the quarrels of the Arabs; the honor of their women and of their beards, is most easily wounded; an indecent expression, a contemptuous word, can be expiated only by the blood of the offender; and such is their patient inveteracy,⚫ that they expect whole months and years the opportunity of revenge- A fine or compensation for murder is familiar to the barbarians of every age; but in Arabia, the kinsman of the dead are at liberty to accept the atonement, or to exercise with their own hands the law of retaliation. The refined malice of the Arab refusing even the head of the murderer, substitutes an innocent to guilty person, and transfers the penalty even to the best and most considerable of the race by whom he has been injured. If he falls by their hands, they are exposed in their turn to the danger of reprisals; the interest and principal of the bloody debt are accumulated: the individuals of either family lead a life of malice and suspicion; and fifty years may sometimes elapse, before the terrible account of vengeance be finally settled. This sanguinary spirit, ignorant or pity or forgiveness, has been moderated, however, by the maxims of honor, which require, in every private encounter some equality of age and strength, of numbers and weapons.

“But the spirit of rapine⚫ and revenge was attempted by the mildest influence of trade and literature. The solitary peninsula, encompassed by the most civilized nations of the ancient world; the