2 26 Bedouin Tribes of tlie Euphrates, [ch. xxvr. 



to override the Law, would speedily jfind himself 

 deserted. 



Although great latitude is allowed by Bedouin 

 law in the point of marriage and divorce, immorality, 

 in the technical sense of an offence ao-ainst those 

 laws, appears to be far less common tlian with Euro- 

 pean nations. It is, of course, difficult for a mere 

 passing stranger to get information on these points, 

 but I should say, from all that I have heard, that 

 conjugal infidelity is most uncommon in the desert. 

 There are several reasons for this. In the first 

 place, every one in a Bedouin tent, women as well 

 as men, must live constantly en evidence, and it is 

 difficult to conceive how an intrigue could be com- 

 menced or carried on. The women have no right 

 to speak to any man but their nearest relations, and 

 could not do so without twenty witnesses to repeat 

 what had happened. The connivance of sisters, 

 mothers-in-law, and servants would be necessary for 

 any woman who designed a violation of the marriage 

 law. Then divorce is so easy and simple a process 

 that punishment would at once follow, the slightest 

 suspicion of a real cause for complaint being more 

 than sufficient reason. A woman may be sent back 

 to her parents without other form than that of the 

 husband's saying to her before witnesses, " You are 

 divorced/' or even without any form at all ; and she 

 has an equal right to leave him, with or without reason. 

 The ill-assorted marriages then generally end within a 

 few months of their being contracted ; and there is no 



