still the same,It is impossible-she is his own blood.' The Bedouin seldom marries more than one wife."Incidents of Travel.

"The profaneness of the Bedouin is excessive and almost incredible. Their mouth is full of cursing;'

and we were hardly able to obtain from them a single answer that did not contain an oath."-ROBINSON'S Researches, vol. i. p. 212.

"One of our Arabs was named Nasar Allah; I asked him where he liked best to live, in the desert or in the city. He replied, 'in the desert.' I asked 'why?' His answer was striking and characteristic; I am a son of the desert, I am not a son of the city.'"-Memoirs of REV. PLINY FISK.

6

"Jealousy and suspicion were leading traits in the character of the ancient tribes as well as those of the present day. When the brothers of Joseph went to Egypt, the pretext under which he chose to send them to prison was that they were 'spies come to see the nakedness of the land.' When the Israelites were passing through the desert, they were prevented by a similar feeling of suspicion from entering different territories. When David, on the death of Nahash, king of the Ammonites, sent ambassadors to compliment his son Hanun, the princes of the children of Ammon said to Hanun, Thinkest thou that David doth honour thy father, that he hath sent comforters unto thee? Are not his servants come unto thee for to search, and to overthrow, and to spy out the land? (1 Chron. xix. 3.) Hanun listened to this advice, ill-treated the ambassadors, and sent thern away. The experience of our own days is a proof that the Arabs of the desert have not altered their national dispositions in the slightest degree."-LABORDE's Mount Sinai, &c.

"The behaviour of the Arabs to each other, whatever may be their conduct to others, presents an amiable picture of domestic harmony and comfort; they are a nation of shepherds, and I question much, if in our most polished circles, divested of the empty pomp of dress and finery, you could meet with more dignity of deportment or urbanity of manners than you find in the humble tent of the Arab. It appeared to us, that all the good amongst them was centred in the lower orders."—IRBY AND MANGLES.

، The history of the Arabs, writes Mr. Keith, so opposite in many respects to that of the Jews, but as singular as theirs, was concisely and clearly foretold. It was prophesied concerning Ishmael, 'He will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren. I will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly, and I will make him a great nation.'

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The fate of Ishmael is here identified with that of his descendants; and the same character is common to them both. The historical evidence of the fact, the universal tradition, and constant boast of the Arabs themselves, their language, and the preservation for many ages of an original rite, derived from him as their predecessor, confirm the truth of their descent from Ishmael. The body of their nation has escaped the yoke of the most powerful monarchies, and the conquerors of many other people could never achieve the conquest of Arabia. The Arabs subsist to this day in the prophesied and primitive wildness of their race, hostile to all, as even the unbelieving Gibbon writes, armed against mankind.' Plundering is their profession. Their alliance is never courted, and can never be obtained; and all that the Turks or Persians, or any of their neighbours, can stipulate for from them, is a partial and purchased forbearance. Even the British, who have established a residence in almost every country, have entered the territories of the descendants of Ishmael to accomplish only the premeditated destruction of a fort, and to retire. They have continued wild or uncivilized, and have retained their habits of hostility towards all the rest of the human race, though they possessed for three hundred years countries the most opposite in their nature from the mountains of Arabia. The greatest part of the temperate zone was included within the limits of the Arabian conquests; and their empire extended from India to the Atlantic, and embraced a wider range of territory than ever was possessed by the Romans, those boasted masters of the world. The period of their conquest and dominion was sufficient, under such circumstances, to have changed the manners of any people; but whether in the land of Shinar, or in the valleys of Spain, on the banks of the Tigris or the Tagus, in Araby the blest, or Araby the barren, the posterity of Ishmael have ever retained their prophetic character; they have remained, under every change of condition, a wild people;

their hand has still been against every man, and every man's hand against them. The following is the natural reflection of Sir R. K. Porter, on examining the peculiarities of an Arab tribe :-"On the smallest computation, such must have been the manners of those people for more than three thousand years; thus in all things verifying the prediction given of Ishmael at his birth.

And that an acute and active people, surrounded for ages by polished and luxurious nations, should, from their earliest to their latest times, be still found a wild people, dwelling in the presence of all their brethren (as we may call these nations) unsubdued and unchangeable, is, indeed, a standing miracle, one of those mysterious facts which establish the truth of prophecy." -See KEITH on the Prophecies, pp. 320-323.

We will conclude our account of the Arabs with these words of Mr. Hardy: "That which was true concerning Arabia in the time of Moses, has been equally so in every subsequent period of time; and will still continue, until another prophecy shall be fulfilled, and even 'Arabia's desert ranger,' shall bow before the power that is supreme: then the horse shall no longer stand ready caparisoned to pursue and plunder the passing traveller. 'Holiness unto the Lord,' shall be inscribed upon its bells: then shall Isaac and Ishmael again meet together in peace, to worship at one altar the God of their fathers, and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent ;-their hand shall be with every man, and every man's hand with them.”1 -HARDY'S Notices, p. 18.

1 The hospitality which forms so striking a feature in the character of the wandering Arabs, is fully treated of in the "Scripture Manners and Customs," to which work the reader is referred.

THE RECHABITES.

[Jer. xxxv.]

"THE prophet Jeremiah, when "warning the Jews of their disobedience to God, adduces the fidelity of the Rechabites to the command of their ancestors, as an admirable model for their imitation. "For this cause," it was said, "Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever." The fulfilment of these words, even to this day, may appear almost incredible to many; to the student of prophecy, this fulfilment will be full of interest. When the Rev. Mr. Wolf resided in Jerusalem, he was one day visited by several men in the Arab costume, who had come from the wilderness, where they dwelt. These strangers declared themselves to be the lineal descendants of the Rechabites, and, like their ancestors, had inviolably obeyed 'the command, 'Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye, nor your sons for ever neither shall ye build house, nor plant vineyard, but all your days ye shall dwell in tents.' Their history of themselves and their people, during many ages, was clear and simple; they had ever received and obeyed from their fathers, they said, the command of old delivered; they had never drank wine, though living in or near a country by whose inhabitants it was generally drunk; they had never built houses, or lived in villages, hamlets, or towns, but had always dwelt in tents. They were fine healthy-looking men, of great simplicity of mind and manners, and very intelligent. In the course of the conversation, they said, that the existence of their people was very ancient; that, in their traditions, Heber the Kenite was the founder of the tribe, by the hand of whose wife Jael, Sisera was slain while reposing in the tent. Perhaps the history of the world cannot furnish an instance of greater, or as great fidelity and religious observance of an ancestral command."-FISHER'S Views of Syria, the Holy Land, &c.