82 H. S. Jarrett — Customs among the Bedouins of the Haurdn. [No. 2, 



groom's female relations, his sister, his niece, or a cousin, and with the 

 horses and litters a single cavalcade is formed. The men renew their 

 mimic attacks, and the girls their song from the litters. This procession 

 is styled Fdridah, and they thus proceed, the horsemen skirmishing and 

 the women singing, till they reach the bridegroom's house when a 

 tournament is held for the space of about an hour, which the girls from 

 their brancards accompany with loud screams of joy. 



When this is concluded the men and girls dismount and lead the 

 bride to the house of some neighbour who has arranged previously to 

 meet and invite her thither, and he causes some lambs to be killed 

 and about a quarter of a Kintdr l of burghul to.be prepared. Two large 

 dishes are filled, and a quantity of clarified butter poured over them and 

 one dish is placed before the men and the other before the bride 

 and the women. When the repast is over, a relation of the bride- 

 groom places in the neighbour's hand half a beshlik,^ equivalent in 

 value to a piastre and a half, upon which he calls out with a loud 

 voice, " May God reward thee for this, O such a one," mentioning 

 his name and adding, " may you live for ever — this is half a lira." 2 ' 

 Upon this every one present comes forward one by one and gives the 

 man a piastre, or a piastre and a half, and he exclaims in a loud 

 voice, " May God reward thee for this, O such a one ! this is a lira" 

 and thus they continue one after another in this manner until not 

 a single person is omitted. After this, the women and the girls 

 advance likewise and put into the man's hand a few dirhams, upon 

 which he exclaims, <: May God reward thee, such a one, this is half a 

 lira," and so on until all the women and girls have passed. This custom 

 they call nukut.^ The whole sum collected does not exceed one hundred 

 and fifty piastres. When this ceremony is concluded, the man to whom 

 this function is delegated, places all the pieces collected into a wrapper 

 and presents it to the bride. This custom is termed Shobdsh ; 5 and 



1 The Kintar according to Dozy (the French quintal from the root of the Lat. 

 centum) is a weight of a hundred pounds and is still of that measure in Syria. 



2 As a unit of value, it is apiece of five piastres (from the Turkish besh, five, and 

 the termination Uk (i^Uj or Uk (<j^), signifying function or quality), but local 

 variations no doubt account for the difference in the text. 



3 This is said honoris causa, to magnify the amount of the gift. The Turkish 

 lira (gold) was current at 30! to 33g krans to the pound sterling in Turkish Arabia in 

 1891, the Indian rupee at 2J hrans, varying of course according to the relative value 

 of the metals. The g harsh or piastre is a corruption of the German groschen. 



4> Plural of laiii nakat, pieces of money given to musicians at a fete or to the 

 bride at a wedding, as in this instance, v. Lane, "Mod. Egypt.," XXVII. 



6 This term occurs in the "Arabian Nights" (715th night) pronounced She/bash 

 ((j£j^>j in Egypt, and Shubdsh in Arabic, derived from the Persian Shdh-bdsh, 



