'A handbook of Syria (including Palestine). London: Naval Staff Intelligence Department, June 1919' [‎119r] (242/738)

DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 231
the right to expel from it any member whose conduct is calcu
lated to bring disaster upon it. If such an outcast then falls
a victim, no vengeance is exacted for the murder. The
technical name for this sort of expulsion is the shaking out
of the mantle and notification of it is given to the neighbour
ing tribes.
Bedouin life lacks all the comforts and amenities of civiliza
tion. But the tribes possess large flocks and herds, and in this
sense are wealthy. The corn they require for bread is obtained
from their neighbours by exchange or robbery, or is grown for
them on their own lands by fellahin Arabic for ‘peasant’. It was used by British officials to refer to agricultural workers or to members of a social class employed primarily in agricultural labour. . They pride themselves
on being free men and despise the fellahin Arabic for ‘peasant’. It was used by British officials to refer to agricultural workers or to members of a social class employed primarily in agricultural labour. as slaves. Their
flocks and herds require extensive pastures, and as they move
from place to place they pay little respect to the cultivated
fields that come in their way. The payment of tribute to the
Bedouin by the peasants on their borders, in order to secure
a measure of protection, is a recognized usage.
Although it is convenient and necessary to treat the Bedouin
as a part of the population of Syria, they belong really
to the desert that lies beyond the borders of Syria proper. The
Syrians, as contrasted with the Bedouin, or Arabs, are the
inhabitants of the cultivated land and the large towns. Most
of them live a simple country life engaged in agriculture and
village industry. These usually produce for themselves all
that is needed to satisfy their simple wants. Their food is
chiefly bread, vegetables, and fruit. Flesh is rarely eaten.
Their time is divided between the tasks of daily work, never
very strenuous, and pleasant social intercourse with friends
and neighbours. Domestic and village festivals are their great
events. Their highest level is reached in music and in poetry.
The music seems monotonous to Europeans. The instruments
are flutes and drums and various stringed instruments. Native
poetry and story-telling make a wider appeal. Being burdened
by a bad land system and a bad system of taxation, described
in next chapter, the peasants are poor and depressed by in
creasing debts. The taxation is in kind, is crushing in amount,
and lends itself to arbitrary exactions. Debtors have to pay