and the number of serrations or saw-like teeth of an inch in length of my fibres, would reach inch fully 1,860, or nearly 2,000 serrations per in length. This, I learned, made me valuable in the manufacture to which I was now to be appropriated. The cotton admixture in these fabrics will not hold well together

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except by the aid of the teeth of my fibres, which take hold of the cotton fibre in the process of weaving, and hold both together, thus making a sound and serviceable cloth.

"In the process of manufacture which I was compelled to undergo, I was first submitted to the process of dyeing. i. e., made to assume the colour I was intended subsequently to wear. I was then most unceremoniously subjected to what might in some circumstances be called a cruel operation; I was torn bit from bit, till I became separated into very minute portions. This was done by a machine known as the scribbler,' which consists of a number of large wooden cylinders, placed horizontally on a frame, and almost touching each other, with smaller cylinders placed above them, and also nearly touching. To these a rotatory motion is given by steam power. These cylinders are covered with iron teeth, very minute and closely set, and slightly bent. They revolve in opposite directions, in close contact, so that the teeth work against or within each other. was put into this machine, and was so tormented and torn to pieces, and transferred from one cylinder to another, that at last I came forth like a thin flake, of most gauze-like texture, having by this process lost my woolly appearance altogether. I was then taken to another tormentor called a 'carder,' having numerous cylinders, with wires, or teeth, of finer texture. I was again subjected to a similar process, but more definitely; for I now came forth in small rolls, about thirty inches long, and was immediately taken up by children, and dexterously put-to, and was joined upon the billy,' a sort of preparatory spinning for the spinning machine, technically called 'slubbing.'

"In this rough state I was next subjected to the spinning machine, where I underwent all the turnings and twistings and gradations, from that wondrously ingenious machine, necessary to draw me out into the finest and longest yarn, or thread, imaginable. I cannot state, or attempt to calculate, the enormous length to which my fibres were drawn out or extended. I, however, can give some reliable estimate, from what is authentically recorded in the books, of other spinnings, At Norand from fibres much like my own. wich, many years since, 39,200 yards, or 221 miles, were spun from a pound of wool; and Miss Ives, of Spalding, Lincolnshire, spun 168,000 yards, or about 95 miles, of woollen thread from a pound of wool, from a sheep the

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produce of a Lincoln ewe. This was fifty or sixty years ago. What can be accomplished now? The quantity of yarn, or thread, spun from my fleece was, I would say, almost incredible.

"I was next handed over to the weaver, who, being determined to make the most of me, made me work up an unusual quantity of cotton, so that I was again spread out to a very broad extent; and the quantity of cloth made by my fibre, or yarn, and the yarns of my colleague, cotton, was also incredible. The fabric we jointly made, called 'fine alpaca,' was three feet wide, and was extended to the extraordinary length of at least six hundred and fifty yards. Nor was this the whole of my fleece; for though but little was found in the 'bad baskets,' yet that little sufficed for a few socks for the children who so dexterously manipulated me on the 'billy.'

"Well, I was now embodied into a fine alpaca cloth; and as such, it was my lot to be sold to a retail shopkeeper, resident in an old-fashioned country town, who introduced me to his customers as 'the newest thing out; both cheap and good, a substitute for silk as a dress, and not exceeding three shillings per yard.' This shopkeeper's beautiful fabric was considered fashionable. It took; and presently every lady in the town, together with most of their grown daughters, were clothed from my fleece, and that without exhausting his stock. The sum received by this shopkeeper for me, would be something like this (for I don't estimate my colleague very highly): The price of six hundred and fifty yards, at three

shillings per yard, would amount to ninetyseven pounds ten shillings; taking off onethird for my cotton colleague, just leaves for my manufactured fleece the sum of sixty-five pounds, which sum has been paid by those who wear me. Of course, it is understood that I was manufactured into one of the finest varieties of alpaca cloth, or I should not have attained such a high price in the original produce market, nor retained it in the retail trade.

"I was delighted, in the first instance, with the favour I received, and the price paid for me by the 'wool-buyer'-i. e., forty-eight shillings; but I never could have conceived that, by one means or other call it transmigration, transformation, or transfiguration,-I could ever become of the value of sixty-five pounds, or, combined with my cotton colleague, ninety-seven pounds ten shillings. Little did I think of such a change of state, when I was quietly reposing on and adorning the back of the Lincolnshire hogget; nor could any of the eighty or ninety ladies in the quiet old country town, who at length wore me in all the broad expanse of crinoline, suppose that they were indebted to one single fleece for all their comeliness and beauty of dress. The thing, incredible as it appears, is, however, founded on fact, and I need only refer you to my manufacturer, to testify to the truth of it. If it had not been for skilled labour and perfected machinery, I should have been confined to the meanest sphere of usefulness; but by such aids I was enabled to diffuse my native warmth and beauty to almost every family in the oldfashioned town."

TREATMENT AND CONDITION OF WOMEN IN FORMER TIMES.

ROM the subversion of the Roman Empire to the fourteenth or fifteenth century, women spent most of their time alone, almost entire strangers to the joys of social life; they seldom went abroad, but to be spectators of such public diversions and amusements as the fashions of the times countenanced. Francis I. was the first who introduced women on public days to Court. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the use of linen was not known; and the most delicate of the fair sex wore woollen shifts. In Paris they had meat only three times a week; and one hundred livres (about five pounds sterling) was a large portion for a

young lady. The better sort of citizens used splinters of wood and rags dipped in oil, instead of candles, which, in those days, were a rarity hardly to be met with. To ride in a two-wheeled cart, along the dirty rugged streets, was reckoned a grandeur of so envi able a nature, that Philip the Fair prohibited the wives of citizens from enjoying it. In the time of Henry VIII. of England, the peers of the realm carried their wives behind them on horseback, when they went to London; and in the same manner took them back to their country seats, with hoods of waxed linen over their heads, and wrapped in mantles of cloth to secure them from the cold.

Leaves from the Book of Nature: Descriptive Narrative,&c.

A THOUSAND AND ONE STORIES FROM NATURE.

ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.

BY THE REV. F. O. MORRIS, B.A., RECTOR OF NUNBURNHOLME, YORKSHIRE, AND CHAPLAIN TO HIS GRACE
THE DUKE OF CLEVELAND, AUTHOR OF A "HISTORY OF BRITISH BIRDS" (DEDICATED BY PERMISSION
TO HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN), ETC., ETC.

THE PARTRIDGE.

CXII.

In the spring of this year (1867), my son brought from India a tame (?) red-legged hill partridge, which now runs about our garden, and is in very deed lord of the domain, for it drives all four-legged intruders out of its adopted territory. The moment our pet terrier runs down the lawn, out rushes "Tetah" (Hindustani for partridge), and attacks her with such persistent pugnacity that, although the dog sometimes attempts to assert an equal right to the turf by knocking the bird over with her paws, still "Tetah," nothing daunted, quickly returns to the charge, and, in the end, invariably comes off the conqueror-a feat proclaimed by a loud "chuck-a-chuck," repeated continuously till the enemy is out of sight, frequently pursuing" Motè,"* the dog, upstairs to the very top of the house. Some large Persian kittens, too, share the same fate, having hastily to decamp whenever "Tetah" catches a glimpse of them.

My son tells me that on the voyage home this courageous bird asserted a similar right to supremacy on deck, his especial object of attack being a large gander, which was always compelled to beat a retreat, and, ostrich-like, push his head into a place of safety, regardless of his tail, which was left exposed to the peccant propensities of his red-legged enemy.W. T. H., Hoddesdon.

THE HONEY BUZZARD.

CXIII.

Of all the birds of prey with which I am acquainted the honey buzzard is apparently the gentlest, the kindest, and the most capable of attachment; it seems to possess little of the fierceness of that tribe. It will follow me round the garden, cowering and shaking its

Hindustani for Jewel.

wings, though not soliciting food, uttering at the same time a plaintive sound, something like the whistle of the golden plover, but softer and much more prolonged. Though shy with strangers, it is very fond of being noticed and caressed by those to whose presence it has been accustomed. In the same garden there are three lapwings, a blue-backed gull, and a curlew. The plovers are often seen with the buzzard sitting in the midst of them showing no signs of caution or apprehension, but seem as if they were listening to a lecture delivered by him. The gull frequently retires into the garden house, probably to enjoy the society of the buzzard. The garden is not the garden of Eden, and yet these birds, of different natures, habits, and dispositions, appear to live in perfect harmony, peace, and good fellowship with each other.

THE ASS. CXIV.

At Ostend, when the market women, who are there particularly kind and lenient to their donkeys, come from the country with vegetables and other articles for sale on a market day, these donkeys are put altogether into a barn or large stable; and when the door is opened, after the market is over, they all scamper away, and never stop till they reach each its proper owner in the market place, ready and willing to carry their mistresses home, and whatever else they may choose to lay on their backs. THE BLACKBIRD.

CXV.

Mr. Shand, merchant, Dufftown, has a black. bird, got last season, from a nest in his garden, which whistles several tunes with extraordinary clearness and accuracy. In particular, he whistles "The Quaker's Wife" in a style that attracts the attention of the passers-by. The bird is as sensible as he is gifted; for the other

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