1877 .] 
life of the poet as given in the Kitdb-cl-Aghdni. 
93 
calf in tlic dust when it desires to suck and prevents it from doing so. “ White 
qalid. The wild kine are white, except the face and legs and tail, which are 
black: so says the commentator here. Imra’el-Qeys (Mo‘all. 64) compares them to 
onyx stones. 
v. 43. “A pearl born in a sea-shell jum&net-el-bahriy. Jumaneh is properly a 
false pearl, or a bead of silver shaped like a pearl, from the Persian guman, thought, 
fancy: here it is put for a genuine pearl, as is shewn by the following word el-bahriy , 
which may be either the shell or the diver. “ That has dropped from its string siillci 
nvSdmuhd : literally “ of which the string has been pulled out:” the restless roaming of 
the cow is likened to the rolling hither and thither of the pearl. 
v. 45. No information is given in the Marasid regarding So‘aid. 
v. 46. The commentary says that the apodosis of hattd 7c5a in this verse, viz.: 
selet * anhu (she forgot her young one), is omitted: I prefer to understand verse 47, 
though introduced by wa, as the apodosis. A similar construction exists in verse 49 : 
hattd i1$d ya’isa-r-rumdtu, wa arsalu. 
v. 47. “The sound:” rizz, “ a noise heard from afar.” “ From a hidden place :” 
l An ISahri g hey bin ,” “ from a place which concealed what was in it”. 
v. 48. In rendering this couplet the reading has been chosen instead of 
5 the former is cited in the notes to Arnold’s edition (p. 29) from the Gotha MS. : 
the latter appears in his text. The native commentators prefer the latter, apparently 
because the construction of )^i as an OuL| is thought the most appropriate ex¬ 
planation of the verse : but from to run would be equally admissible as 
regards construction being its and the sense seems to require the word ; 
O ? ♦ * 
for the next verse says that the pursuers lost hope of reaching her, evidently because of 
her swift flight. Taking as the first word, the verse may be literally rendered 
“ She rushed along, thinking that each of the two openings 
was a meet place for fear, both behind her and before her”. 
“ The two openings,” kila-l-farjeyn : that is, the splitting of the thicket which 
opens before her and closes behind her as she rushes along : it is equivalent to the fol¬ 
lowing words, Tchalfuhd wa-imdmuhd . Mania “ a meet and fitting place,” as in the 
Qur’an, “ en-ndru mauldkum ,” “ The Fire is your fitting place.” 
v. 49. “With stiff leather collars on their necks:” Qdfilan a l sdmuhd. Another 
rendering of these words, which is the one preferred by De Sacy, is “ lean and slender- 
waisted” (aux flancs maigres et efliles) ; qdjil means dry, and a‘sdm , plural of ‘ osmeh, is 
said to mean waist as well as leather collar. The latter meaning, however, is the only 
one of the two given in Lane. 
v. 50. “ Spears of Semhar.” According to the commentary and other authori¬ 
ties quoted by Lane, Semhar was the name of a certain maker of spears who dwelt in 
the town of el-Khatt in el-Bahreyn, where the best bamboos from India were landed 
and fashioned into lances, which are thence frequently called khattiy : he is said to 
have been the husband of Eudeyneh, who also used to straighten spears ; others say 
that Semhar was the name of a town or village in Abyssinia where good spears were 
made. But it will be seen from Lane ( s. v. ) that there is a quadriliteral verb 
q t ...) meaning “ to be straight and hard,” and that semhariy is applied to bow strings as 
well as spears, while musmahirr is used of a thorn in the sense of tough. In this verse 
there is another appellative, Medariyyeh , that is, belonging to or made at Modar, a vil- 
