DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0269
256
INCIDENTS OF TRA.VEL.
draw their swords, and a new account of blood is
opened, to be handed down as a legacy to their
children. " Thy aunt wants thy purse," says the
Bedouin, when he meets the stranger travelling
through his wild domain. "The desert is ours,
and every man who passes over it must pay us
tribute." These principal and distinguishing traits
of the Bedouin character have long been known ;
but as I had now been with them ten days, and ex-
pected to be with them a month longer, to see them
in their tents, and be thrown among different tribes,
claiming friendship from those who were enemies
to each other, I was curious to know something of
the lighter shades, the details of their lives and
habits; and I listened with exceeding interest
while the young Bedouin, with his eyes constantly
fixed upon it, told me that for more than four hun-
dred years the tent of his fathers had been in that
mountain. Wild and unsettled, robbers and plun-
derers as they are, they have laws which are as
sacred as our own ; and the tent, and the garden,
and the little pasture-ground, are transmitted from
father to son for centuries. I have probably for-
gotten more than half of our conversation; but I
remember he told me that all the sons shared
equally ; that the daughters took nothing ; that the
children lived together ; that if any of the brothers
got married, the property must be divided ; that if
any difficulty arose on the division, the man who
worked the place for a share of the profits must di-
vide it; and, lastly, that the sisters must remain
with the brothers until they (the fisters) are mar-
INCIDENTS OF TRA.VEL.
draw their swords, and a new account of blood is
opened, to be handed down as a legacy to their
children. " Thy aunt wants thy purse," says the
Bedouin, when he meets the stranger travelling
through his wild domain. "The desert is ours,
and every man who passes over it must pay us
tribute." These principal and distinguishing traits
of the Bedouin character have long been known ;
but as I had now been with them ten days, and ex-
pected to be with them a month longer, to see them
in their tents, and be thrown among different tribes,
claiming friendship from those who were enemies
to each other, I was curious to know something of
the lighter shades, the details of their lives and
habits; and I listened with exceeding interest
while the young Bedouin, with his eyes constantly
fixed upon it, told me that for more than four hun-
dred years the tent of his fathers had been in that
mountain. Wild and unsettled, robbers and plun-
derers as they are, they have laws which are as
sacred as our own ; and the tent, and the garden,
and the little pasture-ground, are transmitted from
father to son for centuries. I have probably for-
gotten more than half of our conversation; but I
remember he told me that all the sons shared
equally ; that the daughters took nothing ; that the
children lived together ; that if any of the brothers
got married, the property must be divided ; that if
any difficulty arose on the division, the man who
worked the place for a share of the profits must di-
vide it; and, lastly, that the sisters must remain
with the brothers until they (the fisters) are mar-