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The
Judeilat, whose name in the Bedouin dialect means savage
people, stubborn people, or simple people, claim to be the
original Bedouins. They are said to be so poor that they wear
very few clothes. Physically, the Judeilat are characterised
by their weak physique, small heads and noses, and their frail
bone structure. Communities of this branch live in Subeira,
Humeimah, Mada'en Saleh (from where they are believed to have
come to Petra), the edges of Wadi Araba, and Jabal Haroun
(Mount Aaron, named after the brother of Moses who is buried
on top of this mountain) to the West. In this location, the
Bedoul border the deereh of the Saidiyin, for whom they worked
as shepherds.
It was probably upon an encampment of the Judeilat that
Burckhardt stumbled when he first arrived in Petra. He gives
the following account of his encounter:"At the end of
three hours, after having turned a little more southward, we
arrived at a small encampment of Djaylat, where we stopped to
breakfast. The Bedouin tents which composed a great part of
this encampment were smallest I had ever seen; they were about
four feet high, and ten in length. The inhabitants were very
poor, and could not afford to give us coffee; our breakfast or
dinner therefore consisted of dry barley cakes, which we
dipped in melted goat's grease." |
