Note 23 — HASSAN OR THE CHILD OF THE PYRAMID

Arabs are divided into two classes, distinguished in their own language by the names of “People of the tent” and “People of the domicile”; the former, who are the Bedouins, and nomadic in their habits, have a sovereign contempt for the latter, who live in villages and cultivate the soil. In Egypt there are found on the borders of the desert and arable land a few small tribes who partake of both characters; that is, though Bedouins by birth, they have partially settled down to an agricultural life, and pay a tax to the Government for the land which they occupy. The prisoner under arrest belonged to this latter class.