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

en. XXVI.] TJicir Marriages. 227
excuse left for intrigue, on the ground of domestic
unhaj^piness. The men, too, affect an extreme indifference
to the charms of female society, possiblymore
than they feel ; l3ut the fact proves that no
credit is attached, even among the young and
thoughtless, to what are called " successes." Indeed,
extreme attention to women is always looked down
upon by the Arabs as effeminate and "Turkish."
Mohammed ibn Taleb, who had been away from his
house for a month, when I asked him if he was not
anxious to get back to his wife and children, replied,
as if mortified at a charge of weakness, " ^\Tiy
should I wish it? I have hardly yet left home."
Open licentiousness is unknown in the desert.
The poorer Bedouins seldom have more than one
wife at a time, thouo-h there is no restriction in their
law on that head.
Nor do the rich often contract a
second marriage, as long as the first remains a happy
one. A woman who pleases her husband and hasborne
him sons is pretty safe against the introduction of
new women into his tent. The common cause of
disagreement is when the wife fails to give a son to
her husband, for the lack of male heirs is considered
not only a misfortune, but a disgrace among the
Bedouins. Then, after two or three years, the husband
is pretty sure to contract a new marriage,
sometimes sending back the first wife to her parents,
or more commonly retaining both.
case, and especially
Where this is the
after repeated failures to obtain
male issue, quarrels and disagTcements will arise