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115 evident that the chieftain’s life had been at their mercy, but why had they refrained from slaying him? Lastly, what did this dagger wrapped in the mare’s mane and tail hairs signify? The sheykh himself did not recognise the weapon, nor indeed, as it was passed from hand to hand, did anybody else, till it reached the chief’s younger brother, who, after closely examining it, suggested that it was that with which the Christian wakil had been killed years ago at Remamin. Then the sheykh remembered, and understood how he owed his life to the magnanimity of his deadliest enemies.

He had known remorse for the murder of their father. Now he resolved to do what he could to get the matter accommodated without its becoming a regular blood-feud.

Accordingly, accompanied by the elders of the tribe, he rode to Nazareth, and got a friend there to act as intermediary. He paid a “diyeh” or compensation-fine for the murder, and, what was more, assured the family of the murdered man that, in case they chose to return to their father’s land at Remamìn, they, their descendants, and Christian neighbours, should be allowed to live there respected and unmolested. His terms were accepted, and ever since then there has been a Christian Community at Remamìn.

Some four centuries ago, when Sultan Selìm took Palestine, he set a garrison of Kurds at Hebron,^[1]