1893.] H. S. Jarrett — Customs among the Bedouins of the Haurdn. 85 



Meanwhile, that is during the repast, if the butter on the dish should 

 run short, they add more, and one may sometimes see the butter 

 streaming from the hands of the eaters as from a spout. When all 

 present have had their fill, the host comes forward and eats from the side 

 of the dish which often contains portions of food foul from the hands 

 that have been stretched over it. If a guest stays till evening, fodder 

 is given to his horse and another animal is killed, according to the 

 manner above described. 



It is customary for the guest when he is at table, to take some 

 meat and give a piece to each of those present who are not seated 

 at the meal in the first instance. When one of those seated at 

 table rises, the host says to him, — " Fill O such a one, this vacant 

 place." When the meal is done, the guest says to the host, — " Many 

 thanks to the host ; be this followed with lawful recompense." Meanwhile 

 coffee is continuously being made and whenever one coffee-pot is emptied, 

 another is produced until the guest departs. After his departure he 

 continues still under the hospitality of his host who is responsible for any 

 harm that may befall him, but should he become the guest of others on 

 the road and partake of their hospitality and an accident subsequently 

 occur or he be robbed, it is a charge on the later host and the 

 responsibility of the first determines. 



The rights of the host against the robber of his guest are based 

 on prescribed rules. If it happen that the guest be plundered when on 

 his journey from his host's roof, the latter rides with a number of 

 horsemen of his kindred and tribe and visits the chief of the tribe to 

 which the robber belongs and thus addresses him, " Such and such a 

 one was our guest on such a day and he is a traveller on the road and 

 our salt was in his stomach, (i. e., he partook of our food) and he departed 

 and before he had eaten of the salt of others, he was set upon by such 

 a one of your tribe at a certain place. And when the man attacked 

 him, he informed him that he was our guest and notwithstanding his 

 protest that he was travelling under the protection of our salt, he robbed 

 him nevertheless. Now we demand our due." Thereupon the chief of 

 the plunderer's tribe sends after the offender and recovers the whole 

 of the property robbed and makes it over to its owner. He then charges 

 him with an indemnity for the host whose guest has been robbed, con- 

 sisting of a male and female camel, ten head of sheep, a sword and 

 a spear. 



If the tribe of the robber refuse the demands of the guest's enter- 

 tainers and will not give up the property plundered nor pay the indem- 

 nity to the host of the stranger, hostilities ensue between the tribes and 

 occasionally many lives are lost. 



