Arabia includes also the peninsula of Sinai

between the Gulf of Suez and that of Akabah. ‘The whole area of the vast country thus described does not probably fall much short of 1,000,000 square miles. The population of Arabia has been estimated by some at 12,000,000, by others at no more than 4,000,000. The former number is certainly too high, and it is believed that between 5,000,- 000 and 6,000,000 is very near the truth. The Arabs present, as a nation and as individuals, much that is peculiar in their mental and physical development. They are of middle stature, of a powerful make, and have a skin of brownish color, Their features expre dignity and pride; they are naturally active, intelligent, and courteous; and their character is marked by temperance, bravery, and hospitality, along with a strong propensity for poetry. On the other hand, they are revengeful in their disposition and predatory in their habits. The women have the entire education of the children in their early years. The mode of: life of the Arabs is either nomadic or settled, or in other words, they either live in tents and derive their subsistence from the rearing of cattle, wherever sufficient pasture is obtainable, and from the transport of caravans through the desert; or from the pursuits of agriculture and commerce. The nomadic tribes in Arabia are termed Bedouins, Beduins, or Bedawins; those following settled occupations, Hadji and Fellahs. A considerable trade, partly overland, partly maritime, is carried on, chiefly in coffee, dates, figs, spices, and aromatic substances of various kinds, though the present amount of traffic is scar-ely a shadow of what it was in the times previous to the discovery of the pa age by the Cape of Good Hope.