BEDOUIN SMOKERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 149, 21 December 1936, Page 4

BEDOUIN SMOKERS

THEIR CRUDE WAYS

TROUBLE OVER TOBACCO

A most attractive and human side of the Bedouin Arab of Northern Arabia and Sinai is his love of his pipe and tobacco (writes Major C. S. Jarvis, late Governor of Sinai), in the "Daily Mail." Possibly a West End tobacconist would disapprove strongly of his smoker's outfit, which is to say the. least primitive, but it is in keeping with the man and the conditions under which he uses it.

His pipe, which, in the old days he used, to call his gallioun, but which is now designated the beeba—the Arabic form of the English word—usually consists of a bowl carved from a soft stone that is found near Teima in Central Arabia, and in some cases is of greycoloured pottery. The stem is of considerable length, and this he himself manufactures from any wood available. Almond wood is, I believe, the most fashionable, but almond trees are rare unless one lives in close proximity to Palestine, where they are cultivated extensively. Shoots of the wild fig bored out by means of a hot skewer serve the purpose, but the wood is soft and easily bitten through, and the same applies to the oleander, which is indigenous in all the wadis (dry torrent beds) in Trans-Jordan. A CAPACIOUS POUCH. His pouch is the skin of a kid that died at • birth,- and' is fashioned with the hair outside.'. It makes a most capacious kees (bag), but as the Bedouin is always setting forth on journeys to look for straying camels or to attend law suits and may be away anything from two days to six months, it is necessary to be prepared for all eventualities. Matches are a luxury, and as such are not purchased, though if a box can be acquired from a passing traveller it is duly appreciated. Hung round his neck on a thong of home-cured leather are his lares and penates consisting of his seal, with which he unwittingly, but willingly, will sign any iniquitous deed, mortgage, or bill that requires backing, a small pick for cleaning out his pipe, and his flint and steel. The steel^is a strip of metal bent in the shape of a triangle, and the base, which is about an inch wide, provides the striking surface. There is no difficulty about flints, as the greater part of the desert in which he lives and wanders is strewn thickly with them, and the largest and sharpest variety can always be found under one's valise at nights. •, • His tinder is a portion of an old cotton garment, and he prepares it by hammering it into shreds between two stones. He grasps the steel in the first finger and thumb of the left hand, and between the: first finger and the second he holds a prepared piece of tinder; then with the right hand he strikes sharply with the flint, and immediately there is a spark, followed by a tiny wisp of smoke. THE TOBACCO. The really Intriguing part of the Bedouin's smoker's outfit is his tobacco, and here the Government and the Arab unfortunately do not see eye to eye. Tobacco and its seed, which, according to Doughty, was first brought to the East by English traders in the days of James I, can be grown easily over the greater partl of Arabia, and for the last three hundred years the Bedouin has been accustomed to cultivate his own tobacco in any suitable corner of the desert where a depression of good soil receives rather more than its share of rain water. Unfortunately the Governments concerned with the Arab's welfare either prohibit tobaccogrowing altogether or only permit it under licence, and anything that requires a licence ' is, of course, purely ridiculous in the Bedouin's eyes. The Egyptian Government adopts a most uncompromising attitude, for a considerable part of its revenue is obtained from the tobacco monopoly, and its cultivation is regarded as one of the seven deadly sins. The tobacco that the Bedouin grows is precisely what one would expect from a haphazard cultivator working in a sterile waste, and in other words, is abominable. It has a rank and penetrating smell, and no other race but the Bedouin could possibly smoke it, and if it were used to adulterate or mix with other tobacco for cigarette manufacture the firm which adopted the venture would go out of business at once. THE WAT OF ESCAPE. There is, therefore, no valid objection to the poor old Bedouin growing his own tobacco. He is far too poor to buy any that has paid duty, and would not appreciate its quality if he did, and if he is prevented from cultivating it he has to go without, and only the confirmed smoker realises what this means. I have always found it most difficult to reconcile my loyalty to the Government that employed me and my fellow feeling for a brother addict of the weed, especially when that brother is a desperately poor man with no other consolations in his hard life. Luckily, I managed to establish the fact that tobacco seed, which is like the finest dust, has the quality of remaining dormant for years, and in the course of generations of its cultivation has blown all over the face of the desert. It only requires a trifle more than the normal rainfall for small plants to sprout in any damp spot, so that if a'thriving patch of tobacco is found tucked away in some secluded corner of a mountain gorge no attempt is ever made to find the owner, even if there are marks of a mattock, for undoubtedly the cultivation is an act of God, and to tamper with it would