Page:The Celebrated Romance of the Stealing of the Mare.djvu/138

 Pace 30. '' And he had a mind for shame's sake to slay them both."— Such an intrigue with an unmarried girl would be held disgraceful in Bedouin life as a fraud on the girl's father. Hence Abu Zeyd's anger.

"* Are her eyes more fairly painted?"—The painting of the eyes with koh] is universal with Arab women and very common with Arab men.

Pace 31. " And their hair was loosened from the plaits."'—This would only be done in the closest privacy.

"< I have but this one desire, to avenge the blood of my father." —The blood vengeance is the motive of nearly half the Arab stories current at the present day. It represents the most sacred of all duties.

Pace 33. "' The space hath been stepped by the trackers.'—In every tribe there are certain men specially skilled in tracking. These are the "kassasin." A tribe when on the march, and not in fear of attack, will be found spread over many miles, and there are seldom more than half a dozen tents within sight of each other.

Pace 34. " Sahel seized hold of her by the neck ornaments."—Not to rob her of them, but as one would seize a young camel by its neckrope.

Pace 35. " Haass! Haass!"—Forbid, meaning 'God forbid." Used in expostulation.

Pace 42. " Do thou recite the Fatha."—-The whole of this beautiful passage illustrates the Mohamedan view of a Moslem woman's position towards God. Alia prays to God in her need, but not according to the praying formulas of the men, which she had not learned. 'The " Fatha," which is the first chapter of the Koran, is the Moslem act of faith, and is repeated by the men on all solemn occasions, as for a dying man too weak himself to speak the words, or, as in the present instance, for one ignorant of them. Sahel's refusal to recite them for her is a great act of impiety. Alia none the less prays; and the passage will serve as a refutation of the foolish fancy of European writers, that Moslem women have no religion. They do not attend public prayers, and few of them say the prayers prescribed to the men, but this is only part of their general lack of education.

Pace 43. " Calling on thee by the name of thy deeds..—The miracu-