In a village there may be few or many tribes. In a village tribe there may be scores of families. The tribe is a great family and goes by the Arabic name _Dâr_ (court or house). In el-Bîreh, for instance, there are four tribes among its eight hundred Moslems and one tribe of Christians numbering less than a hundred. The Moslem tribes are _Dâr Ṭawîl_, _Dâr Ḳurân_, _Dâr Hamayil_ and _Dâr ‛Abid_. The Christian tribe goes by the name _Rafîdya_, because originally the members came from a village of that name, near Nâblus. _Dâr Ṭawîl_ is by far the most influential and supplies two of the three shaykhs of the village recognized by the general government. The other shaykh comes from _Dâr Ḳurân_. These three shaykhs are the intermediaries between the general government and the village. Sometimes the tribe will become so large as to have subordinate divisions within it. In Râm Allâh there are five original tribes, the Ḥadadeh, the Dâr Ibrahîm, the Dâr Jurjus, the Ḥasâsineh and the Shaḳara. But the tribe of Ḥadadeh is nearly the equal in numbers of the other four, and has been divided into four sub-tribes, the Sharaḳa, the Dâr Awâd, the Dâr Yûsuf and the Dâr Abu Jaghab. The result is that there are practically eight tribes in the village. The four branches of the Ḥadadeh feel a kinship and importance from their common source and present size. The other four tribes go by the common designation of the Hamayil. Birth is the usual mode of entering a tribe, but outsiders are sometimes admitted. A man from another part of Syria had occasion to live in one of the large Christian villages of Palestine and wished to be counted as a citizen there. He decided to join a certain tribe in that village. As much as he was permitted, he fellowshipped with that tribe, went to their guest-house occasionally and contributed to expenses by sharing in their provision of food for visiting strangers and soldiers. He then had the government at Jerusalem change his _kushan_ or paper of residence and citizenship so that it should now declare him a resident of such and such a village. When he had spoken to the elders of the tribe that he sought to join, and they in turn to the members of the tribe, he was admitted to membership with them by common consent. Thenceforth he paid his military tribute through the chief men of this tribe. The elders mentioned are the heads of families and are called the _ukhtiyarîyeh_. They are the tribal chiefs and representatives.