378 SOCIAL STATE OF THE ARABS. 



may be expiated by blood. The parties, now re- 

 conciled, feast upon the flesh of the animal ; and at 

 parting the homicide flourishes a white handkerchief 

 on his lance, as a public notification that he is " free 

 from blood." This mode of arrangement is not 

 common among the more wealthy and independent 

 tribes. Most of the great sheiks regard it as shame- 

 ful to compromise in any degree for the slaughter of 

 their relations. 



Amid the continual hostilities in which the Arabs 

 are involved, debts of blood are frequently incur- 

 red, when the slaughter is accompanied with treach- 

 ery, or contrary to the law of nations. When 

 a tribe violates the rights of war by killing their 

 enemies as they lie wounded on the field, the ad- 

 versary retaliates by killing double the number with 

 the same circumstances of cruelty. However re- 

 volting this policy may appear, an Arab would be 

 censured were he not to follow the general practice.* 



The amusements of the Arabs are comparatively 

 few, chess, draughts, and mangela, are the only 

 games they play ; the latter consists of a wooden 

 table with a dozen holes, into which two players 

 drop so many little stones, beans, or shells. The 

 vacant unvaried life which they lead, and the mo- 

 notonous scenery amidst which they dwell, must 

 often render existence irksome. It is to relieve 

 this weariness and want of novelty that they have 

 recourse to tobacco, kaad, hashish, and other in- 

 toxicating stimulants. Smoking is universal among 



* Hence we may extenuate the slaughter of the captive king's 

 (who were Bedouin sheiks) by the Israelites, as being dictated less 

 by a wanton desire of bloodshed, than by the necessity of adhering 

 to the usages of the land where they dwelt ; a dereliction from 

 which must have diminished the respect in which they were held 

 by their neighbours. Judges, chap. viii. 



