2IO Bcdomn Tribes of the Euphrates, [cji. xxv. 



their adherents the prizes made in war, or the 

 presents they receive from strangers. The young 

 are more remarkaljle in this way than the older 

 men ; and Faris, the Shammar chief, who represents 

 the highest traditions of the past, keeps nothing for 

 himself either in the way of presents or prizes. All 

 goes to his retainers. Much, too, as the Bedouins 

 love money, they will not accept it, except under 

 special circumstances, from strangers living under 

 their tents ; — and this brings us to their great 

 virtue, their hospitality. 



Hospitality to the European mind does not re- 

 commend itself, like justice or mercy, as a natural 

 virtue. It is rather regarded as what theologians 

 call a swpernatural one ; that is to say, it would 

 seem to require something more than the instinct 

 of ordinary good feehng to throw open the doors of 

 one's house to a stranger, to kill one's lamb for 

 his benefit, and to share one's last loaf with him. 

 Yet the Bedouins do not so regard it. They look 

 upon hospitality not merely as a duty imposed by 

 divine ordinance, but as the primary instinct of a 

 well-constituted mind. To refuse shelter or food 

 to a stranger is held to be not merely a wicked 

 action, an offence against divine or human law, 

 but the YQYj essence of depravity. A man, thus 

 acting, could not again win the respect or toleration 

 of his neighbours. This, in principle, is the same in 

 all Arab tribes, Bedouin or not ; but the particular 

 laws and obligations of hospitality among them 



