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

2 26 Bedouin Tribes of tlie Euphrates, [ch. xxvr.
to override the Law, would speedily jfind himself
deserted.
Although great latitude is allowed by Bedouin
law in the point of marriage and divorce, immorality,
in the technical sense of an offence ao-ainst those
laws, appears to be far less common tlian with European
nations. It is, of course, difficult for a mere
passing stranger to get information on these points,
but I should say, from all that I have heard, that
conjugal
infidelity is most uncommon in the desert.
There are several reasons for this. In the first
place, every one in a Bedouin tent, women as well
as men, must live constantly en evidence, and it is
difficult to conceive how an intrigue could be commenced
or carried on.
The women have no right
to speak to any man but their nearest relations, and
could not do so without twenty witnesses to repeat
what had happened. The connivance of sisters,
mothers-in-law, and servants would be necessary for
any woman who designed a violation of the marriage
law. Then divorce is so easy and simple a process
that punishment would at once follow, the slightest
suspicion of a real cause for complaint being more
than sufficient reason.
to her parents without other
A woman may be sent back
form than that of the
husband's saying to her before witnesses, " You are
divorced/' or even without any form at all ;
and she
has an equal right to leave him, with or without reason.
The ill-assorted marriages then generally end within a
few months of their being contracted ; and there is no