food, with which the former are supplied more abundantly than the latter. The lower class live in a stateof habitual wretchedness and famine: it is a fact, that the quantity of food usually consumed by the greater part o them does not exceed six ounces a day; six or seven dates soaked in melted butter, a little sweet milk or curds, serve a man a whole day; and he esteems himself happy when he can add a small quantity of coarse flour, or a little ball of rice. Meat is reserved for the greatest festivals: and they never kill a kid but for a marriage or a funeral. A few wealthy and generous Shaiks alone can kill young camels, and eat baked rice with their victuals. In times of dearth, the vulgar, always half famished, do not disdain the most wretched kinds of food; and eat locusts, rats, lizards, and serpents broiled on briars. Hence are the such plunder ers of the cultivated lands, and robbers on the high roads; hence also their delicate constitution, and their diminutive and meager bodies, which are rather active than vigorous.

The Bedoweens have as little industry as their