78 
C. J. Lyall —The Mo l allaqah of Lebid, with the [No. 1, 
able to write , a skilful swimmer and a good shot with the bow.” (Quoted from the 
Kitab el-Aghani by Causs. de Perceval, Journal Asiat. Dec. 1836, p. 533.) 
15 These verses present many points of difficulty : they occur again in Vol. XYI, 
pp. 23, 24, and the readings there given differ in some particulars from those given 
here. In line 1, De Sacy reads, for the reading of his MS. and the Bulaq edn., 
^ J $1 } but this will not scan, while the reading of the text seems to he 
«* > 
nonsense. I have preferred the reading of Yol. XYI, p. 23, viz., &*..*# ^/. In line 3 
- ✓ 
Lakhm is the family name of the kings of el-Hireh. “ Come down” i. e. to water— 
waradet: Yol. XYI, p. 24 reads wuzinet “ were weighed.” In line 4 there seems to be 
a play on the word risk , which means both wealth and feathers. Semwil is here given 
with sin : in Yol. XYI, it appears as Shcmwil with shin. In both places the BCilaq ed. 
reads rishi Semwila ; but De Sacy gives ibni Shemwila, and translates “ fils de Samuel,” 
i. e. the famous es-Semau’al of el-Ablaq in Teyma. It is true that in the reply of 
en-No‘man, as given in Yol. XIY, line 6 speaks of ibni Semwila : but in Yol. XYI, the 
reading is abrdqa Shemlild. I find in the Mardsid a place Semwil, of which all that is 
said is that it is “a place abounding in birds.” This seems to suit the passage best ; at 
any rate the change of Jf es-Semau’al to Shemwil requires strong sup¬ 
port before it can be accepted. 
In line 7, De Sacy’s ^j\ should be changed to ; hi 8 conjectured read¬ 
ing jL.^.1 for the meaningless j\jA. is supported by the version of Yol. 
XVI, and has been adopted. In v. 8 a word occurs which is found in no dictionary, viz., 
(Agh. Vol. XIY,) or lb(id. Yol. XVI,) or lb (De Sacy). De Sacy 
renders lbjA».i j lsr /0 +6,$?) (Ju^/o^l “ elles ne sont pas, comme chez vous, reduites a 
manger des herbes saumatres ou nitreuses .” But salt pastures are just those which 
camels like : and it seems possible that (Jbj.~..c may be connected with (JL*.e honey. 
16 These verses, like those of er-Babi 1, just quoted, shew variations in the differ¬ 
ent versions. The second couplet as I have rendered it runs 
HyQf ^ | (J.&|^>2./0 I/O ^ &2.S 
(The Bulaq ed. reads apparently only by a misprint. De Sacy prefers to 
make (J.&| the nom. to and^.^«o and IbxTJ| the accusative after it, 
and this rendering has much to recommend it). But in Yol. XYI the verse appears 
thus 
to the second hemistich of which it is difficult to assign a meaning. 
The third couplet runs in our text thus— 
^k+Jf I/O 6XJ <U/0 i^JjLsui l+J 
In Yol. XYI, it runs 
^ jA l/o 6x j cijbbbf Ui 
Now if we take Semwil as the name of a place, Ib^^^a ^j| is obviously inappro¬ 
priate. I have therefore adopted, in lieu of ^j| j.sr 5 , JjLj( from the other version. 
Abrdq is not given in Lane : but it seems a permissible plural from plural of 
a rugged and gravelly plain, in the sense of traversing and passing through 
(Zuheyr, Mo‘all. 15), also suits abrdq in this meaning best. (Of the reading of Vol. 
