'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎229v] (463/862)

PEOPLE
34 °
the Euphrates below Nasiriya and the Tigris below Amara
outside the patches of cultivation, are a separate and despised race,
not to be confused with the cultivating Arabs of the marshlands
despite a general similarity in their houses and way of life. In
character they are said to be cunning, very patient of pain, ferocious
and fearless on occasion, but cheerful and high-spirited. Physically
they do not resemble Arabs but have round faces, wide noses, big
mouths, and high foreheads. Their language is Arabic, spoken
without any very peculiar features.
They and their livestock lead an amphibious existence, their
water-buffaloes feeding and swimming apparently for days in the
deeper marshes, and the other cattle feeding in the shallower parts on
grasses which grow under water. Their means of communication is
the large canoe or mashuf. The Madan huts (p. 347) are frequently
built on floating bundles of reeds, but the cattle are milked and
clusters of huts are built on patches of drier ground. The Madan take
small interest in anything outside their own affairs, and give little
trouble. They have tribes but no shaikhs of their own, and attach
themselves to the shaikh of the nearest Arab tribe, particularly the
Albu Mohammed (p. 371), to whom they pay tribute in kind for
protection. They are dependent economically upon the rice-growing
tribes from whom they buy their cereal food, and upon the Sabian
traders of the delta towns who make their canoes and supply their
utensils. Rice and fish are their main foods, and they take but one
meal a day. The clothing of the men is only a waist-belt and some
times a cloak, the children are usually naked, but the women dress
as Arab women.
Kurds
Mental and Moral Characteristics
Though the Kurds, particularly the remote mountain tribes, have
been much abused as treacherous, cruel, and stupid, it is to be remem
bered that they have lived ever surrounded by enemies and subdivided
into isolated and mutually antagonistic communities. The necessities
of self-defence have established the tradition of shooting the other
man first, and the lack of central government has made brigandage a
national pastime. But those who have lived long in communities of
settled and semi-nomadic Kurds have always learned to respect them.
The Kurds are far less intellectual and genial than the Arabs and
less talkative, but they have a practical shrewdness and though
somewhat dour and fatalistic they enjoy a joke against themselves or