OF THE ANCrEXT iRABS. 



177 



Zohair. Lebeid. Antar. Amru, and Hareth.* As poets 

 in all countries are admirers of beauty, and reckoned 

 peculiarly susceptible of its charms, we find in the 

 Moallaka't a greater proportion of love than of any 

 other passion : but this is often mixed with descrip- 

 tions of local scenery, and sketches of heroes and 

 battles. Sometimes" it happened that the young 

 men of one tribe admired the damsels of another, 

 and as their tents were frequently removed on a 

 sudden, the enamoured pair were apt to be separated 

 in the progress of ttieir courtship. Hence the com- 

 plaints of the unfortunate lover, and his resolution 

 to visit his mistress, form the principal theme of 

 these Arabic poems. He beholds with dismay the 

 empty station where her tent was pitched : and gazes 

 on the silent ruins of the place.—" the black stones 

 on which her caldrons used to boil." He dweUs on 

 her beauties and her favours, comparing her to a 

 wanton fawn that sports among the aromatic shrubs. 

 He follows her track through the wilderness " by 

 the locks of stained wool that fall from her camel ; 

 until the towers of Yemama appear in the distance, 



* Sir W. Jones's Works, toL i. Autar is the anthor and the 

 hero of the famous Bedouin romance that bears his name. He 

 flonrisfaed about the time Mohammed was bom. This work, 

 the genuineness and antiquity of which are incontestable, fur- 

 nishes a curious picttu-e of the manners and customs of the 

 Scenite Arabs ; their descent from Ishmael. — their religion, — 

 mode of warfare, — battles, armour, chivalry, &c. It deals a 

 little in the marvellous. "VThen mounted on his mare G^abrah, 

 our valiant hero kills wTth his lance 800 men in a single 

 action. One %Tarrior is a mass of solid bone, impervious to every 

 sword but An tar's, which, though not enchanted, had the super- 

 naniral virrues ascribed to magic weapons. This romance was 

 first committed to writing in the time of Haroun al Raschid, 

 and still continues to be the principal source whence oriental 

 story-teUers draw their most popular tales. It has been trans- 

 lated into English by Mr. Terrick Hamilton. Antar is the Her- 

 cules of Arabia. Burckhardt mentions that when he read por- 

 tions of it to the Bedouins, they were in ecstasies of delight ; 

 but at the same time so enraged at his erroneous pronunciation, 

 that thev tore the sheets out of his hands. 



