Two of our own nation have lately traveled into those parts, and have written and published their travels, both men of litterature, both reverend divines, and writers of credit and character, Dr. Shaw and Bishop Pococke; and in several instances they confirm the account that we have given of this people. "With regard to the man

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ners and customs of the Bedoweens, faith (9) Dr. Shaw, it is to be, observed that they retain a great many of those we read of in facred as well as profane history; being, if we except their religion, the fame people they were two or three thousand years ago; " without ever embracing any of those novelties in dress

or behaviour, which have had fo many periods and " revolutions in the Moorish and Turkith cities." And after giving fome account of their hofpitality, he proceeds thus; "Yet the outward behaviour of the Arab

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frequently gives the lie to his inward temper and in"clination. For he is naturally thievish and treacher"ous; and it fometimes happens that those very per" fons are overtaken and pillaged in the morning, who

were entertained the night before, with all the in"stances of friendship and hofpitality. Neither are "They to be accused for plundering strangers only, and attacking almost every perfon, whom they find un" armed and defenceless, but for those many implacable " and hereditary animosities, which continually fubfift

among them, litterally fulfilling to this day the prophecy, that Ishmael should be a wild man; his hand "Jhould be against every man, and every man's hand against " him." Dr. Shaw himfelf (1) was robbed and plundered by a party of Arabs in his journey from Ramah to Jerufalem, though he was escorted by four bands of Turkish foldiers: and yet the Turks at the fame time paid a ftipulated fum to the Arabs, in order to secure a safe passage for their caravans: and there cannot furely be a stronger proof, not only of the independency of the Arabs, but even of their fuperiority, not only of their enjoying their liberty, but even of their abusing it to licentiousness. Bishop Pococke was the last who tra

(9) Shaw's Travels, p. 300, &c. (1) Preface to his Travels, p. vii. veled

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1

veled into those parts; and he hath informed us, that the present inhabitants of Arabia resemble the ancient in several respects; that (2) they live under tents, and stay in one place as long as they have water and shrubs and trees for their camels to feed on, for there is no tillage nor grafs in all this country; that all their riches confist in camels, a few goats, and sometimes theep, fo that they live in great poverty, having nothing but a few dates and a little goats milk, and bring all their corn eight or ten days journey from Cairo; that they are in different nations or clans, each obeying the orders of its great chief, and every incantpment those of its particular chief; and tho' seemingly divided, yet they are all united in a fort of league together; that they (3) love plunder, and the roving fort of life this disposition leads them to, have good horses, and manage them and their pikes with much address; those on foot use poles, with which they fence off the spear, with great art. So that authors both facred and profane, Jewish and Arabian, Greek and Roman, Christian and Mohammedan, ancient and modern, all agree in the same account: and if any are defirous of seeing the matter deduced more at large, they may be referred to a differtation upon the indepen dency of the Arabs by the learned authors of the Universal History.

An author, who hath lately published an account of Perfia, having occafion to speak of the Arabians, (4) fays, " their expertness in the use of the lance and fabre, " renders them fierce and intrepid. Their skill in horse"manship, and their capacity of bearing the heat of " their burning plains, gives them also a fuperiority over " their enemies. Hence every petty chief in his own " district confiders himself as a fovran prince, and as "such exacts customs from all passengers. Their con"duct in this respect has often occafioned their being " confidered in no better light than robbers, &c. They generally marry within their own tribe, &c. When they plunder caravans traveling thro' their territories,

(2) Pococke's Description of the

Eaft, Vol. 1. Book 3. Chap. 2.

(3) Book 4. Chap. 4.

VOL. I.

D

(4) Hanway's Travels, Vol. 4.

Part 5. Chap. 29. p. 221, &c.

they

they confider it as reprisals on the Turks and Perfians, "who often make inroads into their country, and carry away their corn and their flocks."

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Who can fairly confider and lay all these particulars together, and not perceive the hand of God in this whole affair from the beginning to the end? The facred hifto-rian faith, that these prophecies concerning Ishinael were delivered partly by the angel of the Lord, and partly by God himself: and indeed who but God, or one raised and commiffioned by him, could defcribe fo particularly the genius and manners, not only of a fingle person before he was born, but of a whole people from the first founder of the race to the present time? It was fomewhat wonderful, and not to be foreseen by human fagacity or prudence, that a man's whole pofterity shouid so nearly resemble him, and retain the fame inclinations, the fame habits, the fame customs throughout all ages. The waters of the purest spring or fountain are foon changed and polluted in their course; and the farther still they flow, the more they are incorporated and loft in other waters. How have the modern Italians degenerated from the courage and virtues of the old Romans? How are the French and English polished and refined from the barbarism of the ancient Gauls and Britons? Men and manners change with times; but in all changes and revolutions the Arabs have still continued the fame with little or no alteration. And yet it cannot be faid of them, as fome barbarous nations, that they have had no commerce or intercourse with the rest of mankind; for by their conquests they overran a great part of the earth, and for fome centuries were masters of most of the learning that was then in the world: but however they remained and still remain the fame fierce favage intractable people, like their great ancestor in every thing, and different from most of the world besides. Ishmael was circumcised; and fo are his pofterity to this day; and as Ishmael was circumcifed when he was thirteen years old, fo were the Arabs at the same age according to (5) Jofephus. He was born of

