[125] In speaking of the Bedouins I mean the Aneyza, Shamma, Al Dhefyr, and other great tribes inhabiting Mesopotamia and the Desert to the north of the Gebel Shammar. With the Arabs of the Hedjaz and Central Arabia I am unacquainted.
[126] Polygamy, it may be here mentioned, is very common amongst the Bedouins.
[127] The title of haraymi (thief), so far from being one of disgrace, is considered evidence of great prowess and capacity in a young man. Like the Spartans of old, he only suffers if caught in the act. There was a man of the Assaiyah tribe, who had established an immense renown by stealing no less than ninety horses, amongst which was the celebrated mare given by Sofuk to Beder Khan Bey.
[128] Easterns never hawk, if they can avoid it, when the sun is high, as the bird of prey described in the text then appears in search of food.
[129] One of the principal objects of the Bedouins in battle being to carry off their adversaries’ mares, they never wound them if they can avoid it, but endeavour to kill or unhorse the riders.
[130] Burckhardt has thus defined the terms of this law: “The Thar rests with the khomse, or fifth generation, those only having the right to revenge a slain parent, whose fourth lineal ascendant is, at the same time, the fourth lineal ascendant of the person slain; and, on the other side, only those male kindred of the homicide are liable to pay with their own for the blood shed, whose fourth lineal ascendant is at the same time the fourth lineal ascendant of the homicide. The present generation is thus comprised within the number of the khomse. The lineal descendants of all those who are entitled to revenge at the moment of the manslaughter inherit the right from their parents. The right to blood-revenge is never lost; it descends on both sides to the latest generation.” (Notes on Arabs, p. 85.)
[131] I. e. The ancient ruined city, a name very generally given by the Turks to ruins.
[132] The form of salutation used by the Turks, consisting of raising the hand from the breast, or sometimes from the ground, to the forehead.
[133] Burckhardt remarks that “Bedouins are, perhaps, the only people of the East that can be entitled true lovers.” (Notes on Bedouins, p. 155.)
[134] In the winter of the year my residence in Babylonia, after an engagement near Baghdad, between the Boraij and the Turkish regular troops, in which the latter were defeated, a flying soldier was caught within sight of an encampment. His captors were going to put him to death, when he stretched his hands towards the nearest tent, claiming the Dakheel of its owner, who chanced to be Sahiman, Mijwell’s eldest brother. The Sheikh was absent from home, but his beautiful wife Noura answered to the appeal, and seizing a tent-pole beat off his pursuers, and saved his life. This conduct was much applauded by the Bedouins.