Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates Vol 2 - The Search For Mecca

en. XXVI.] Bedouin Ideas of God. 217
tlie evil in life, of the rain and of the sunshine,
of the fertility of their
flocks, and of the murrains
Avhich sometimes afflict them. But they do not
seek to propitiate Him with prayer, nor complain of
His severity when they sufier. They neither bless
nor curse Him, nor do they regard
Him with love
or fear. If He have any personal relation Avitli
themselves it is
as the silent witness of their oaths,
the name to which they appeal in their disputes.
But even thus, they expect nothing at
His hands,
neither protection from wrong nor punishment if
they are forsworn.
Prayer, as an outward act of religion, is not
practised by the pure Bedouins ;
and, even in those
tribes which have become tainted with the ]\Iahometanism
of the towns, it is reserved chiefly for
The Shammar, alone
the eyes and ears of strangers.
of all the nobh tribes we visited, possessed a mollah
and his duties with them were in no way of a
priestly character. The reason of his presence at
all must be looked for in the semi-Turkish character
of their late Sheykh, Sfuk,—whose son, Faris, though
a man of the noblest birth, and the highest character^
still recites his prayers daily. With this almost
single exception, the practice of religion may be
taken as the sure
index of low morality in a tribe.
The degraded fellahin of Irak are fanatically Shia
and conform to most of the Mahometan rules.
Among the Anazeh I do not rememljer having
noticed an instance of prayer.