1837.] Remarks on the Al'if Leilah. 167 



struck out the circle for the battu, and forthwith a doe antelope came 

 within the circle. Then said the king, ' Over whose head the antelope 

 shall leap and get away, that man will I kill.' Then they narrowed the 

 circle of the battu about it, and, behold, the antelope came before the 

 king's station and stood firm on its hind legs, and gathered in its fore feet 

 to its breast, as if about to kiss the earth before the king; so the king 

 bowed his head in acknowledgment to the antelope; then it bounded 

 over his head, and took the way of the desert. Now it happened that 

 the king saw his attendants winking and pointing at him, so he said, ' Ho ! 

 vuzeer, what are my attendants saying?' The vuzeer replied, 'They 

 say you proclaimed that over the head of whomsoever tbe antelope should 

 leap, that man shall be put to death.' Then said the king, ' By the life 

 of my head, surely I will follow her up till I reach her ;' so the king set 

 forth in pursuit of the antelope, and gave not over following her till she 

 reached a hill among the mountains. Then the antelope made as she 

 would cross a ravine, so the king cast off his hawk at her ; and the bird 

 drove its talons into her eyes, to blind and bewilder her, and the king 

 threw his mace at her and struck her so as to roll her over. Then he dis- 

 mounted, and cut her throat and flayed her, and hung the carcass to the 

 pummel of his saddle. Now it was the time for the mid-day sleep, and 

 the plain was parched and dry, nor was water to be met with in it ; and 

 the king was thirsty, and his horse also; so he went about searching for 

 water, and he saw a tree dropping water, as it were clarified butter. 

 Now the king wore gloves of the hide of a beast of prey, and he took the 

 cup from the hawk's neck, and filled it with that water, and set down the 

 water before the bird, and lo ! the hawk struck the cup with its talons, 

 and overturned it. So the king took the cup a second time, and caught 

 the drops of water as they were falling until he filled it, for he thought 

 the hawk was thirsty ; so he set the cup before it, but she struck it with 

 her talons and upset it. Then the king was annoyed with the hawk, and 

 got up a third time, and filled the cup, and put it before his horse, but the 

 hawk overturned it with its wings; then said the king, 'The Lord take 

 you, you unluckiest of birds! you keep me from drinking, and keep 

 yourself from drinking, and keep the horse from drinking !" So he struck 

 the hawk with his sword, and cut off its wing, but the hawk began lifting 

 up its head, and saying by signs, ' Look at what is beneath the tree.' 

 Then the king lifted up his eyes, and saw below the tree a young snake, 

 a poisonous one, and this which was dropping from the tree was its poison. 

 Then the king repented him of having cut off the hawk's wing, and arose 

 and mounted his horse and went, taking with him the antelope's carcass 

 until he arrived at his tent within the hour, and he gave the antelope to 

 the cook, and said to him, ' Take, and make this ready.' So the king 

 6at down in his chair, and the hawk on his hand, and the bird struggled 

 gaspingly, and died. Then the king cried out, wailing and lamenting for 

 having slain the hawk, and it was the cause of saving him from death ! 

 And this is what occurred in the story of the king Sundabad." 



