In Search of Lehi’s Trail, Hilton & Hilton, pp. 101-102
“All this bears out the conviction, supported both by modern experience and the evidence of archaeology, that Lehi was moving through a dangerous world. In ancient times Jewish merchants traveling through the desert fell so often into the hands of Bedouin raiders that by the beginning of the Christian era their word for ‘captor’ normally meant simply ‘Arab’! (Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert, pp. 73-74)
“On the probable trail which Lehi traveled there are today 118 waterholes, spaced (on the average) eighteen miles apart. It was the custom of experienced travelers in Arabia that they never built a fire, as it could attract the attention of a prowling, raiding party. As a result, they ate much of their food raw, as recorded in the Book of Mormon. Attacking and plundering camps still seems to be the chief object of some Arab tribes.” (Paul Cheesman, First Nephi, The Doctrinal Foundation, BYU Reliogios Studies Center, p. 245)