(5) Antiq. Lib. 1. Cap. 12. Sect. 4. p. 29. Edit. Hudion. Vide etiam

Pocockii Specimen. Hist. Arab. p. 319.

Hagar,

Hagar, who was a concubine; and they still indulge themselves in the use of mercenary wives and concubines. He lived in tents in the wilderness, shifting from place to place; and so do his defcendents, particularly those therefore called (6) Scenites formerly, and those called Bedoweens at this day. He was an archer in the wilderness; and so are they. He was to be the father of twelve princes or heads of tribes; and they live in clans or tribes at this day. He was a wild man, his hand against every man, and every man's hand against him: and they live in the same state of war, their hand against every man, and every man's hand against them.

This, I fay, is somewhat wonderful, that the fame people should retain the fame dispositions for fo many ages; but it is still more wonderful, that with these difpofitions, and this enmity to the whole world, they should still fubfift in spite of the world an independent and free people. It cannot be pretended, that no probable attempts were ever made to conquer them; for the greatest conquerors in the world have almost all in their turns attempted it, and fome of them have been very near effecting it. It cannot be pretended that the dryness or inacceffibleness of their country hath been their preservation; for their country hath been often penetrated, tho' never entirely fubdued. I know that (7) Diodorus Siculus accounts for their preservation from the dryness of their country, that they have wells digged in proper places known only to themselves, and their enemies and invaders through ignorance of these places perish for want of water: but this account is far from being an adequate and just representation of the cafe; large armies have found the means of fubfiftence in their country; none of their powerful invaders ever desisted on this account; and therefore that they have not been conquered, we must impute to some other cause. When in all human probability they were upon the brink of

(6) Scenite-vagi-a tabernaculis [απο των σκηνων] cognominati. Plin. Lib. 6. Cap. 28. Sect. 32. Edit. Harduin. Pocockii Specimen. Hift. Arab. p. 87.

:

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(7) Diodorus Siculus. Lib. 2. p. 92. Edit. Stephani. p. 131. Edit. Rhodomani. et Lib. 19. p. 722. Edit. Steph. p. 730. Edit. Rhod.

ruin,

ruin, then (as we have before seen at large) they were fignally and providentially delivered. Alexander- was preparing an expedition against them, when an inflammatory fever cut him off in the flower of his age. Pompey was in the career of his conquests, when urgent affairs called him elsewhere, Ælius Gallus had pener trated far into the country, when a fatal disease destroyed great numbers of his men, and obliged him to return. Trajan befieged their capital city, but was defeated by thunder and lightning, whirlwinds and other prodigies, and that as often as he renewed his affaults. Severus besieged the same city twice, and was twice repelled from before it; and the historian Dion, a man of rank and character, though an heathen, plainly ascribes the defeat of these two emperors to the interposition of a divine power. We who know the prophecies, may be more affured of the reality of a divine interposition: and indeed otherwise how could a single nation stand out against the enmity of the whole world for any length of time, and much more for near 4000 years together? The great empires round them have all in their turns fallen to ruin, while they have continued the same from the beginning, and are likely to continue the fame to the end: and this in the natural course of human affairs was fo highly improbable, if not altogether impoffible, that as nothing but a divine prescience could have foreseen it, fo nothing but a divine power could have accomplished it.

These are the only people besides the Jews, who have subsisted as a distinct people from the beginning; and in some respects they very much resemble each other. The Arabs as well as the Jews are defcended from Abraham, and both boast of their defcent from that father of the faithful. The Arabs as well as the Jews are circumcifed, and both profess to have derived that ceremony from Abraham. The Arabs as well as the Jews had originally twelve patriarchs or heads of tribes, who were their princes or governors. The Arabs as well as the Jews marry among themselves and in their own tribes. The Arabs as well as the Jews are fingular in several of their customs, and are standing monuments

to