1893.] H. S. Jarrett — Customs among the Bedouins of the Hauran. 81 



two girls, which they call hasrah. The girls are placed two and two on 

 the camels each of which is led by a poor man who receives about six 

 piastres for his hire. When all the horses and the caparisoned camels 

 are ready, the men mount the horses and the girls their camels and 

 they form a cavalcade, the men on hoi'seback brandishing their swords 

 and spears and feigning attacks on each other, while the girls on their 

 litters on the backs of the camels sing with shrill screams of joy some 

 such strain as the following 1 : — 



The men never cease attacking each other in mimic combat and the 

 girls to sing till they reach the house of the bride. The horsemen 

 continue their sports for the space of half an hour before the house, 

 after which the men and girls dismount and enter the apartment which 

 the bride occupies, but the girls 3 and men sit in another apartment 

 where the customary food is brought to them, consisting of burgliul and 

 meat, and portions thereof for the girls and the bride. After the 

 repast the girls rise and take the bride into a private apartment and 

 heating a caiddron of water they bathe and dress her in garments of 

 wool and silk and lead her forth singing as follows : — 



Walk proudly, O daughter of the Emir, 



Thy affianced is the first of horsemen. 



Walk proudly, daughter of the Bedouins, 



Thy spouse is the slayer of his enemies. 



Walk proudly, O daughter of the Arab, 



Thy lord is hospitable to the stranger. 



Walk proudly, O daughter of princes 



Thy affianced is Abu Zayd al Hilali. 3 

 The men then mount their horses and the girls their litters, the 

 bride being seated on one that is decorated and distinguished from the 

 others by its ornamentation. She is accompanied by one of the bride- 



1 I leave the translation of these distiches, of which I can make no decent sense, 

 to greater scholarship or ingenuity than mine. As the lines are not altogether 

 cleanly, delicacy of language not being a point with Arabian ladies, the omission 

 is not to be regretted. The metre is an irregular Hazaj, Some of the expressions 

 I do not trace, and the character of the MS. provokes suspicion of its accuracy. 



2 It is probably meant that the girls and bride are in one apartment and 

 the men in another but the construction will not grammatically admit of this. 



3 The exploits of this Admirable Crichton of the Bedouins, are chanted to 

 this day by professional reciters in the coffee-houses of Cairo. See Lane, " Modern 

 Egyptians," p. 391-, for his adventurous history. An episodo of this romance ' The 

 Stealing of the Mare ' has lately been translated from the Arabic by the accom- 

 plished Lady Anne Blunt and done into very graceful verse by her husband. Its 

 completion by the same hands is much to bo desired. 



