Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/313

 Marriage Customs of the Bedu and Fellahin. 275

expected to concern themselves with blood feuds, A woman is regarded as a stranger to her husband's family. After his death he may be looked upon by his mother and sister only. If his wife should come near the body, it would have to be re-washed. This was explained to me once as being due to the fact that a man would give his wife permission, upon his death-bed, to remarry, so that she is regarded as divorced. Other reasons are, however, conceiv- able. Moreover, widows are not, in general, held in high honour. A Moslem will marry a divorced woman rather than a widow. If she be left with young children, her husband's brother is bound to marry her, should she be without means or protection. If a man marries a widow without such necessity, there is no rejoicing at the wedding, no feast, and the men will spit in her face as she goes by to her new home. No man may marry a widow and her daughter at the same time. The marriage with a wife's sister is not regarded with favour. In some tribes, e.g. the Sur, he may marry his wife's sister after the wife has borne him a son. Should two young people be forbidden to each other, as, for instance, in the case of the prior claim of a near male relative, they will, if determined to marry, escape to another tribe, where the maiden is carefully guarded in the women's tent while the man puts himself under the protection of the Shech, who acts as intermediary with the tribe of his guests ; and not until the matter has been settled are the pair allowed to meet.

I may remark here that among the Bedu maiden purity is most jealously guarded. If a girl has consented to her own dishonour, she is put to death, with horrible details, by her nearest relatives. If they refused to do this, the whole clan would be dishonoured ; they would lose all civil rights, and would be unable to marry their sons or daughters. I once witnessed the funeral of the Shech of a tribe of Nowar (gipsies), a nomadic people whom the Moslems regard as " forty times unclean,"