LITERATURE OF THE ARABS. 87 



and fatigues in the captivating narrative of ideal ad- 

 ventures. The public squares of the cities in the 

 Levant abound with these wandering reciters, and 

 their assistance is called in to fill up the heavy hours 

 of the palace and the seraglio. Their art is even 

 prescribed as a substitute for medicine ; and physi- 

 cians not unfrequently recommend them to their 

 patients in order to sooth pain,, to calm the agitated 

 spirits, or produce sleep after long watchfulness. 



Of their astonishing powers of memory we find 

 an instance recorded in Hamad of Damascus, known 

 by the title of Arawiyah or the Narrator, one of 

 the literary suite of the second Walid, and reckon- 

 ed the most conversant of men in the history, poetry, 

 genealogy, and language, of the Arabs. " Com- 

 mander of the Faithful," he replied to the caliph, 

 " I can relate the works of every poet with which 

 you are acquainted, or have heard of ; I can, more- 

 over, relate the works of those with whom you are 

 not acquainted; and no one can repeat to me a 

 poem, ancient or modern, but I can tell to which 

 of the two classes it belongs. I will undertake to 

 repeat to you, for every letter of the alphabet, 100 

 poems of the larger description, besides small pieces, 

 all made before the introduction of Mohammed- 

 anism, independently of the poetry that has appeared 

 since that era." In proof that this was no idle 

 boast, Hamad continued to relate till the caliph 

 grew tired, and appointed another to hear him ; 

 and when informed that the Narrator had actually 

 repeated 2900 odes from authors before the time of 

 Mohammed, he ordered him a present of 100,000 

 drachms (2291, 13s. 4d.) An equal sum was paid 

 him by the Emir Yussuf, governor of Irak, who was 



