an 28 in each group.[1102] Barth
noticed the smallness of all the oasis towns of the Sahara, even those
occupying favorable locations for trade on the caravan routes.[1103]

[Sidenote: Spirit of independence among nomads.]

The nature-made necessity of scattering in small groups to seek
pasturage induces in the nomad a spirit of independence. The Bedouin is
personally free. The power of the sheik is only nominal,[1104] and depends
much upon his personal qualities. The gift of eloquence among the
ancient Arabs has been attributed to the necessity of persuading a
people to whom restraint was irksome.[1105] Political organization is
conspicuously lacking among the Tibbus of the Sahara[1106] and the
Turkoman tribes of the Trans-Caspian steppes. "We are a people without a
head," they say. The title of sheik is an empty one. Custom and usage
are their rulers.[1107] Though the temporary union of nomadic tribes forms
an effective army, the union is short-lived. Groups form, dissolve and
re-form, with little inner cohesion. The Boers in South African
grasslands showed the same development. The government of the Dutch East
India Company in Cape Colony found it difficult to control the wandering
cattlemen of the interior plateau. They loved independence and
isolation; their dissociative instincts, bred by the lonely life of the
thin-pastured veldt, were overcome only by the necessity of defense
against the Bushmen. Then they organized themselves into commandos and
sallied out on punitive expeditions, like the Cossack tribes of the Don
against marauding Tartars. Scattered over wide tracts of pasture land,
they were exempt from the control of either Dutch or English authority;
but when an energetic administration pursued them into their widespread
ranches, they eluded control by trekking.[1108] Here was the independent
spirit of the steppe, reinforced by the spirit of the frontier.

[Sidenote: Resistance to conquest.]

Though the desert and steppe have bred conquerors, they are the last
parts of the earth's surface to yield to conquest from without. The
untameable spirit of freedom in the shepherd tribes finds an ally
against aggression in the trackless sands, meager water and food supply
of their wilderness. Pursuit of the retreating tribesmen is dangerous
and often futile. They need only to burn off the pasture and fill up or
pollute the water-holes to cripple the transportation and commissariat
of the invading army. This is th