Page:Ossendowski - The Fire of Desert Folk.djvu/353

Rh could probably occur only with the downfall of Islam, and this is certainly not near."

As I afterward learned, the Figig natives most scrupulously respect private property and the sanctity of the home. For trespass either upon the fields of another or for entering unbidden another's home the culprit is punished by the cadi with the levy of a large fine. Murder, on the other hand, often sets going a vendetta between two households, such as the personal history of all Moslem countries so frequently exhibits. These family struggles are one of the principal reasons for the lack of communal and national feeling among the natives. To correct this the legislators of Islam have decreed banishment, sometimes perpetual, for spilled blood, the law requiring that a murderer must at once disappear from his home and village and never return. With the culprit out of their sight, the wronged family may gradually forget him and cease from their efforts for revenge. Then, after some time has passed, the relatives of the murderer may, through the medium of the cadi. Imam or Marabout, endeavor to negotiate an approach to the wronged family and to effect an agreement about the dia, or the price of blood, after which the two families can partake of food together and become reconciled. Once this accord has been established, the banished one may return, offer gifts to the family of the murdered man and become once more a citizen in good legal standing, after which no one will ever take him to task or remind him of the crime he has perpetrated.

The French authorities experience little difficulty in the execution of their taxation programs so far as the stable