350 Notes on Kdfiristdn. [No. 4. 



sanction of his entertainer, a stranger is permitted to visit the other 

 people of the village, the headman in particular ; and, on entering a 

 house, at whatever hour of the day it may be, wine and victuals are 

 immediately placed before him, of which he is pressed and expected 

 to partake. 



The guest, whether male or female, sleeps in the same apartment 

 with the family ; and all, it is said, are in pur is naturalibus. I sus- 

 pect by all accounts, however, that the meaning of the word " naked" 

 is, that they take off their outer garments when they retire to 

 rest, a natural and cleanly habit, and far preferable, in many ways, 

 to the custom of their Musalman neighbours, who sleep in the same 

 dress they wear throughout the day. 



Last year (1848) a Kafir of the Kati-hi tribe came to the Muham- 

 madan village of Moyah, where he put up at the house of an ac- 

 quaintance. When bed-time arrived, the Muhammadan host, pointed 

 out to his Kafir guest where he was to sleep. The latter became 

 exceedingly angry and said, " You came to my house and slept in the 

 same place as my wife and children slept in, whilst I being your 

 guest, you have given me a separate place to sleep ! what sort of 

 hospitality is this ?" The host, after much trouble and entreaty, at 

 length succeeded in pacifying the Kafir by making room for him in 

 the sleeping-place occupied by his wife and family. 



The Kafir towns and villages, several of which contain three and 

 four hundred houses, are almost invariably built on the steep accli- 

 vities of the mountains, on account of the general irregular nature of 

 the country they inhabit, and also, as being better in a defensive point 

 of view, in case of invasion. Some few are situated in the valleys and 

 on the table lands, towards the northern parts of the country. They 

 never dwell in tents ; but some are said to dwell in caves. 



Their houses are generally built of stone, in frames of wood, with 

 flat roofs, and of one story in height. Some dwellings contain, 

 according to the means of the owner, several rooms, furnished with 



apartment of the tent where I sat, defending the rights of their husbands with 

 all the loquacity that their lungs could supply. It is a received custom in every 

 part of the Arabian Desert, that a woman may entertain strangers in the absence 

 of her husband. Some male relation then does the honours, representing the 

 absent owner of the tent." " Notes on the Bedouins and Wahabys." 



