SOCIAL STATE OP THE ARABS. 367 



carried in public procession with drums beating be- 

 fore them; the men exhibit equestrian feats and 

 warlike evolutions ; the common people have sham 

 fights and other buffooneries ; while the young wo- 

 men join in the song and the dance, taking care by 

 removing their veils to allow their lovers a hasty 

 glance of their beauty as they pass. 



Funerals in Arabia are attended with certain pe- 

 culiar circumstances. Some tribes bury with the 

 dead man his sword, turban, and girdle. From the 

 scarcity of linen the Bedouins not unfrequently wrap 

 the body in an abba, which serves as a windingsheet. 

 Women, but not men, wear mourning. Females 

 are hired on these occasions, and paid a small sum 

 by the hour, to howl in the most heart-rending ac- 

 cents : sometimes they dance before the house of the 

 deceased with sticks and lances in their hands, tear- 

 ing their arms, faces, and hair, and behaving like 

 furies. Medina, according to Burckhardt, is the 

 only place where this absurd custom is not practised. 

 The female relatives of the family accompany the 

 bier through the streets dressed in black ; and, as a 

 further demonstration of their grief, they stain their 

 hands and feet blue with indigo, which they suffer 

 to remain for eight days. During all that time 

 they abstain from milk, alleging that its white colour 

 but ill accords with the gloom of their minds. 



Though rude in manners and fierce in their gene- 

 ral character, the Arabs are not without civility 

 and politeness. Their usual salutation is the Sa- 

 laam aleikum (Peace be with you). Shaking 

 hands and kissing after a long absence are every 

 where practised, and sometimes it is customary to 

 quote a passage of the Koran. The Bedouins know 

 nothing of those numerous court-phrases and cere- 



