5 8o LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1880- 



a village of the Harb, only three miles from Jeddali, 

 bears their name. 



Of the Arabs in the Tehama and between Mecca and 

 Medina I have little to tell. Those in the low country 

 near Jeddah are greatly mixed. Being slave-holders 

 and slave-traders, they are largely tinged with negro 

 blood. The Zobeid and the Hutem, who are pearl 

 fishers, use negroes to dive for them, and treat them in 

 this avocation with great cruelty. The villagers near 

 Jeddah are little accessible to Europeans, and naturally 

 dislike the English for their action against the slave trade. 

 I have met on friendly terms with the people of one 

 village only, whose Sheikh, Abdulla Wasl of the Harb, 

 has an employment under the Shereef, in charge of the 

 Bedouin market at the Mecca gate. 



X. ARABIAN CUSTOMS 



I had occasion in my last letter to allude to the 

 customary law established on precedents which prevails 

 among the Bedouins. I am now to say a little more on 

 the subject, especially as it is connected with blood 

 revenge and war. 



The Arabs, says Sheikh Aly Qasim, have three great 

 principles, which they call the three white rules. White 

 has here a figurative sense, which is best understood 

 from the common phrase, that a man s face becomes 

 black when he disgraces himself by a breach of custom. 



The first of these principles is, &quot;Tent rope by tent rope.&quot; 

 A man whose tent rope touches yours is your Jar, your 

 neighbour, with a claim on your protection. If you 

 can contrive to pitch thus beside a man, you have estab 

 lished your claim on him. 



The second rule is, sacred obligation to him who 

 journeys with you by day and sleeps by you at night. The 

 third imposes on a host the duty of protecting the guest 

 who has eaten with him until he has eaten with another. 



