The Bible, also, is not tender towards adulterers. But it makes no distinction between the culpability of the man and the woman; stoning is for both. This terrible punishment is not only inflicted on the faithless wife, but on the inconstant _fiancée_. The accomplices even are put to death. There are, however, some distinctions, and precautions are taken to mitigate the rigour of the law; thus the guilty woman is only condemned to be stoned if the crime has been committed in the city. If in the fields, the man alone incurs stoning;[678] it is thus admitted that the woman may have suffered violence. Besides this, two witnesses are in all cases necessary to establish the crime. Lastly, the slave woman is not punished with death.[679] The ancient Arabs were not more clement towards adultery than their cousins of Palestine, and the Bedouins, who have preserved more of the old customs, still consider adultery as the greatest of crimes. Burckhardt tells us that with them the adulterous woman is beheaded either by her father or her brother.[680] These are morals that go far beyond the prescriptions of the Koran. It would seem that Mahomet, much given to sexual pleasures himself, had not the courage to be too severe on others. He, indeed, calls the adultery of woman the “infamous action” _par excellence_, but he directs, nevertheless, that the crime be proved by four witnesses.[681] Moreover, the woman can escape the punishment by swearing four times before God that she is innocent, and that her husband has lied.[682] If she is convicted, both she and her accomplice receive a hundred lashes in public. Then the woman must be shut up “until death visits her, or God finds her a means of salvation,”[683] all of which is relatively mild enough. Although Mussulmans, the Kabyles of Algeria do not keep to the somewhat humane prescriptions of the Koran in regard to adultery. In general, they are pitiless towards all infractions of morals. With them a kiss on the mouth is equivalent to adultery, and costs more than an assassination.[684] Every child born out of marriage is put to death, as well as its mother.[685] If the family tries to spare the guilty one, the Djemâa stones her and imposes a fine on the relatives.[686] The child and mother are stoned by the Djemâa or the family. Even when a woman is actually separated from her husband her adulterous child is killed, but the fate of the mother is left to the discretion of the relatives.[687] Whoever carries off a woman, especially a married woman, and flees with her, becomes a public enemy, and the village where the fugitives have taken refuge must give them up under pain of war. The man is put to death, and the woman is restored to her family, who do not spare her.[688]