United States or Western Sahara ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !


Amongst the Southern Slavs the cuckoo is supposed to be the sister of a murdered man ever calling or vengeance. They will be repeatedly mentioned in The Nights and notes. "Amtar"; plur. of "Matr," a large vessel of leather or wood for water, etc. In the Romance of "Antar" Asafir camels are beasts that fly like birds in fleetness. "Tamer al-Hindi"=the "Indian-date," whence our word "Tamarind."

When all had returned to the tents Antar said to Shidoub: "Come, now, thou son of a cursed mother, how dared thou say that thou couldst outstrip these two horses, whose race all horsemen of our tribes have assembled to see, and who all the world admits have no equals in speed, not even among the birds of the air?"

After the death of King Zoheir, whom he avenged, he undertook to assist Cais, Zoheir's son, in all his enterprises, and after a long series of adventures which tired the patience, love, and courage of Antar, this hero, recognized as chief among Arabian chieftains, obtained the great reward of his long struggles and mighty toils, by marriage to his well-loved Ibla.

They have extended, probably in ancient times, to Upper Egypt, and occupy parts of Nubia; about Sawakin they are an important clan. They number few in the Sinaitic Peninsula and in Midian, but they occupy the very heart of the Arabian Peninsula. Those settled on Jebel Libn, we have seen, claim as their kinsman the legendary 'Antar, who was probably a negro of the noble Semitic stock.

King Zoheir, meantime, had returned victorious from his expedition. Shedad returned at the same moment, and went to visit his herds. Seeing Antar surrounded by horses which he did not know, and mounted upon a fine black courser, he asked, "Where did these animals, and particularly this superb horse, come from?"

As for Cais, when he re-entered his home, he learned from his wife that Abou-Firacah had come to ask for the camels. "By the faith of an Arab," he said, "if I had been here I would have slain him. But the matter is closed; let us think no more of it." Yet King Cais passed the night in grief and annoyance until sunrise, at which time he betook himself to his tent Antar came to see him.

At the time the "Romance of Antar" opens, the most powerful and the best governed of the Bedouin tribes were those of the Absians and the Adnamians. King Zoheir, chief of the Absians, was firmly established upon his throne, so that the kings of other nations, who were subject to him, paid him tribute.

The Hutaym, who own most of it, claim the lover and hero-poet, 'Antar, as one of their despised tribe hence, probably, his connection with the adjoining mountain and "the stable." "Jebel Libin" is the great feature of the Tihamat-Balawiyyah; for many days it will appear to follow us, and this is the proper place for assigning its rank and status to it.

But before acting Antar laid down his conditions, and stipulated that, in case he succeeded in subduing the foe and recovering the women, Ibla should be given him in marriage. Malek, the father of Ibla, and Shedad, the father of Antar, assented, and bound themselves by an oath to fulfil these conditions and to reinstate Antar in all the honors and dignities belonging to him. Antar was victorious.

Shedad therefore provided a home for Zebiba, in order that his sons might be educated in their business of tending the herds. It was at this time that Antar began to develop his strength of body, his courage, and intelligence. When he was ten years of age he slew a wolf which threatened to attack the herds committed to his charge.