i88i] A JOURNEY IN THE HEjAZ 581 



But the most important of all Arabic principles is 

 the law of retaliation, which has received the sanction 

 of religion under Islam ; but as practised by the Bedouins, 

 is simply an affair of ancient usage. The law of retalia 

 tion goes along with the principle of self-help. If a man 

 strikes another, the injured person makes it his aim to 

 inflict in retaliation a stroke as similar as possible eye 

 for eye, tooth for tooth, blood for blood. The duty of 

 avenging insult descends from father to son. A child 

 will cherish in his mind from earliest infancy the recollec 

 tion of a blow inflicted on his father, and when old enough 

 and strong enough, will repay it. Great subtlety is 

 shown as to the exact balance of offence and retaliation. 

 The most important application of the law of retaliation 

 is naturally in the case of slaughter. The blood of a 

 tribesman is the concern of the tribe. The revenge may 

 fall on a distant kinsman of the slayer quite innocent of 

 a share in the offence, and if the slaughter is compounded 

 by a payment of blood-money, the payment is made and 

 received by the tribe, not by the individual. But a 

 strong and proud tribe will not generally accept money 

 from another unless for accidental blood. The honour 

 of the tribe demands blood for blood, and the nearest 

 relations of the deceased are those whose special business 

 it is to exact it. The opportunity of revenge may offer 

 itself in the streets of a town. Even in Jeddah a Bedouin 

 will strike his foe with the dirk, or, if he be of the Harb, 

 shoot him with his pistol and flee. In Medina he will 

 not even flee, but boldly stand up and say, I am such a 

 one, son of such a one, and have killed this man in such 

 an affair of blood. The constant uncertainty and terror 

 in which a man stands who has shed blood, or otherwise 

 exposed himself to retaliation for a minor injury, make 

 it necessary that the principle should have some limita 

 tion, and a method has been devised by which an offender 

 can place himself under the protection of a kinsman 

 of the slain or injured party. He must not choose a 



