ABSTRACT
Liberty indeed is the basis of the whole system, and not national alone but individual liberty, unfettered by any restrictions of allegiance either to king or state. The individual Bedouin owes no duties even to his tribe, of which he cannot rid himself by a simple act of will; nor does he submit to any limitation of the sovereign right he possesses over his own person, except by his own free act and in his own interests. If dissatisfied, he can at any time retire from the society he belongs to, without question asked or fear of penalty. His position reminds one rather of that of the member of a political club than of a subject or citizen. As long as he is with his tribe, he must conform to certain rules, and he takes part in all its deliberations, but he can at any time withdraw from its authority, if he finds his opinions
in a minority or his independence hampered. No one therefore in the desert has the least, cause to complain of tyranny, for the remedy is always at hand. Thus it constantly happens that, when party feeling has run high in a tribe, the minority, instead of submitting their opinion to that of the majority, retires from the main body and lives apart, without the secession being treated by these as an act of treason or hostility to the state. Even a single individual may retire unquestioned, to pitch his tents where he will; and in time of peace it is rare to find more than fifty or a hundred families living together in daily intercourse. Even when there is war, it is rather the fear of being attacked in detail than any duty towards the tribe which keeps its members together. The Roala, while we were with them, were assembled to the number of twelve thousand tents on the plain of Saighal, for war was going on, but they told us that five hundred tents had remained in Nejd, when the main body marched north, owing to a disagreement between a certain sheykh and the supreme sheykh of the tribe, Ibn Shaaldn. They spoke, however, with no bitterness of the secession, though it had weakened them in an hour of danger, nor did they question the right of the minority to do as it pleased.
