Note 328 — HISTORY OF GHARIB AND HIS BROTHER AJIB.[312]

Arab. “Kaum” (pron. Gúm) here = a razzia, afterwards = a tribe. Relations between Badawi tribes are of three kinds; (1) Asháb, allies offensive and defensive, friends who intermarry; (2) Kímán (plur. of Kaum) when the blood-feud exists, and (3) Akhwán = brothers. The last is a complicated affair; “Akháwat” or brotherhood, denotes the tie between patron and client (a noble and an ignoble tribe) or between the stranger and the tribe which claims an immemorial and unalienable right to its own lands. Hence a small fee (Al-Rifkah) must be paid and the traveller and his beast become “dakhíl,” or entitled to brother-help. The guardian is known in the West as Rafík; Rabí’a in Eastern Arabia; Ghafír in “Sinai;” amongst the Somal, Abbán and the Gallas Mogásá. Further details are given in Pilgrimage iii. 85–87.