> _The conditions of travelling and of working in Sinai are very different from those of life in a fertile country such as Egypt... And if the conditions are thus different, so also are the people. In Egypt the fellah is one of the pleasantest of good fellows, where yet uncursed by the tourist: always obliging and friendly, and being generally intelligent within the scope of his ideas, he is capable of being trained to a high degree of care and skill; moreover, his industry is amazing, and can always be had by good treatment and pay. But the poor Bedawy of the desert is a very different man: he has been on short commons for untold generations, and has parted with every ounce of his anatomy, and every thought from his mind that was not essential in his hard struggle. The simplest reckoning puzzles him; he is incapable of foresight or of working for a given end, and he is physically unfit for any continuous labour except that of slowly wandering on foot all day with his camel._ > > -W. M. F. Petrie, Researches in Sinai [[lost+found/2/2|IRET]]