oasis of Farafeah, the inhabitants never exceed eighty males, a
limit fixed by a certain Sheik Murzuk.[1142] Poverty of food supply
explains the small number of children in the typical Turkoman family.
Among the Koko-Nor Tibetans, monogamy is the rule, polygamy the
exception and confined to the few rich, while families never include
more than two or three children.[1143] According to Burckhardt, three
children constitute a large family among the Bedouins, much to the
regret of the Bedouins themselves. Mohammedans though they are, few
practice polygamy, while polyandry and female infanticide existed in
heathen times.[1144] Desert peoples seem to be naturally monogamous.[1145]

[Sidenote: Trade of nomads.]

The prevailing poverty, monotony and unreliability of subsistence in
desert and steppe, as well as the low industrial status, necessitate
trade with bordering agricultural lands. The Bedouins of Arabia buy
flour, barley for horse feed, coffee and clothing, paying for them
largely with butter and male colts. The northern tribes resort every
year to the confines of Syria, when they are visited by pedlers from
Damascus and Aleppo.[1146] The tribes from Hasa and the Nejd pasture land
bring horses, cattle and sheep to the city of Koweit at the head of the
Persian Gulf to barter for dates, clothing and firearms; and large
encampments of them are always to be seen near this town.[1147] Arabia
and the Desert of Kedar sold lambs, rams and goats to the markets of
ancient Tyre.[1148] The pastoral tribes of ancient Judea in times of
scarcity went to Egypt for grain, which they purchased either with money
or cattle. The picture of Jacob's sons returning from Egypt to Canaan
with their long lines of asses laden with sacks of corn is typical for
pastoral nomads; so is their ultimate settlement, owing to protracted
famine, in the delta land of Goshen. The Kirghis of the Russian and
Asiatic steppes barter horses and sheep for cereals, fine articles of
clothing, and coarse wooden utensils in the cities of Bukhara and the
border districts of Russia. Occasionally the land of the nomad yields
other products than those of the flocks and herds, which enter therefore
into their trade. Such is the salt of the Sahara, secured at Taudeni and
Bilma, the gums of the Indus desert, and balm of Gilead from the dry
plateau east of Jordan.

[Sidenote: Pastoral nomads as middlemen.]

The systematic migrations of nomads, their numerous beasts of burde