Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 3, Anatomy-Astronomy

352 A R A
Arabia, contradict each other, some superstitious ordeal is used
^-^v^^to discover the truth. A particular judge is appointed for
cases which must be decided by supernatural means. He
directs that a fire shall be kindled before him : “ he then,”
says Burckhardt, “ takes a long iron spoon, used by the
Arabs in roasting coffee, and having made it red-hot in
the fire, he takes it out, and licks with his tongue the
upper end of the spoon on both sides. He then replaces
it in the fire, and commands the accused person first to
wash his mouth with water, and next to lick it as he had
done. If the accused escape without injury to his tongue
he is supposed innocent; if he suffer from the hot iron
he loses his cause. The Arabs ascribed this wonderful
escape, not to the Almighty protector of innocence, but to
the devil.” In all cases of manslaughter or murder where
the fact is denied, this superstitious ordeal is appealed to,
and no other mode of trial admitted. Where the parties
refuse the decision of the judge, they resume their ori¬
ginal right of avenging their own quarrel; and a strife
of this nature once begun, and producing blood-shed,
leads to a long series of cruel retaliations.
Among the Arabs crimes of every description are pu¬
nished by fines; corporal punishments are entirely un¬
known ; and there are no prisons to circumscribe the free¬
dom of the desert. For every offence a fine is fixed in the
kady’s court, which is rigidly exacted: all insulting ex¬
pressions or acts of violence, from a slight blow to wound¬
ing and the effusion of blood, have their respective penal¬
ties. They adopt the following singular mode of ascer¬
taining the fine payable for killing a watch-dog: The dead
dog is held up by the tail, so that its mouth just touches
the ground; its length is then measured 'by means of a
stick, which is fixed in the earth, and the offender is ob¬
liged to pour out over the stick as much wheat as will
wholly cover it, which is then given to the owner of the
dog. The form observed by an Arab in summoning wit¬
nesses is by exclaiming, “ Bear thou witness, O
or he may touch their arms with his hand, which is con¬
sidered as a summons to give testimony. Where a party
is accused of a crime, and there are no witnesses, the
matter is referred to his oath. The judicial oaths of
the Arabs have different degrees of sanctity; and for
certain oaths they have a superstitious veneration, which
induces them to tell the truth. One of the most com¬
mon oaths is for a party to take hold with one hand of
the middle tent-pole, and to swear “ by the life of this
tent and its owners.” The following oath is often taken be¬
fore the kady: A small piece of wood or some straw is
presented to him who has to swear, with these words,
“ Take the wood, and swear by God, and the life of him
who caused it to be green, and dried it up.” Another
oath, even more solemn, is the “ oath of the cross lines,”
where the accuser leads the person accused of theft or
any other crime to a distance from the camp, on account
of the magical nature of the oath; and with his crooked
knife drawing on the sand a large circle, with many cross
lines inside of it, and obliging the defendant to place his
right foot within the circle, he himself doing the same,
he addresses him in the following words, which the accus¬
ed is obliged to repeat: “ By God, and in God, and
through God, I swear I did not take it, and it is not in
my possession.”
A singular institution, that of the wady or guardian,
prevails among the Arab tribes. An Arab may in the
prime of life request a friend to act as guardian to his
children. If he accepts the trust, his friend presents him¬
self before him with a she-camel; and leading it over to
him, says, “ I constitute you guardian for my children,
and your children for my children, and your grandchil¬
dren for my grandchildren.” In this manner one family
B I A.
is constituted the hereditary protectors of another family; Arabia,
and thus this fierce and warlike community, the prey of'^v-v;
continual dissension, is held together by its own peculiar
ties, domestic as well as political. To the weak, such as
minors, women, and old men, the system of guardianship
affords some security, however imperfect, against the op¬
pression of the strong.
The Arabs are naturally a jealous and haughty people. Law otre.
They betray the quickest sensibility to an affront or in-venge
jury, and carry the principle of revenge to the great-k1001^
est excess. They consider the redress of their own
wrongs as equally a duty and a privilege; and there are
certain affronts and trifling violations of punctilio, which
can only be expiated by the blood of the offender. To
spit beside another is considered an insult which must
be avenged; and Niebuhr mentions the case of an Arab
who was so highly incensed at one of his neighbours for
accidentally spitting on his beard, that he was with great
difficulty appeased, although the offender humbly asked
pardon, and kissed his beard in token of submission. If
one scheik says to another with a serious air, “ Thy
bonnet is dirty,” or “ The wrong side of thy turban is
out,” it is considered a mortal offence. Murder is the
deepest injury that can be committed; and the Arab
code regulates the revenge for blood by the nicest
rules. It is a universal maxim, that he who sheds blood
owes on that account blood to the family of the slain
person; and this debt may be required not only from
the actual murderer, but from all his relations. These
claims constitute the right of ihdr, or of “ blood re¬
venge.” In the case of a slain parent, the fifth genera¬
tion of his lineal descendants inherit the sacred duty of
avenging his blood on a corresponding series of descen¬
dants on the other side; and this right is never lost by
prescription, but descends to the latest posterity. If the
death of the person killed is retaliated on one only of the
murderei’’s family, the account is considered to be cleared,
though mutual hatred soon renews the quarrel. If two
of the murderer's family be killed by the relations of the
deceased, the former retaliates ; “ the interest and prin¬
cipal of the bloody debt,” says the great Roman histo¬
rian, are accumulated; the individuals of either family
lead a life of malice and suspicion; and fifty years may
sometimes elapse before the account of vengeance be
finally settled.” But a murder may be compounded for
money. The nearest relations of the persons slain may
accept the price of blood, which varies among the different
tribes from 1000 piasters, or L.50, to 500 piasters. Among
the Aenezes the blood of one of the tribe is compensated
by 50 she-camels, one riding camel, a mare, a black
stone, a coat of mail, and a gun ; though it is seldom that
all these articles are required: that of a stranger by the
price paid in the stranger’s tribe. The matter being fi¬
nally settled, a she-camel is brought by the homicide to
the tent of his adversary, and there killed, the blood
being supposed to expiate that of the person slain. The
hostile parties feast upon this camel; and at parting, the
homicide flourishes a white handkerchief on his lance, as
an emblem of his purity from guilt. Some of the great
scheiks, however, account it shameful, and contrary to
the true spirit of the Arab law, to compound the price of
blood; and they invariably refuse to commute into a fine
the sacred duty of revenge. Niebuhr mentions that he
was visited by an Arabian of distinction at Loheia, who
was bound to avenge the murder of a relation, and who
told him that he was often haunted in his sleep by the
fear of meeting his enemy. In the course of the conti¬
nual wars in which the Arabs are involved, debts of blood
are frequently incurred. The blood of those who are kill¬
ed in the heat of battle is required at the hands of their