The
House of Allah.” Their blunders in religious matters supply the citizens
with many droll stories. And it is to be observed that they do not,
like the Greek pirates or the Italian bandits, preserve a religious
element in their plunderings; they make no vows, and they carefully
avoid offerings.
The ceremonies of Badawi life are few and simple—circumcisions,
marriages, and funerals. Of the former rite there are two forms,
Taharah, as usual in Al-Islam, and Salkh, an Arab invention, derived
from the times of Paganism.[FN#46] During Wahhabi rule it was forbidden
under pain of death, but now the people have returned to it. The usual
age for Taharah is between five and six; among
[p.111] some classes, however, it is performed ten years later. On such
occasions feastings and merrymakings take place, as at our christenings.
Women being a marketable commodity in barbarism as in civilisation, the
youth in Al-Hijaz is not married till his father can afford to buy him
a bride. There is little pomp or ceremony save firing of guns, dancing,
singing, and eating mutton. The “settlement” is usually about thirty sound
Spanish dollars,[FN#47] half paid down, and the other owed by the
bridegroom to the father, the brothers, or the kindred of his spouse.
Some tribes will take animals in lieu of ready money. A man of wrath
not contented with his bride, puts her away at once. If peaceably
inclined, by a short delay he avoids scandal. Divorces are very
frequent among Badawin, and if the settlement money be duly paid, no
evil comes of them.[FN#48]
The funerals of the wild men resemble those of the citizens, only they
are more simple, the dead being buried where they die. The corpse,
after ablution, is shrouded in any rags procurable; and, women and
hired weepers
[p.112] not being permitted to attend, it is carried to the grave by
men only. A hole is dug, according to Moslem custom; dry wood, which
everywhere abounds, is disposed to cover the corpse, and an oval of
stones surrounding a mound of earth keeps out jackals and denotes the
spot. These Badawin have not, like the wild Sindis and Baluchis,
favourite cemeteries, to which they transport their dead from afar.
The traveller will find no difficulty in living amongst the Hijazi
Badawin. “Trust to their honour, and you are safe,” as was said of the Crow
Indians; “to their honesty and they will steal the hair off your head.” But
the wanderer must adopt the wild man’s motto, omnia mea mecum porto; he
must have good nerves, be capable of fatigue and hardship, possess some
knowledge of drugs, shoot and ride well, speak Arabic and Turkish, know
the customs by reading, and avoid offending against local prejudices,
by causing himself, for instance, to be called Taggaa.
