1893.] H. S. Jarrett — Customs among the Bedotdns of the Haurdn. 91 



that it was a girl and not a boy : upon this she told her husband that 

 she had brought forth a male, and her sister-in-law a female child, 

 whereas now she found the female with herself and the male by the 

 side of her sister. A contention arose, therefore, among them till the 

 matter was carried to the Shaykh of the tribe, who directed them to 

 proceed to the Kadhi who should judge between them. They presented 

 themselves before the Kadhi and stated their case. The Kadhi there- 

 upon ordered that a determinate measure of milk should be taken from 

 the breasts of both the women, and he then weighed the milk of the 

 one against the other in accurate scales. The milk of the boy's mother 

 weighing somewhat heavier than that of the mother of the girl, he 

 decided that the heavier milk belonged to the mother of the male child. 

 He added that if they would not accept this decision, he would be com- 

 pelled to put it to the test of the louse. Now lice are very common 

 with the Arabs, and his intention was to place some of the milk of the 

 male-child in a dish and to put a louse in the middle of it, whence it 

 would not be able to extricate itself from the milk of the male owing 

 to the presence of greater viscidity than is found in the milk of the 

 female. Whereas if the louse be set in the milk of the female child, 

 it will crawl out without difficulty, from the absence of this viscous 

 matter. After the decision was given, an investigation and a close 

 enquiry proved that the male child was stolen from his mother and in 

 accordance with the sentence, the boy was restored to his true mother 

 and the girl to hers. 



A Second Instance. 



A man married two women. One proved barren, the other not so. 

 The latter gave birth to a son, for which reason her husband preferred 

 her to the other. A violent jealousy took possession of the rival 

 wife and she concealed in her heart a determination to destroy the child 

 and she watched a favourable opportunity to commit the evil deed. 

 One day, when the boy's mother set forth from the house to collect 

 camel's-dung in the desert, the wicked woman placed her hand upon 

 the child's mouth and nose and suffocated it. When the child's mother 

 returned she found her son dead and the body turned blue whereupon 

 she set up a shriek and kept wailing, "Alas, why hast thou done this to 

 me," and a clamour arose between them, each wife's people taking her 

 side and the altercation became violent till a war was imminent between 

 them. At this juncture the chief arrived and quieted the tumult and 

 ordered them to go before the Kadhi to decide between them. They 

 duly presented themselves and set forth their plaints. The Kadhi called 

 the mother of the boy aside and said to her, — " 1 know that thy wicked 



