The two festivals called “el-’Eed es-Sugheiyir,”[163] or the Minor Festival, and el-Kebeer,” or the Great Festival, the occasions of which have been mentioned above, are observed with public prayer and general rejoicing. The first of these lasts three days; and the second, three or four days. The festivities with which they are celebrated will be described in a subsequent chapter. On the first day of the latter festival (it being the day on which the pilgrims perform their sacrifice) every Muslim should slay a victim, if he can afford to purchase one. The wealthy person slays several sheep, or a sheep or two, and a buffalo, and distributes the greater portion of the meat to the poor. The slaughter may be performed by a deputy. War against enemies of El-Islám, who have been the first aggressors, is enjoined as a sacred duty; and he who loses his life in fulfilling this duty, if unpaid, is promised the rewards of a martyr. It has been said, even by some of their leading doctors, that the Muslims are commanded to put to death all idolaters who refuse to embrace El-Islám, excepting women and children, whom they are to make slaves:[164] but the precepts on which this assertion is founded relate to the Pagan Arabs, who had violated their oaths and long persevered in their hostility to Mohammad and his followers. According to the decisions of the most reasonable doctors, the laws respecting other idolaters, as well as Christians and Jews, who have drawn upon themselves the hostility of the Muslims, are different: of such enemies, if reduced by force of arms, refusing to capitulate or to surrender themselves, the men may be put to death or be made slaves, and the women and children also, under the same circumstances, may be made slaves: but life and liberty are to be granted to those enemies who surrender themselves by capitulation or otherwise, on the condition of their embracing El-Islám or paying a poll-tax, unless they have acted perfidiously towards the Muslims, as did the Jewish tribe of Kureydhah, who, being in league with Mohammad, went over to his enemies and aided them against him: for which conduct, when they surrendered, the men were slain, and the women and children were made slaves.—The Muslims, it may here be added, are forbidden to contract intimate friendship with unbelievers. There are certain prohibitory laws in the Kur-án which must be mentioned here, as remarkably affecting the moral and social condition of its disciples.