Travels through Arabia and Other Countries in the East

We are no less fond of tracing these native features of the human mind where they are to be discovered in the records of remote ages, in which the natural manners of mankind appear undisguised by affectation Affectation: Artificial behavior or speech designed to impress; pretension. and are not yet altered by the progress of arts or government original: "policy" – here referring to the systems of civil administration and organized society.. Even without considering original: "adverting to" the causes of the pleasure we feel, we are always pleased to find even some faint traces of our natural and primary rights, and of the happiness for which we were originally intended.

If any people in the world offer in their history an instance of high antiquity and of great simplicity of manners, the Arabs surely do. Coming among them, one can hardly help imagining themselves original: "fancying one’s ſelf" suddenly carried backward to the ages that immediately followed the Great Flood The Great Flood: A reference to the biblical narrative of Noah's Ark, used here as a chronological marker for early human history.. Here, we are tempted to imagine ourselves among the ancient patriarchs Patriarchs: The biblical fathers of the human race, such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, often depicted as nomadic leaders., with whose adventures we were so entertained original: "amused" during our childhood. The language, which has been spoken since time immemorial and which so closely resembles that which we are accustomed to regard as being of the most distant antiquity original: "distant antiquity" – likely referring to Hebrew, which scholars of Niebuhr's time closely linked with Arabic., completes the illusion that the similarity of their manners began.

The country inhabited by this nation offers many objects of curiosity that are no less unique original: "singular" and interesting. Intersected by sandy deserts,