74 C. J. Lyall —The Mo i allaqah of Lebicl, with the [No. 1, 
And en-Nabighah cried—‘ Thou art the best poet o£ Hawazin! More 
still!’ and he continued— 
* Effaced are her resting places, where she stayed but a while and 
where she dwelt long, 
in Mina: desolate are her camps in Ghaul and er-Bijam.’ 
And en-Nabighah said—‘ Go thy ways ! thou art the best poet of the 
Arabs ! ’ ” 
Ahmed ibn ‘Abd-el-‘Aziz told me that he had heard from c Omar ibn 
Shebbeh, who was told by ‘Abdallah ibn Mohammed ibn Hakim, who learn¬ 
ed it from Khalid ibn Sa‘id, that Lebid, when his end was approaching, said 
to his brother’s son (for he had himself no male issue 37 )—“ 0 my son ! verily 
thy father is not dead, he has but passed away. When thy father is taken, 
place his body with its face to the Qibleh , and wrap it in its raiment; 
and raise no loud wailing over it; but see these two bowls of mine where¬ 
from I used to feed the poor : fill them with meat and carry them to the 
mosque ; and when the imam has pronounced the seldm , 38 bring them for¬ 
ward for men to eat therefrom ; and when they have eaten, say to them— 
‘ Come ye to the funeral of your brother.’ ” Then he recited his verses— 
“ When thou buriest thy father, lay 
over him wooden planks and clay— 
Broad flags of stone, hard, firm-set, 
that shall stop the chinks of the branches 39 strewn 
Above him, and keep his cheeks unstained 
by the dust of earth—But they will not keep them!” 
Khalid ibn Sa‘id says that these verses are taken from a long ode ; and 
Yunus has mentioned that Ibn Sureyj set to music certain verses of the 
same poem : but he does not state more particularly the air to which they 
were set. The following are the verses he gives : 40 — 
“ 0 my little son, hast thou seen my uncles, 
the sons of the ‘ Mother of the Sons’ P 
And my father round whom the wretched ones 
flocked in the bitter winter days : 
And Abu Shureyk and the alightings 
in the place of straitness where we met them ? 
Never have I seen or heard of 
the like of them in all the world! 
And I have out-lasted them all, and yearn 
clinging to the fellowship I had with them. 
Leave me and what my right hand owns, 
if therewith I have done aught to strengthen men, 
And do with what is thine as it comes into 
thy mind, giving help asked or unasked.” 
