tW ANCIENT KINGS OF ARABIA. 



in favom" of your temple, the source of your gran- 

 deur, and the object of your religious veneration !" 

 " The camels are my own," was his reply, " the 

 Kaaba belongs to the gods, and they will defend it. 

 Many kings have attempted its destruction, but 

 their ruin or repulse has protected it from sacri- 

 lege." The camels were restored; but the temple 

 was left to the protection of its own sanctity. The 

 venerable pontiff retired with the citizens to the 

 mountains and fortresses in the vicinity ; having 

 supplicated in a pathetic hymn, before their depart- 

 ure, that the calamity intended for the asylum of 

 their faith might be visited on the heads of its ene- 

 mies. 



The deities of the place, if we are to believe the 

 Arabs, were not importuned in vain ; and by their 

 interposition the Christian host met with a signal 

 overthrow. Abraha advanced on his huge elephant 

 Mahmoud ; but neither violence nor entreaty could 

 made it enter the consecrated wails. In any other 

 direction, towards Syria or Yemen, it would move 

 with the greatest alacrity ; but not a single step 

 towards the Kaaba. The other elephants, thirteen 

 in number, evinced the same reluctance to commit 

 sacrilege, and always knelt down, when turned to 

 that quarter, in the same reverential attitude. A 

 miracle at length relieved the city. An innumera- 

 ble army of birds from the seacoast, like a dense 

 cloud, suddenly appeared, hovering over the Abys- 

 sinians. Each cai'ried a stone in its bill, and one in 

 each claw, about the size of a lentil ; these they let 

 fall on the heads of the besiegers with such violence 

 as to pierce through their helmets and armour, kill- 

 ing men and elephants on the spot. On every stone 

 was inscribed the name of its particular victim. 

 These birds, called Abil, are represented of a size 

 between that of a swallow and a pigeon, and party- 

 coloured, being black and white interspersed with 

 green and 5'ellow. The few invaders that escaped 



