Land for the Fellahin, II

Abstract

The great desert of Syria is not an absolute void. The steppes on its flanks enjoy a little rainfall, basins of interior drainage accumulate in their lowest parts enough moisture to produce a fast-growing grain or fodder crop, and the dry beds of wadis (arroyos) support a certain minimum of pasture. The subsurface water below them can often be reached by dug wells which the Bedouin uses as a basis of operations. But there is no fixed boundary line between the Desert and the Sown throughout the great belt that extends from the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf. After a series of dry years the desert is wont to reclaim its own, spilling its people, the nomads, over into the area occupied by sedentary agriculturalists. Bedouins are a prolific people; the desire for the continuity of the family is very strong. Further, to keep up the fighting strength of the tribe is a sine qua non if it is to continue to survive. To have children is the summum bonum in the eyes of man and of Allah. Living conditions on the desert are harsh, and Bedouin children are born under conditions which would seem to most Westerners little short of infanticide. Midwifery is of the most primitive order, and the infants who survive must be fit and hardy indeed. The miserable goat-hair tent, some ten feet long, seven feet wide and five feet high, is neither wind-proof, sand-proof, nor water-proof; yet it is the only shelter against the sun and sandstorms of summer and the cold, howling winds of winter. Sheep, goats and members of the family live together in the most intimate and friendly symbiosis, sharing their warmth, their filth and their fleas. Under such conditions children are born, and they pass their months of immobility on the floor of the tent, covered with dirty, vermin-infested rags, while their mothers milk the sheep, make the bread, carry water from the spring, and perform their other household tasks. But living conditions are basically wholesome, much more so than in most city slums. The nomad does not stay long enough in one place for slops and garbage to accumulate. The desert air is singularly free from noxious bacteria, and the continuous sunshine is most salubrious. Hence, in spite of a high rate of infant mortality, many children survive the rigors of desert