SOCIAL STATE OF THE ARABS. 337 



parting- the homicide floiirislies a white liaiiclkerchief 

 on his lance, as a public notification that he is " free 

 from blood." This mode of arrangement is not 

 common among: the more wealthy and independent 

 tribes. Most of the great sheiks regard it as shame- 

 ful to compromise in any degree for the slaughter 

 of their relations. 



Amid the continual hostilities in which the Arabs 

 are involved, debts of blood are frequently incurred, 

 when the slaughter is accompanied with treachery, 

 or contrary to the law of nations. When a tribe 

 violates the rights of war by killing their enemies as 

 they lie wounded on the field, the adversary retal- 

 iates by killing double the number with the same 

 circumstances of cruelty. However revolting tills 

 policy may appear, an Arab would be censured were 

 he not to follow the general practice.* 



The amusements of the Arabs are comparatively 

 few, — chess, draughts, and mangela are the only 

 games they play ; the latter consists of a wooden 

 table with a dozen holes, into which two players 

 drop so many little stones, beans, or shells. The 

 vacant unvaried life which they lead, and the mo- 

 notonous scenery amid which they dwell, must 

 often render existence irksome. It is to relieve 

 this weariness and want of novelty that they have 

 recourse to tobacco, kaad, hashish, and other intoxi- 

 cating stimulants. Smoking is universal among all 

 classes, notwithstanding the warmth of the cli- 

 mate and the natural dryness of their constitution. 

 Persons of opulence and fashion always carry with 

 them a box filled with odoriferous wood, — a bit of 

 which, when put into the pipe, communicates to 



* Hence we may extenuate the slaughter of the captive kings 

 (who were Bedouin sheiks) by the Israehtes, as being dictated 

 less by a wanton desire of bloodshed than by the necessity of 

 adhering to the lusages of the land where they dwelt ; a derelic- 

 tion from which must have diminished the respect in which 

 they were held by their neighbours. — Judges, chap. viii. 

 Vol. it.— F f 



