There were no walls, no fences, no hedges--nothing to secure a man's possessions but these random heaps of stones.

The Israelites held them sacred in the old patriarchal times, and these other Arabs, their lineal descendants, do so likewise.

An American, of ordinary intelligence, would soon widely extend his property, at an outlay of mere manual labor, performed at night, under so loose a system of fencing as this.
The plows these people use are simply a sharpened stick, such as Abraham plowed with, and they still winnow their wheat as he did--they pile it on the house-top, and then toss it by shovel-fulls into the air until the wind has blown all the chaff away.

They never invent any thing, never learn any thing.
We had a fine race, of a mile, with an Arab perched on a camel.

Some of the horses were fast, and made very good time, but the camel scampered by them without any very great effort.