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

cii. XXV.] BcdotiiiL Hospitality. 211
differ widel}-. Tlius, tlio Jibuii, the Agbciluat,
and other fellahin tribes, give liospitality, l)ut they
accept payment for it ; while the lowest tii])e of
all, the Amur, will rob the stranger who comes to
their tents, and count their hospitality as beginning
only from the moment of his eating with them.
Among pure Bedouins this virtue has a far wider
meanino-.
A stranger once within an Anazeh or Shammar
camp, unless he be a declared enemy, the member
of a hostile tribe, is secure from all molestation ;
and even an enemy, if he have once dismounted and
touched the rope of a single tent, is safe. The
ordinary stranger is at perfect liberty to go where
he will and dismount where he pleases. He usually
selects the largest tent, for its size signifies the
wealth of the owner.
There he may remain, housed
and fed, as long as he will, the limit of such hospitality
in respect of time being quite indefinite.
T have not been able to get any one to fix its
duration. Nevertheless, I suspect that, in the tent
of a sheykli or great man, there must be some
rule as to this. I never heard of such a case;
but I imagine that, after a few days, some friend
or dependent of the host gives a hint to the
intruder that it is time to move on; or, among
the poor, that the host himself comes forward
with the tale of an empty larder as an excuse
for urging departure. But this is merely a surmise.
In ordinary cases the guest stays but one
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