You will part the
best of friends, leaving perhaps only a pair of sandals behind you. But
should you hesitate, Latro, lamenting the painful necessity, touches up
your back with the heel of his spear. If this hint suffice not, he will
make things plain by the lance’s point, and when blood shows, the
tiger-part of humanity appears. Between Badawin, to be tamely
plundered, especially of the mare,[FN#39] is a lasting disgrace; a man
of
[p.103] family lays down his life rather than yield even to
overpowering numbers. This desperation has raised the courage of the
Badawin to high repute amongst the settled Arabs, who talk of single
braves capable, like the Homeric heroes, of overpowering three hundred
men.
I omit general details about the often-described Sar, or Vendetta. The
price of blood is $800 = 200l., or rather that sum imperfectly
expressed by live stock. All the Khamsah or A’amam, blood relations of
the slayer, assist to make up the required amount, rating each animal
at three or four times its proper value. On such occasions violent
scenes arise from the conflict of the Arab’s two pet passions, avarice
and revenge. The “avenger of blood” longs to cut the foe’s throat. On the
other hand, how let slip an opportunity of enriching himself? His
covetousness is intense, as are all his passions. He has always a
project of buying a new dromedary, or of investing capital in some
marvellous colt; the consequence is, that he is insatiable. Still he
receives blood-money with a feeling of shame; and if it be offered to
an old woman,—the most revengeful variety of our species, be it
remarked,—she will dash it to the ground and clutch her knife, and
fiercely swear by Allah that she will not “eat” her son’s blood.
The Badawi considers himself a man only when mounted on horseback,
lance in hand, bound for a foray or a fray, and carolling some such
gaiety as—
“A steede! a steede of matchlesse speede!
A sword of metal keene!
All else to noble minds is drosse,
All else on earth is meane.”
Even in his sports he affects those that imitate war. Preserving the
instinctive qualities which lie dormant in civilisation, he is an
admirable sportsman. The children,
[p.104] men in miniature, begin with a rude system of gymnastics when
they can walk. “My young ones play upon the backs of camels,” was the reply
made to me by a Jahayni Badawi when offered some Egyptian plaything.
The men pass their time principally in hawking, shooting, and riding.
The “Sakr,[FN#40]” I am told, is the only falcon in general use; they train
it to pursue the gazelle, which
[p.105] greyhounds pull down when fatigued.
