toms of these Arab tribes, except in the article of religion, have suffered almost no change during the long period of three thousand years. They have occupied the same country, and followed the same mode of life, from the days of their great ancestor down to the present times, and range the wide extent of burning sands which separate them from all surrounding nations, as rude, and savage, and untractable as the wild ass himself. Claiming the barren plains of Arabia as the patrimonial domain assigned by God to the founder of their nation, they consider themselves entitled to seize and appropriate to their own use whatever they can find there. Impatient of restraint, and jealous of their liberty, they form no connection with the neighboring states; they admit of little or no friendly intercourse, but live in a state of continual hostility with the rest of the world. The tent is their dwelling, and the circular camp their city; the spontaneous produce of the soil, to which they sometimes add a little patch of corn, furnishes them with means of subsistence, amply sufficient for their moderate desires; and the liberty of ranging at pleasure their interminable wilds, fully compensates, in their opinion, for the want of all other accommodations. Mounted on their favorite horses, they scour the waste in search of plunder, with a velocity surpassed only by the wild ass. They levy contributions on every person that happens to fall in their way; and frequently rob their own countrymen with as little ceremony as they do a stranger or an enemy; their hand is still against every man, and every man's hand against them. But they do not always confine their predatory excursions to the desert. When booty is scarce at home, they make incursions into the territories of their neighbors; and, having robbed the solitary traveller, or plundered the caravan, immediately retire into the deserts, far beyond the reach of their pursuers. In spite of all their enemies can do to restrain them, they continue to dwell in the pres

ence of all their brethren, and to assert their right to insult. and plunder every one they meet with on the borders or within the limits of their domains. Even in the ordinary sense of the epithet 'wild,' there is no people to whom it can be applied with more propriety than to the Arabs, whether used in reference to their character, modes of life, or place of habitation. We have seen something of Arabs and their life, and always felt the word wild to be precisely that by which we should choose to characterize them. Their chosen dwelling-place is the inhospitable desert, which offers no attractions to any other eyes but theirs, but which is all the dearer to them for that very desolation, inasmuch as it secures to them that independence and unfettered liberty of action. which constitute the charm of their existence, and which render the minute boundaries and demarcations of settled districts, and the restraints and limitations of towns and cities, perfectly hateful in their sight. The simplicity of their tented habitations, their dress and their diet, which form so perfect a picture of primitive usages, as described by the sacred writers, we can also characterize by no more fitting epithet than wild;' and that epithet claims a still more definite application, when we come to examine their continual wanderings with their flocks and herds, their constant readiness for action, and their frequent predatory and aggressive excursions against strangers, or against each other. Plunder, in fact, forms their principal occupation, and takes the chief place in their thoughts; and their aggressions upon settled districts, upon travellers, and even upon other tribes of their own people, are undertaken and prosecuted with a feeling. that they have a right to what they seek, and therefore without the least sense of guilt or degradation. Indeed, the charactor of a successful and enterprising robber invests a Bedouin with as high a distinction, in his own eyes, and in the eyes of

his people, as the most daring and chivalrous acts could win among the nations of Europe.

"The operation of this principle would alone suffice to verify the prediction of the text. But, besides this, causes of variance are continually arising between the different tribes. Burckhardt assures us that there are few tribes which are ever in a state of perfect peace with all their neighbors; and adds, that he could not recollect this to be the case with any one among the numerous tribes with which he was acquainted. Such wars, however, are seldom of long duration. Peace is easily made, but broken again upon the slightest pretence. The original word for dwell ( shakan) properly signifies

'to dwell in tents,' or 'to tabernacle,' whence a portion of the Arab tribes are denominated Scenites, tent dwellers," answering to the modern Bedouins, in opposition to those who inhabit cities. The meaning undoubtedly is, that he (that is, his descendants) shall pitch his tents near to, and in sight of, his brethren, and shall maintain his independence in spite of all attempts to conquer or dispossess him. There is some doubt as to the latitude in which the term 'brethren' is here to be understood, some taking it in a more restricted sense for the other descendants of Abraham, namely, the Israelites, Midianites, Edomites, &c.; while others, as all mankind are brethren in a larger sense, consider it as equivalent to saying that the race of Ishmael should still subsist, notwithstanding the universal enmity of all nations, as an independent people in the face of the whole world. From the general tenor of scriptural usage, we think the former the most probable interpretation. It is unquestionable, as an historical fact, that they have ever been mainly surrounded by the above nations, or their posterity; and nothing is more notorious than that they have never been effectually subdued. Although continually annoying the adjacent countries with their robberies and incursions, yet all attempts made to extirpate them have

been abortive; and even to this day travellers are forced to go armed, and in caravans or large companies, and to march and keep watch like a little army, to defend themselves from the assaults of these roving freebooters of the desert. These robberies they justify, according to Mr. Sale (Prelim. Dissert. to the Koran), by alleging the hard usage of their father Ishmael, who, being turned out of doors by Abraham, had the open plains and deserts given him by God for his patrimony, with permission to take whatever he could find there. On this account, they think they may, with a safe conscience, indemnify themselves as well as they can, not only on the posterity of Isaac, but on every one else; and, in relating their adventures of this kind, deem themselves warranted, instead of saying, I robbed a man of such a thing,' to say, 'I gained it.' Indeed, from a view of the character and history of this remarkable people, during a period of four thousand years, as compared with this prediction, we may say, with Dr. A. Clarke, that it furnishes an absolute demonstrative argument of the divine origin of the Pentateuch. To attempt its refutation, in the sight of reason and common sense, would convict of most ridiculous presumption and excessive folly.""

Now, is it possible to suppose that, if Moses were an uninspired writer, he could have made so lucky a guess? Is it possible that he could have given a minute description of an event a thousand years remote, which should be fulfilled, not in the mass, but literally, strictly verbatim fulfilled? It is a fact, at this day, that the wilderness is the dwelling-place of the descendants of Ishmael. They do not, like other races, form cities. The Arab of to-day is the same that he has been for three thousand years. He will not be associated with civilization; he will not accept the offers that are given by his brethren; he will not leave his patriarchal desert; he has literally his hand against every man, because he lives by

spoil, and every man's hand against him, because his extermination is the only safety of contiguous society; he is the "wild ass man," living in the desert, upon the scanty pasturage, and yet satisfied. What proofs do modern facts give that holy men of old wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost!