in which they sometimes boil their provisions, a calabash to hold their milk, and a wooden trough, in which they water their camels.

If the Arabs are provided with water, they never fail to wash before they eat, but in the choice of their food, they are less particular, esteeming a mess of roasted snails preferable to any other dish. Their principle food, when encamped, is camel’s milk, and occasionally feast themselves on a kid, but never on a camel unless in case of real necessity, or when they have become too old to travel. Frequently, however, in travelling the desert, the Arabs have been driven by hunger to such extremities, as to devour animals and insects of any kind in a state of putrefaction.

The Arabs have a plurality of wives, to whom they are very severe and cruel, exercising as much authority over them as over their slaves, and compelling them to perform their meanest drudgery--their husbands consider them as their inferiors, as beings without souls, and will not permit them to join in their devotions. While engaged in weaving, they carry their infant children on their backs, which are secured by a fold of a piece of cloth, which they wear for the purpose over their shoulders; by being kept constantly at work, they become very filthy in their persons, and are covered with vermin.

The children of the Arabs are taught to read and write, and every family has a teacher for that purpose, but for paper they substitute a piece of smooth