[In the Heart of Africa by Samuel White Baker]@TWC D-Link bookIn the Heart of Africa CHAPTER III 21/23
Their patterns have never changed, but the water-jar of to-day is of the same form as that carried to the well by the women of thousands of years ago.
The conversation of the Arabs is in the exact style of the Old Testament. The name of God is coupled with every trifling incident in life, and they believe in the continual action of divine special interference. Should a famine afflict the country, it is expressed in the stern language of the bible--"The Lord has sent a grievous famine upon the land;" or, "The Lord called for a famine, and it came upon the land." Should their cattle fall sick, it is considered to be an affliction by divine command; or should the flocks prosper and multiply particularly well during one season, the prosperity is attributed to special interference.
Nothing can happen in the usual routine of daily life without a direct connection with the hand of God, according to the Arab's belief. This striking similarity to the descriptions of the Old Testament is exceedingly interesting to a traveller when residing among these curious and original people.
With the Bible in one hand, and these unchanged tribes before the eyes, there is a thrilling illustration of the sacred record; the past becomes the present; the veil of three thousand years is raised, and the living picture is a witness to the exactness of the historical description.
At the same time there is a light thrown upon many obscure passages in the Old Testament by a knowledge of the present customs and figures of speech of the Arabs, which are precisely those that were practised at the periods described.
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