Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/312

 274 Marriage Customs of the Bedu and Fellahin.

see that no maiden among his cousins, especially the daughter of his paternal uncle,^ shall remain single. Among the Bedu such marriage is even his right, and he may- insist upon the rejection of every other suitor should he him- self desire her, and she only has the right to refuse him. Even after she has been assigned to another, and is already seated upon the camel which will conduct her to her future home, her nearest cousin may deliver her, with her own permission.

This marriage of near relatives has the advantage^ of ensuring previous acquaintance and intercourse, as the pair have probably played together in childhood. Among the Bedu and Fellahin this is not important, as the women are unveiled with very rare exceptions, (such as the tribes of Jumma'^in, Jayusah, and el-Baraghit), and the sexes have free intercourse, within certain rules of decorum. Among the Bedu and many Fellahin, all relatives on the mother's side beyond those of the same generation are regarded as lawful, or rather, to quote their own expression, " not unlaw- ful." A man may not marry his paternal aunt, but may his paternal uncle's daughter. A woman may not marry her uncle, as he is regarded as " complete parentage " ; the maternal uncle is, moreover, her protector, in many cases even more so than is her father. Relatives-in-law are not

Demand and wish,

O my brother, and the wedding is doing an injustice. O my brother, and the wedding is doing an injustice. 5. Barhoom is in the village square, He is smoking a cigarette. Implore you, O Sara. Woe to me ! Rise and open to me Woe to me ! Rise and open to me. "

Spoer and Haddad, Manual of Palestinean Arabic, etc., p. 174.

^ This is so far taken for granted that an Arab will speak of his wife as Bint "ammi (the daughter of my uncle), whether she really holds that relation or not.

^Cf. Musil, op. cit., vol. iii., pp. 173 et seq. Disadvantages, however, cannot be denied, from repeated marriages of consanguinity. Cf. Doughty, op. cit., vol. i.