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It is to this custom that we owe the celebrated poems called the Seba Moallakat. A Bedouin of Hodheyl told me that the Okath was now a ruined place in the country of Beni Naszera, between two and three days' journey south of Tayf. But in El Fasy's history, I find it stated to be one day's journey from Tayf; and that it ceased to be frequented as a fair in A.H. 1229.
In the Hedjaz, letters are sealed with gum-Aabic; and a small vessel full of the diluted gum is suspended near the gate of every large house or khan. The Okath was the place where the ancient Arabian poets, as late even as the time of Mohammed, used to recite their works to crowds assembled there at a great fair. The prize poems were afterwards suspended at the Kaaba.
In the month before the pilgrimage, they visited some other neighbouring fairs, namely, those of Okath, the market of the tribe of Kenane; of Medjna and Zou el Medjaz; the markets of the tribe of Hodeyl; and of Hasha, that of the Beni Lazed.
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