178 CHARACTER, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS 



exalted above the plains, and shining like bright 

 sabres unsheathed in the hands of heroes." He de- 

 scribes the storms and dangers he has encountered 

 during this journey ; not forgetting to praise the 

 horse or the swift camel on which he rides. 



These ancient poems contain many curious traits 

 characteristic of pastoral manners, as well as of the 

 bloody feuds that raged between hostile tribes. The 

 songs of Amru and Hareth relate to the deadly con- 

 tests of Beer and Taglab ; while those of Antar and 

 Zohair celebrate the famous War of the Racehorses 

 between the tribes of Aus and Dobian. The poem 

 of Lebeid has been compared to the Alexis of Virgil. 

 The bard eulogizes the charms, but inveighs against 

 the unkindness of 'his fair Novara ; he then tries to 

 propitiate her, by recounting his own riches and ac- 

 complishments, — his liberality and valour, — his no- 

 ble birth and the high renown of his ancestors. 

 These early effusions of the Arabian muse were the 

 only archives of their nation, — the encyclopajdia of 

 their literature, — where their whole stock of useful 

 and entertaining knowledge was treasured up. 



To the advantages of a genius for poetry, a lively 

 fancy, and a luxuriance of imagery, the Arabs added 

 that of a copious, flexible, and expressive language. 

 It was derived from the same root with the Hebrew, 

 Syriac, and Chaldee ; but was far more rich in its 

 vocabulary. Grammarians have remarked that two 

 principal dialects were in use before the time of 

 Mohammed ; the Hamyaric, amd that spoken by the 

 Koreish. The former is supposed to have borne a 

 strong affinity to the Ethiopic ; and was so little un- 

 derstood by the northern tribes, that an Arab of 

 Hejaz, we are told, on being directed by the king of 

 Yemen to sit down, threw himself over the parapet, 

 because the word iheh, in the Koreish, signified, not 

 to sit, but to leap down. The dialect of the Koreish, 

 being that in which the Koran was originally writ- 



