SOCIAL STATE OF THE ARABS. 



find her; her female friends, meantime, being ap- 

 prized of her hiding-place, furnish her with pro- 

 visions. When brought to her father's tent she is 

 placed in the women's apartment, where one of the 

 young men immediately throws over her an abba 

 in the name of her future husband; and this is 

 often the first time she learns who the person is to 

 whom she is betrothed. She is then dressed by her 

 mother and female relations in her wedding-suit, 

 which is provided by the bridegroom ; and being 

 mounted on a camel ornamented with tassels and 

 shreds of cloth, she is conducted, still screaming 

 and struggling in the most unruly manner, three 

 times round the tent, while her companions utter 

 loud exclamations. If the husband belong to a dis- 

 tant camp the women accompany her ; and during 

 the procession decency obliges her to cry and sob 

 most bitterly. These lamentations and struggles con- 

 tinue after marriage ; and sometimes she repeats her 

 flight to the mountains, refusing to return until she 

 is found out, or is even far advanced in pregnancy. 

 Marriages are generally solemnized on the Fri- 

 day evenings, and the contracts are drawn up by 

 the cadi ; if the bride be a widow or a divorced 

 woman it is attended with little ceremony or rejoic- 

 ing. This sort of connexion is always reckoned ill 

 omened ; no resistance is made, no feast takes 

 place, no guest will eat of the nuptial bread; for 

 thirty days the husband will not taste any provisions 

 belonging to his wife, and visiters when they come 

 to drink coifee bring their own cups, because to touch 

 any vessel belonging to the newly-married widow 

 would be considered the sure road to perdition. 

 Sheiks and rich citizens display more splendour in 

 their dresses and entertainments. The bride is decked 



