THE CHIVALROUS SPIRIT OF THE ARAB. Ill 



many heroines, and within the last century Ghalujah, the wife 

 of a Wahabi chief, opposed Mohammed All himself in many a 

 bloody field. After a lost battle a retreating tribe has not 

 unfrequently been again led on to victory by the taunts of its 

 women, and Arab poets praise not only female beauty, but also 

 female faith, purity, and affection. 



From ancient periods of the Arab's history, we find him 

 practising knight-errantry, the wildest but most exalted form 

 of chivalry. The fourth Caliph is fabled to have travelled far, 

 redressing the injured, punishing the injurer, preaching to the 

 infidel, and especially protecting women — the chief end and 

 aim of knighthood. The Caliph El Mutasen heard, in the 

 assembly of his courtiers, that a woman of the Sayyid family had 

 been taken prisoner by a ' Grreek barbarian ' of Ammoria. The 

 man on one occasion struck her, when she cried, ' Help me, 

 Mutasen ! ' and the fellow said derisively, ' Wait till he cometh 

 upon his pied steed.' The chivalrous prince arose, sealed up 

 the wine cup which he held in his hand, took oath to do his 

 knightly duty, and on the morrow started for Ammoria with 

 70,000 men, each mounted on a piebald charger. Having taken 

 the place he entered it, exclaiming, ' Here am I at thy call I ' 

 He struck off the caitiff's head, released the lady with his own 

 hands, ordered the cup-bearer to bring the- sealed bowl, and drank 

 from it, exclaiming, ' Now, indeed, wine is good ! ' A Knight 

 of the Eound Table could have done no better. 



It is the existence of this noble spirit which makes the 

 society of Bedouins so delightful to the traveller, who, after 

 enjoying it, laments at finding himself in the ' loathsome com- 

 pany ' of Persians, or among Arab townpeople, whose ' filthy 

 and cowardly minds he contrasts with the ' high and chivalrous 

 spirit of the true Sons of the Desert.' 



While over the vast continent of America no effort has ever 

 been made by the aboriginal tribes to establish a dominion over 

 the useful animals, with the single exception of the Llama in 

 the Peruvian highlands, we find the Arab shepherd from time 

 immemorial in the absolute possession of the horse and the 

 camel — of a faithful friend, and a laborious slave. Although 

 the high steppes of Central Asia are probably the genuine and 

 original country of the horse, yet in Arabia that generous 

 animal attains the highest degree of spirit and swiftness. 



