The Nomadic Alternative – Page 86

"All are God's guests. We share and share alike." goes a Bedou proverb.

The nomad multiplies his capital, but at least the capital lives, breathes and moves. Unlike an ingot, an inert rotting carcass is valueless. And live healthy sheep require live healthy shepherds to tend them. Now as we know from the Gospel of St. John the good shepherd owns his own sheep and even "giveth his life for his sheep." ^{But a bad shepherd is a hired shepherd, who has no stake in the flock and hurtles off at the least glimpse of a sheep-tearing wolf.}

Apart from its religious message, the moral of Christ's parable is, "You can't be a successful stock-breeder without the active participation of your family."

"Sons are the source of wealth." This Turkoman proverb underlines the nomad's passion for increase. As he swells the size of his flock, he must swell the number of his loyal sons to look after it. Fathers alert their boys to the dangers from wolves and human wolves and brainwash them into believing that the defence of animals constitutes the main purpose in life. But veneration of animals increases, regard for the value of human life tends to diminish. "The Bedouin toil not", wrote Doughty, "but their spirits are made weary in incessant apprehension for their enemies."

The nomad is a born aristocrat who applies the lessons of animal eugenics to himself. He appreciates the ability of a prize beast to seed future generations of prize beasts, and emulates bellowing potency himself. All stock-raisers have an obsession for fine blood - the limpieza de sangre of the Castilian aristocrat.

The blonde and battle-axed Aryans who descended into India have never ceased to adulate the cow - usually a white cow; and though they themselves have been hatched over in sepia, partly by the sun but mostly by intermarriage with dark-skinned aboriginals, they continue to entertain a morose preoccupation with the subtlest tones of pigmentation, dividing society into castes which reflect minute differences of skin colour, as if they were grades of fleece.

Human stud books litter the Old Testament. "Look now towards heaven", they