This point of view is expressed in the Semitic tongue in many familiar forms of speech.

In case of homicide Arabian tribesmen do not say, 'The blood of M.or N.has been spilt' (naming the man): they say, 'Our blood has been spilt.' In Hebrew the phrase by which one claims kinship is, 'I am your bone and your flesh.' Both in Hebrew and in Arabic flesh is synonymous with 'clan' or kindred group." [151] The custom of the blood-feud appears to have arisen from the belief in a common life of the clan.

"The blood-feud is an institution not peculiar to tribes reckoning descent through females; and it is still in force.

By virtue of its requirements every member of a kin, one of whom had suffered at the hands of a member of another kin, was bound to avenge the wrong upon the latter kin.

Such is the solidarity between members of a kin that vengeance might be taken upon any member of the offending kin, though he might be personally quite innocent.