NOMADIC TRIBES. 125 they never transgress the rules of the most rigid propriety. The women are, without exception, handsome, and are treated very well by their husbands. Their occupation consists in cooking, and attending to other domestic duties ; but when the men go into battle, they by no means remain idle spectators, but encourage them with their shouts, and assist them in every way in offering the most resolute resistance.

The men attend to the cattle, and make depredatory excursions for stealing slaves, on which occasions their few, but exceedingly beautiful and hardy horses render them essential service. When a tribe of Bakkara is encamped in the vicinity of the hills of the negroes, the horsemen are sent out to kidnap boys or girls. They have not yet had the courage to carry on this business on the same extensive scale as Mehemed Ali. The mode of proceeding is the following:— The Bakkari repair to places in which it is likely that these children will congregate,— for example, in the vicinity of separate droves of cattle, or to wells,—where they lie in ambush, and as soon as one of the children is within reach, they seize it, mount their horses, and ride away with their prize at full gallop. Although the scene of this robbery may be in the neighbourhood of a village, or of a tribe of negroes, and it even create a disturbance, yet they are certain of their prey, for their fleet steeds soon carry them beyond the reach of their pursuers, who, moreover, possess no horses.