The Cedars of Lebanon.
CHAPTER VIII.—The Bedaween and Fellaheen.
The Bedaween are rough but picturesque looking fellows, armed often with very long lances, spear at one end, spike to stick in the ground at the other, some such kind of weapon as that with which Abner killed Asahel, whom he smote with the hinder-part of the spear while being pursued; long guns with a short range, antique pistols and knives stuck into the girdle, making up a formidable looking martial equipment. Their horses are small, but swift and hardy. They live in tents still as in days of yore, as black as those of Kedar; are robbers by trade, but not naturally cruel, and they do not care to kill unless resistance is made. They rarely attack unless pretty sure of being able to overpower, and when on mere robbery bent, generally go about in small bands of three and four, keeping close together. If the travellers keep also close together they will probably get the worst of it, as the Bedaween are quick in attack, and seizing the reins, unhorse the rider in an instant. They seldom leave the traveller with more than one garment, and of course take the horses too. They do not attack large parties like Cook’s caravans. As we have only one guide with us, we have to keep a very sharp look-out in dangerous districts, travelling with about the distance of a pistol shot between us, so that if one is attacked, the other may have time to draw a revolver, which Bedaween will seldom face, as their game is to rob defenceless travellers, and not to risk their own lives. Three of them, mounted, dodged myself and dragoman for some time on the open plains of Esdraelon, and doubled upon us, but seeing that we were on the alert and not to be surprised, at last to our great relief left us. It is only the small bands that need be feared. A tribe on the march or in camp in Syria would never touch a traveller, as it would soon be known what tribe was near at the time, and vengeance would follow, as they cannot move en masse quickly, and for this reason (even in unsafe districts) it is safer in the neighbourhood of their camps than far from them. If two Bedaween of different tribes are coming in opposite directions in a lonely district, they will not meet face to face, but one goes to the right and the other in the contrary direction, in order that one shall not get behind the other, for if there were a blood feud between the tribes, and either could murder the other without risk, it would surely be done. They are so afraid of being taken unawares, that if two travellers were to meet three Bedaween, and one were to go straight up the road, and the other off the road to one side so as to get in their rear, they would not attack the traveller left alone. We know a case in which a party of three (with only one gun between them) escaped in this manner. They are nominally subject to the Sultan, but his tax gatherer does not trouble them much. They have a nasty knack of reaping what others have sown, swooping down from a distance in the middle of the night and clearing away before morning with half the harvest of a village—not very difficult to do when it is lying in heaps on the threshing floor ready for market.
THE FELLAHEEN.
The Fellaheen, or aboriginal peasants, mostly of Philistine or Phœnician descent, fear the Bedaween as much as the passing traveller does. They frequently carry for defence either a rather artistic looking kind of battle-axe (probably a remnant of Crusader times), a knob-stick something like a Zulu war-club, or a rusty old musket and knife—they sometimes do a bit of pillage and murder on their own account; one unfortunately occurred while we were in the country, and a young friend of ours was cruelly murdered by them a few years ago near Nazareth in an oak forest we had recently passed through. His murderers were discovered and thrown into prison and kept there without trial, and their non-execution created an impression here that to murder an Englishman is the same as to murder a native, and simply to pay as blood-money a part of the plunder back if the crime is found out. It may interest our readers to know how capital punishment is carried out in this country. First of all the public crier cries, “Who will behead so-and-so for (say) five napoleons?” Some poor needy wretch undertakes the horrid office. On one occasion the man, an amateur, lost his nerve, and butchered his victim; we will not relate the circumstances. Before the execution takes place, the chief officer at the execution cries out, “Who will buy this man’s soul?” and an auction goes on for it. If a sufficient sum of money is bid to satisfy the murdered man’s relations (and they generally will accept blood-money in satisfaction), then the culprit is not executed, but sent to prison nominally for life; but he generally gets out after ten or fifteen years. At Jerusalem, criminals are generally executed outside the Jaffa Gate, where probably, and not on the site of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, our Saviour was crucified. In the case of Arabs, especially, it is usual to carry them to the place of execution on a donkey—a high born Bedawi thinking it the greatest disgrace to ride that homely and patient animal which he generally keeps for the women and children. Recently a Bedawi brigand was executed outside Jerusalem, he was a villain, but a plucky fellow; his last words were “Loose my hands and give me a sword, and with all your guards I will not be hung to-day.” He was given the rope; he placed one end round his neck and tied the other to a tree, stood on the donkey, kicked it aside and was his own executioner. This soul was put up for auction, but there was not a bid; not even the most merciful Mahommedan could make an offer for the life of a man who had sent so many souls to death without even offering them at auction. As if the country were not unsafe enough, the Sublime Porte banished to Palestine some time since, thousands of the Circassian cut-throats, who committed the Bulgarian atrocities. A few nice tales could be told about them—they are likely however to die out, as the natives are against them, and they do not all die natural deaths, but often meet the fate they are so ready to deal out to others.