EXPIATION OF MURDER. 
237 
tation or compensation for murder was, not unfrequently, adjusted 
between tbe parties. Mosw'iah, after the slaughter of his brother 
Said Ben Beker, expiated the crime by camels : — we read indeed of 
an instance, where one hundred camels have been accepted for blood, 
which w'e know became usual afterwards, among the Koreish and 
some other tribes. Among the Arabs of the desart, ten were formerly 
the usual number ; and whenever such a compensation is admitted, 
it is classed under the term Divat. In the Shahnamen, Kai Khosin, 
agreeably to this received custom, pursues Afrasiab through many 
regions, to revenge the murder of his father *. and a singular instance 
occurs in Hamilton’s abridged translation of Antar. ‘- Now there was 
blood-revenge between Gheidac and Antar, because Antar had killed 
his father, and he had been brought up an orphan ; but when he grew 
up, he became a valiant horseman, and destroyed his opponents ; and 
he was a blazing thunderbolt, and overthrew knights and slew war- 
riors. And when his name was spread abroad among the tribes, they 
gave him supreme command, and he sat in the place of his father. 
He became proud, and behaved haughtily to his people. Now there 
was a man in the tribe called Gaalhaah, and he hated Gheidac. O 
Gheidac, said he one day, thou art a marked man ; it does not become 
thee to behave so haughtily towards the horsemen, when thou hast 
not yet revenged the murder of thy father : how canst thou pre- 
sume to boast over the brave and the valiant? And Gheidac said. 
Who Is the stout king on whom I am to be avenged ? Thy revenge is 
on Antar the son of Shedad, said he. Then the light became darkness 
in bis eyes, and he cried out to the horsemen of his tribe, and he 
ordered them to prepare for an expedition to attack the tribe of Abs, 
and he swore he would slay Antar, and make him drink the cup of 
perdition, and destroy the whole tribe of Abs and Adnan.” Another 
instance, which exemplifies the opinions on mulcts for blood, occurs 
in vol. 3. p. 299 ; it relates to the murder of Sou by Thalany : King 
Zoheir w as highly incensed, his eye-balls started into the crown of his 
head. O tribe of Antar, cried he, I demand from you one of three 
conditions. First, that you return me my son, as he was ; but if yon 
cannot effect that, fill then my outer cloak with the constellations of 
heaven ; and if you cannot effect that, I demand of you the whole 
tribe of Gharti, that I may sacrifice ail their children and their parents, 
O my lord, said they, verily you insult and outrage us, and demand 
of us impossibilities ; for he who requests what no human being can 
perform, oppresses and tyrannizes. But we will pay you ten times 
the price of blood, and we beg of you to set at liberty our women and 
our daughters. Thus the tribe continued, till king Zoheir was duped, 
and relented. Consulting with Rehia about the abandonment of reta- 
liation, and Ibeir return home, O king, said Rehia, what is this yon 
say ? How can we raise our heads among the Arabs, if we permit 
the blood of Shas to pass unrevenged. And unsheathing his sword. 
To arms I to arms 1 he exclaimed, and rushed with his drawn sabre 
among the tribe of A mmir, whilst the sons of king Zoheir also, joining 
■in a similar shout, extended their spears, and plied their scimeters 
among them,’' &c. &c. 
In the Orestes of Euripides, \yatcr is described as posp^sslng peciit. 
