240 Bedoiiin Tribes of the Euphrates. [cH.xxvir. 



agJiaJ, which is a part of his head-dress, and which 

 in fighting he has hung over his shoulders (for the 

 Bedouins fight bare-headed), he throws it round the 

 neck of the suppliant, and by this act proclaims him 

 captive. His arms and mare then become the pro- 

 perty of the captor ; and, even if rescued later, the 

 prisoner can take no further part in the fight. If, 

 with his surrender, his mare is captured, he is then 

 let go, to find the best of his way back to his own 

 j)eople on foot ; but, if the mare escape or be rescued, 

 then the prisoner must accompany his captor to the 

 tent of the latter, where he is hospitably entertained, 

 but held to ransom until such time as the mare can 

 be delivered. Afterwards he is free to depart.* 



The reason why life is seldom taken in war must 

 be looked for, partly in the fact that firearms are 

 not in general use, partly in the custom of claiming, 

 on the conclusion of peace, damages for each death. 

 A tribe which has a balance of fifty lives to account 

 for, may have a heavy ransom to pay at the end of 

 the war. The mares taken are also sometimes re- 

 stored by the articles of the peace ; but this is not 

 usual. The captors of them are generally anxious 

 to sell or exchange them with tribes not concerned 

 in the war, so as to aA^oid the possibility of such 

 restoration. When accounts are settled the blood 

 money, liak el dam, is paid in camels, — fifty I believe, 



* Sometimes the prisoner, on taking oath before two witnesses 

 that he will send his mare, and always if he have no mare, is at 

 once released. 



