Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates Vol 2 - The Search For Mecca

en. XX.] A Desert Laiu-siiit. 105
ibn Hedeb, charming and sensible as he is, wants
the dash necessary for such a position, while Meshur
ibn Mershid, Sviliman's nephew, who is
talked of as
likely some day to do great things, is still a boy.
Beteyen then is nominally in command of the tribe,
but Jedaan is their real leader by necessity rather
than choice.
The reason of Beteyen's visit was that he might
be present at the decision of an important suit,
which is being tried, and wdiich has been referred
to Mohammed Dukhi as arbiter.
It is nothing less
than an action brought against Jedaan by his new
wife's cousin, a young man of the Sirhan, for her
recovery, on the plea of his not having consented to
the marriage. The case is a very curious one, and
we are much interested in the decision, because if
given against Jedaan it will be a remarkable instance
of the power of law among the tribes.
Jedaan is, at
the present moment, omnipotent here, while the
cousin is a person of no influence and is talked of
by everybody as a wrong-headed youth, who has
behaved ill to the girl and deserves no countenance.
Yet it is thought that he will gain his suit. The
girl, as I have said, is nearly thirty and the cousin
only twenty-three ; so that his claim to her cannot
be considered as anything but one of interest.
He has refused to marry her himself, or rather put
it off from year to year, till the girl's father was
tired of waiting^. Jedaan seems not to have known
of the existence of this cousin till after the mar-