Mane Autem Puellae Mater
Virginitatis Signa Viris Mulieribusque Domi Ostendit Eosque Jubilare
Jubet Quod Calamitas Domestica, Sc.
Filia, intacta abiit.
Si non
ostendeant mappam, maeret domus, “prima enim Venus” in Arabia, “debet esse
cruenta.” Maritus autem humanior, etiamsi absit sanguis, cruore palumbino
mappam tingit et gaudium fingens cognatis parentibusque ostendit;
paululum postea puellae nonnulla causa dat divortium. Hic urbis et
ruris mos idem est.
[FN#49] An explanation of this term will be found below.
[FN#50] It is the plural of “Kaum,” which means “rising up in rebellion or
enmity against,” as well as the popular signification, a “people.” In some
parts of Arabia it is used for a “plundering party.”
[FN#51] Bayt (in the plural Buyut) is used in this sense to denote the
tents of the nomades. “Bayt” radically means a “nighting-place”; thence a tent,
a house, a lair, &c., &c.
[FN#52] Some tribes will not sell their sheep, keeping them for guests
or feasts.
[FN#53] So the word is pronounced at Meccah. The dictionaries give “Aakal,”
which in Eastern Arabia is corrupted to “Igal.”
[FN#54] Called “Tatarif,” plural of Tatrifah, a cartridge.
[FN#55] The liver and the spleen are both supposed to be “congealed blood.”
Niebuhr has exhausted the names and the description of the locust. In
Al-Hijaz they have many local and fantastic terms: the smallest kind,
for instance, is called Jarad Iblis, Satan’s locust.
[FN#56] This is the Kurut of Sind and the Kashk of Persia. The
butter-milk, separated from the butter by a little water, is simmered
over a slow fire, thickened with wheaten flour, about a handful to a
gallon, well-mixed, so that no knots remain in it, and allowed to cool.
The mixture is then put into a bag and strained, after which salt is
sprinkled over it. The mass begins to harden after a few hours, when it
is made up into balls and dried in the sun.
[FN#57] The North American trappers adopted this natural prejudice: the
“free trapper” called his more civilized confrere, “mangeur de lard.”
[FN#58] Burckhardt shrank from the intricate pedigree of the Meccan
Sharifs. I have seen a work upon the subject in four folio volumes in
point of matter equivalent to treble the number in Europe. The best
known genealogical works are Al-Kalkashandi (originally in seventy-five
books, extended to one hundred); the Umdat al-Tullab by Ibn Khaldun;
the “Tohfat al-Arab fi Ansar al-Arab,” a well-known volume by Al-Siyuti;
and, lastly, the Sirat al-Halabi, in six volumes 8vo. Of the latter
work there is an abridgment by Mohammed al-Banna al-Dimyati in two
volumes 8vo.; but both are rare, and consequently expensive.
[FN#59] I give the following details of the Harb upon the authority of
my friend Omar Effendi, who is great in matters of genealogy.
[FN#60]The first word is the plural, the second the singular form of
the word.
[FN#61] In the singular Aufi and Amri.
[FN#62] To these Mr. Cole adds seven other sub-divisions, viz.:—
1.
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