DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11637#0241
42© TRAVEI3 IN UPPER
perished j victims to the policy of their governor.
Whole tribes had retired to a distance in the de-
sert ; and the people of Egypt, far from applauding
these measures for the protection of property, mur-
mured aloud at the scarcity of camels, sheep, and
other animals, with which the Bedouins had been
accustomed to supply them in abundance, though
frequently they carried them off again, after they
bad sold them.
Thus it seems, that the prosperity of Egypt is
connected with the preservation of the Bedouins.
Jn fact, they alone can traverse with facility im-
mense sandy and uninhabited districts, keep up -
prompt and habitual communications through
them, even take up their adode in them, and repair
to the cultivated parts, to exchange the numerous
flocks they feed for commodities, which are become
necessary to them from habit. To enlarge the
number of these wants, would be a policy, in my
opinion, far preferable to that which enjoins a
detestable annihilation : for it is extremely doubt-
ful whether a continual state of warfare be a very
efficacious mean of correcting mens' morals, and
rendering them more virtuous. They whose ha-
bits are most simple easily become the dupes of the
allurements presented to them. Were the tastes pf
the Bedouins flattered, were new ones excited in
lhem, the ancient and venerable simplicity of their
manners,
perished j victims to the policy of their governor.
Whole tribes had retired to a distance in the de-
sert ; and the people of Egypt, far from applauding
these measures for the protection of property, mur-
mured aloud at the scarcity of camels, sheep, and
other animals, with which the Bedouins had been
accustomed to supply them in abundance, though
frequently they carried them off again, after they
bad sold them.
Thus it seems, that the prosperity of Egypt is
connected with the preservation of the Bedouins.
Jn fact, they alone can traverse with facility im-
mense sandy and uninhabited districts, keep up -
prompt and habitual communications through
them, even take up their adode in them, and repair
to the cultivated parts, to exchange the numerous
flocks they feed for commodities, which are become
necessary to them from habit. To enlarge the
number of these wants, would be a policy, in my
opinion, far preferable to that which enjoins a
detestable annihilation : for it is extremely doubt-
ful whether a continual state of warfare be a very
efficacious mean of correcting mens' morals, and
rendering them more virtuous. They whose ha-
bits are most simple easily become the dupes of the
allurements presented to them. Were the tastes pf
the Bedouins flattered, were new ones excited in
lhem, the ancient and venerable simplicity of their
manners,