1877.] 
91 
life of the poet as given in the Kitdh-eJ-Aghdm. 
o 
Another instance is quoted by Lane s. v. From this it is evident that writ¬ 
ing and hooks were not so strange to the Arabs of the time immediately preceding el- 
Islam as has sometimes been asserted. 
v. 9. The reference here is to the weshm or tracery pricked into the skin of a 
woman’s hands and arms. The pattern is pricked out with a needle, and there is 
sprinkled over the skin and rubbed into it a preparation called na’ur, here rendered 
“ blue,” i. e. powdered indigo, but which may also mean powdered lamp-black. As the 
rains which deepened and broadened the traces of the tents are in verse 8 compared to 
a writer who goes over lines of writing again with a pen, so in v. 9 they are likened to 
a woman who renews the tattooing by sprinkling fresh pigment over the old lines ; 
which being rubbed in, the lines appear fresh again. 
v. 11. “Tent-trenches:” nu’y , the trench which is dug round a tent to receive 
the rain draining from its roof and to prevent the flooding of its interior; it is to be 
remembered that these pastures were resorted to during the season of rain. “ Thatch,” 
Thumam, i. e. panic grass. Forskal (page 20) says that the name is used for Panicum 
Dichotomum : but it is applied by the Arabs to many species of panicum. The grass is 
used for thatching and for stuffing holes in the tents so as to keep out the weather. 
v. 12. “ Crept into the litters :” the word used ( takannus ) is appropriate to 
the action of a hare or a fox creeping into its hole (kinds). 
v. 14. Tudih is mentioned in v. 2 of the Mo‘allaqah of Imra’ el-Q,eys. The 
Marasid-el-Ittila/ says that it is the name of “ a hill of white sand which rises among 
other hills of red sand in the great desert (ed-Dahna) near el-Yemameh,” one of the 
Southern provinces of Central Nejd : “ but others say it is a different place.” Wejrah is 
also mentioned in the Mo‘all. of I. Q., verse 33 : it is a stage on the road from Mekkeh 
to el-Basrah, 40 miles or 3 stages from the former, much frequented by wild kine. The 
mention of the look which a wild cow or deer casts on her young one, at which time 
her eyes are most beautiful and tender, as a comparison for the eyes of a beautiful woman 
is common in old Arab poetry. See I. Q., Mo‘all. v. 33. 
v. 15. Bisheh is the name of a valley in el-Yemen which is thickly populated: 
also of a village in Tihameh ; so the Marasid: the commentary says that it is a valley 
on the road to el-Yemameh. The long line of camels with their litters in which the 
ladies ride is compared to the ridges of rock of this valley in the part where its ridges 
are low and sink into the plain ( ). These, in the noon-tide, stand out from the 
midst of the mirage, with their rocks andjtamarisks (at hi, Tamarix Orient alls), even as 
the tall camel litters make their way through the mists of morn which cling round 
them like a skirt. 
v. 16. “Nawar :” the name of his Love : the word means “timid, retiring.” 
v. 17. “Of Murrah.” There were many tribes of this name : the one intended 
is, however, probably Murrah ibn Sa‘sa'ah, the progenitor of which was the brother of 
< Amir son of Sa‘sa‘ah, father of the tribe to which Lebid himself belonged. These 
Benu Murrah were more commonly known as the Benu Salul, and, as stated in the 
extract from the Aghani, it was among them that the famous ‘ Amir ibn Tufeyl died 
after his unsuccessful attempt to assassinate the Prophet. 
Feyd is a place still well known by that name : it was visited by Palgrave (Cen¬ 
tral and East. Arab. Yol. I, p. 230), and is situated on the South-East face of Jebel Sel¬ 
ma, the most Southern of the two ranges of Teyyi’, about the middle of the range. 
el-Hijaz, “the barrier” i. e. between the uplands of Nejd and the low coast country of 
Tihameh, is the mountainous tract in which Mekkeh and el-Medineh are situated. 
