If Traveller Or Trader Attempt To Pass Through
The Land Without Paying Al-Akhawah Or Al-Rifkah, As It Is Termed, He
Must Expect To Be Plundered, And, Resisting, To Be Slain:
It is no
dishonour to pay it, and he clearly is in the wrong who refuses to
conform to custom.
The Rafik, under different names, exists throughout
this part of the world; at Sinai he was called a Ghafir, a Rabia in
Eastern Arabia, amongst the Somal an Abban, and by the Gallas a Mogasa.
I have called the tax “black-mail”; it deserves a better name, being
clearly the rudest form of those transit-dues and octrois which are in
nowise improved by “progress.” The Ahl Bayt,[FN#51] or dwellers in the
Black Tents, levy the tax from the Ahl Hayt, or the People of Walls;
that is to say, townsmen and villagers who have forfeited right to be
held Badawin. It is demanded from bastard Arabs, and from tribes who,
like the Hutaym and the Khalawiyah, have been born basely or have
become “nidering.” And these people are obliged to pay it at home as well
as abroad. Then it becomes a sign of disgrace, and the pure clans, like
the Benu Harb, will not give their damsels in marriage to “brothers.”
Besides this Akhawat-tax and the pensions by the Porte to chiefs of
clans, the wealth of the Badawi consists in his flocks and herds, his
mare, and his weapons. Some clans are rich in horses; others are
celebrated for camels; and not a few for sheep, asses, or greyhounds.
The Ahamidah tribe, as has been mentioned, possesses few animals; it
subsists by plunder and by presents from
[p.115] pilgrims. The principal wants of the country are sulphur, lead,
cloths of all kinds, sugar, spices, coffee, corn, and rice. Arms are
valued by the men, and it is advisable to carry a stock of Birmingham
jewellery for the purpose of conciliating womankind. In exchange the
Badawin give sheep,[FN#52] cattle, clarified butter, milk, wool, and
hides, which they use for water-bags, as the Egyptians and other
Easterns do potteries. But as there is now a fair store of dollars in
the country, it is rarely necessary to barter.
The Arab’s dress marks his simplicity; it gives him a nationality, as,
according to John Evelyn, “prodigious breeches” did to the Swiss. It is
remarkably picturesque, and with sorrow we see it now confined to the
wildest Badawin and a few Sharifs. To the practised eye, a Hijazi in
Tarbush and Caftan is ridiculous as a Basque or a Catalonian girl in a
cachemire and a little chip. The necessary dress of a man is his Saub
(Tobe), a blue calico shirt, reaching from neck to ankles, tight or
loose-sleeved, opening at the chest in front, and rather narrow below;
so that the wearer, when running, must either hold it up or tuck it
into his belt. The latter article, called Hakw, is a plaited leathern
thong, twisted round the waist very tightly, so as to support the back.
The trousers and the Futah, or loin-cloth of cities, are looked upon as
signs of effeminacy.
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