him without incurring the necessity of
ablution before his next prayer, out of the
five daily prayers which the Monaddin calls
upon him to perform.

Nevertheless, prodigal as the Arab may
be of fine phrases, such as "May Allah
give thee a thousand-and-one camels,"
before you grant him what he wants, you
must not be altogether unprepared to hear
him say, if he should meet you in after
time, and have no need of you, "My horse
may know you, but I don't."

However, such cases, it is said, are not
common, although, as a rule, the Arab
thinks himself little bound by any
obligation to an infidel.

One of the most noticeable characteristics
of Arab manners is that politeness
is not mainly confined, as with us, to
certain classes; but that its most refined
rules are known equally to all, to rich and
to poor, to noble and to peasant, from the
borders of Mesopotamia to the Atlantic.

As M. Renan has observed, there are no
men in the world among which there is
so little difference in mental culture and
in dignity of bearing as the Arab. The
lowest Arab, when he approaches the
sultan, the pasha, or the shiek, in the form of
a suppliant, looks his superior straight
in the face, and is not ashamed. "Allah,"
he says, "regards with the same eyes the
cedar and the hyssop," and Allah is the
unseen witness whom the Arab considers,
or ought to consider, as present at every
action of his life. Whether he eats, drinks,
sleeps, or goes on a journey, he mentally
refers everything to Allah; Allah, in fact,
is the real fountain of good manners and
all the rules of Arab politeness.

Arab good manners, then, require that a
man shall be decently dressed, and pious
in every action of his life. He must, to
begin with, be careful in all the ablutions
prescribed by his religion; he must have
his head shaved once a week, keep his
beard, not cut, but carefully trimmed, and
that to a point; he must keep, also, his
upper moustaches clipped to the level of
his upper lip, except at the corners, so that
he may not soil his dress in eating; and he
must not omit to keep his nails in good
order, never biting them, but paring them
carefully; and even the parings are not to
be thrown carelessly away, but they must
be thrown into the fire, or buried in the
earth, for the nails are, in fact, sacred,
according to Arab superstition.

When you speak of the weather, you
will take care not to say, dogmatically,
"The weather will be fine or bad
tomorrow;" you, poor finite mortal, should
not have the insolence to predict anything
absolutely about the weather. God alone
can do that. All you can say is, "It will
be fine to-morrow, Inshallah"—if it please
God; and you must not even say, "Tomorrow
I will go to market," without the
Inshallah. The Arabs affirm that the lion
one day took to counting over the
animals who were at his mercy. "Inshallah,"
he said, " I can carry off a horse without hurting
me. Inshallah, I can carry off a
heifer, and gallop no whit the less fast."
But when he came to the sheep, he
disdained to use the  Inshallah; therefore, so
at least report the Arabs, the lion is not
able to carry off the sheep (the fact being,
it is said, that the lion does not like to feel
the wool of the sheep in his mouth). Every
exclamation of surprise or wonder must be
accompanied by the expression, "Glory be
to God," " Sebahan Allah." And no decent
Arab will undertake an expedition, go on
a hunting party, or begin any serious
affair whatever without saying first
Bismillah!

If you speak of any respectable person
no longer living, be sure whenever you
mention his name to say, "May God be
merciful to me,"  Allah inhhamon."
Similarly, likewise, if inquiries are made of you
about any person who has died unknown
to your interrogator, do not by any means
say, in a coarse way, " Abdallah ben
So-and-so is dead," but "May Allah be
merciful to him." Your companion will
understand you. You must avoid, moreover,
to speak of death at all if you can help
it, except of death by battle in the holy
war. The word is not a pleasant one.
Moreover, never ask an Arab his age;
he does not like to think on the subject,
and generally takes care to forget all
about the date of his birth; his beard, he
says, will have the pepper-and-salt colour
quite soon enough, and give him
unpleasant suggestions. Never, moreover, under
an Arab tent admire a horse, a child, or
anything whatever that may be his or
hers without saying, "May the
blessing of Allah be on it," or "May it be
blessed with the prolongation of thy life
and the protection of Allah." Should you
act otherwise, you will be considered an
ill-bred fellow, or an envious one, perhaps,
who designed, by giving a cast of the evil
eye on the object of your admiration, to
bring trouble into the family.

When an Arab in company says he has