The Bedouins

The Bedouins are an Arab people who live in the deserts of North Africa and Arabia, a country of western Asia. They speak the Arabic language and, like the ancient Jews or Hebrews of the Old Testament, they belong to the Semitic race. They are somewhat under medium height, have thick, coarse, black hair, dark eyes, and a dark complexion. The men wear a long cotton shirt that reaches down below the knees and is open at the throat. Around the waist, over the shirt, they wear a broad leather belt or girdle.

When it gets cold at night, as it often does in the desert, the Bedouin wears a loose black or black-and-white striped cloak made of woven camel's hair. His hat is a black or yellow-and-red striped cloth folded once and held in place by a rope of twisted camel's hair around the head. The women wear wide loose pants, a long shirt, and over this a wide piece of dark blue cloth that covers the head and entire body and trails on the ground behind them. Children wear no clothes at all until the age of about seven. The Bedouins are shepherds and herdsmen and have flocks of sheep and goats. They are nomads, or wanderers who never stay in one place for long and travel about on camels seeking grass for their flocks.

As soon as there is no more grass or forage left in one place, they move on to another part of the desert. The home of the Bedouin is a large tent about 8 feet high by 20 feet long. The cloth covering of the tent is woven from goat hair dyed black and is stretched over a few light poles. The tent of the sheik, or chief of the tribe may be 40 feet long. Usually there is a part curtained off for the women and children. A rough carpet or mat is spread on the ground inside the tent. Cooking is done outdoors on open camp fires.

Each family has two or three pots, a few wooden plates and bowls. They get meat and milk from their herds, they also buy rice, vegetables, and honey from city Arabs on the edge of the desert. They also eat the giant locusts or grasshoppers of the desert as well as certain kinds of lizards. Most of them are uneducated and cannot read or write their own Arabic language. They are very patient, have a great deal of endurance, and can get along with very little food or water when necessary.

Every Bedouin carries a rifle and a dagger and a great many of them carry long lances which they handle with great skill. They are all believers in the Mohammedan religion but do not pay too much attention to it. According to their religion a man may have more than one wife and a few of the richer Bedouins have two or three, but most of them are too poor to support more than one. Women are treated with respect but work very hard, cooking meals, baking bread, weaving cloth on looms, mending tent covers, and doing other household duties, while the husband sits in front of the tent smoking his long pipe.