EL BAKA'y'S FIRST POEM. 
575 
not to fear ; and Fehr ben Malik ben El Nadhr * forbids me 
to entertain alarm or suspicion. El Wafi increases 'Omar, 
the Sheikh of the sons of A'hmed el Bakay, by the addition 
of a fair, freeborn man ; and El Kunti increased him — the 
progeny of e All — who sprang from 'Ukba the Accepted, who 
perished heroically. Such were my ancestors, noblemen, 
and their guest never died in agony. 
" The Sultan is not alarmed that the homage and allegiance 
of the Sultan will not be duly paid.f He will not be afraid of 
you, until the Sultan 'Abd el Mejid is afraid of Nukmah.J 
War and blows are to be found elsewhere than where ye seek ; 
and wounds among the Zinj drive forth the flowing blood, — 
without molesting this man, — and long spears and cuts of 
swords round about on all sides, and the explosion of cannons 
hither and thither, like thunders which crash in blasts and 
reverberations. They consider the death in which men are 
destroyed, — they count it a garden and a vernal season of noble 
youths and gallant lads, and mature men who have grown 
old together in dignity, mounted on sleek, swift horses, 
steeds, coursers, trained to run, tall piebalds, five-year-olds, 
tall, fleet, wide-stepping, rapid, apple-rumped, plump, long- 
boned, strong in back and neck, Arabian blood-horses of El 
* All the preceding names are those of well-known ancestors of 
Mohammed, the prophet : those that follow are the poet's own. 
f I cannot approve this translation of Dr. Nicholson. I read 
U— u5 and translate — " The sultan is not afraid, lest he may not be 
feared, or obedience not be paid him. The Sultan ('Abd el Mejid) 
is not a young lad." El Bakay, I think, opposes here the Sultan 
Abd el Mejid to the young chief Ahmedu ben A'hmedu, who was 
quite a young man. Dr. Nicholson observes that there is a great 
fault in the metre of the first hemistich ; but that the consonants 
of the text are strictly those of the MS. — H. B. 
J This place, Nukmah, or Nugguma, is probably the small place 
of that name in Masina, and not the village called also " Ksar el 
Mallemin," mentioned above, p. 250. But, I am not quite cer- 
tain about it. — H. B. 
