1893.] H. S. Jarrett — Customs among the Bedouins of the Haurdn. 93 



thein repudiated the charge and as there were no witnesses to prove 

 the case against any particular person, he declared that he would 

 bring the criminal to justice in six months. After the lapse of the six 

 months, the Kadhi requested the chief of the tribe to assemble the 

 people on a large plain and place them side by side with their hands 

 folded upon their breasts in the form of a cross. The chief told them 

 in a loud voice that the Kadhi desired to whisper something to them, 

 to which they should listen. Upon this the Kadhi whispered in the 

 ears of all of them saying, " I wish to say but two words only, and 

 when I speak them eveiwone who keeps his arms crossed on his 

 breast, shall receive from the Emir a present of a horse, a sword, and 

 a spear. Do you accept this condition ? " he added. They all assented, 

 and the Kadhi with the Emir and the other chiefs in attendance, stood 

 before the assembled crowd, while the Kadhi thus exclaimed in a 

 loud voice: "0, Arabs! I know that he whose fillet of rope 1 shall 

 fly off his head, is the murderer of Ibn u'l Badin," (the name of the 

 murdered man). Before the Kadhi had closed his lips, a man raised his 

 hand to his head and felt his band. Thereupon the Emir, the Kadhi, 

 and the chiefs came forward and laid hold of him, and he, after much 

 questioning, confessed that he had killed the unfortunate man with 

 his own hand. 



Their Oaths. 

 The Bedouins constantly make use of oaths in their conversation. 

 They cannot string a sentence together without bi'lldh or ta'lldh fre- 

 quently reiterated, or Saldt-Muhammad. These words are used in 

 adjuration whether they speak truly or falsely, which makes no dif- 

 ference to them. But the oath which they regard as reliable and 

 which they employ in their tribunals, and in important cases, is the 

 following: — "By the staff and the adored Lord, and the geomancy 2 of 

 Solomon, the son of David." Before taking this oath, the man grasps 

 a staff in his hand and describes therewith a circle upon the ground 

 in front of the bystanders, after which he takes this oath before the 

 company, who thereby become witnesses against him. When they ap- 

 pear before the Kadhi in any important case, and the point is to be 

 decided by oath, the Kadhi addresses him saying, "Say, O Bedouin, by 



1 This is the band of rope {{Ml) which serves to fasten the Jcufiyyah or kerchief 

 of cotton or silk, which the Bedouin wears round his head. Burton transliterates 

 this word incorrectly, as Aakal, in his El. Misr. I., 346. ed. 1855. 



% Li. or Ls-'t Jj? ; equivalent to <J*OjJ\ -jLe or geomancy. — These are lines 



made in sand, and even on paper, by the diviners ; an auciont practice, according 

 to Lane, still carried on at the present day, and employed to discover secret 

 thoughts and things unknown aud the liko. 



