75 
1877.] life of the poet as given in the Kitab-el-Aghdnt. 
Khalid adds that he said to his two daughters when death was upon him— 
“ They wish, my two girls, that their father should live for ever: 
—Am I aught else than a son of Rabi‘ah or Mudar ? 
And if it should hap one day that your father come to die, 
rend not your cheeks, ye twain, shear not your hair for me ! 
But say—‘ He was a man who never wronged an ally, 
who never betrayed a friend, or did aught of treachery’ 
Until the year is done : then the name of peace be on you! 
for he who weeps for a year has discharged what is due from 
him.” 
And after his death his daughters used to array themselves and go 
every day to the meeting-place of the Benu Ja‘far ibn Kilab, and mourn 
there for their father ; hut they did not weep or wail, even as he had bidden 
them. And they continued thus for a year, and then went their ways. 
In vol. XV of the Aghani (pp. 187 sqq.) the story of the death of 
Lebid’s uterine brother Arbed (son of Qeys, son of Jez’, son of Khalid, 
son of Ja‘far, son of Kilab), who was slain by a lightning-stroke, is told at 
great length. Two different versions of the tale are given, according to 
the first of which (extracted from the history of Mohammed ibn Jerir et- 
Tabari, and resting on the authority of ‘Amr ibn Qatadeh) the circum¬ 
stances were the following. A deputation of the Benu ‘Amir ibn Sa‘sa‘ah, 
headed by ‘Amir ibn et-Tufeyl, Arbed ibn Qeys, and Hayyan ibn Sulma, 
waited upon the Prophet. ‘Amir had arranged wdth Arbed that he should 
occupy the attention of Mohammed by conversation, while Arbed slew him 
when he was off his guard. This project failed, Arbed excusing himself 
for not attacking the Prophet by saying that ‘Amir stood between him and 
Mohammed, and he could not smite the latter without striking the former. 
On their return ‘Amir fell sick of a carbuncle on his neck, and died in the 
tent of a woman of the Benu Salul. Arbed when he reached his home was 
asked what had befallen between him and Mohammed: he replied “ He 
invited us to worship a thing which I should like to see before me now : I 
would shoot it with this arrow and slay it.” And a day or two after this 
speech he went out with a camel which he intended to sell, and was killed 
together with his camel by a lightning-stroke. 
The other version is extracted from the book of Yahya ibn Hazim, and 
rests on the authority of Ibn Da’b. According to it, Lebid’s uncle ‘Amir 
ibn Malik Abu Bera’, being sick of an internal tumour, sent Lebid with a 
present of camels to Mohammed, begging him to pray for his recovery. 
The Prophet said—“ If I accepted anything from a polytheist, I would 
accept the present of Abu Bera’ ” ; then he spat upon a lump of clay and 
gave it to Lebid, bidding him dissolve it in water and give it to ‘Amir to 
