169 
1877.] C. J. Lyall —Three Translations from the Hamaseh. 
v. 1. “Son of the uncle of Stoutness,” a periphrasis for “a stout and valiant 
man” ; the words father, son, and brother are frequently joined to qualities to denote 
the possessor of them : thus Tarafeh (Mo‘all. 86) calls his sword atchu thiqatin “brother 
of faithfulness.” 
v. 2. “I will gladden his heart,” literally “I will shake his side,” i. e. with 
mirth and joy. “ Mra/c-feeders”—she-camels fed on the aruk, a shrub (Salvaclora Per- 
sicaj widely distributed in the sandy soils of the East ; in Western India it is known 
as Tilu. 
v. 4. “ He rides bare-backed the steed of perilous deeds” is explained as meaning 
that he encounters dangers with nought to protect him from them. 
v. 8. “There flash abroad:” the word tehellela is used specially of the lightning. 
“ Dooms,” el-menaya , plural of meniyyeli , the Fates of men ; it is probable that the 
pagan Arabs conceived of these as women, like the Fates and Norns of Homan and Norse 
mythology. ‘Amr son of Kulthum says (Mo'all. 8). 
Uj jA&/o j UJ bU+Jf USjAJ Uf j 
And as for us—the Fates will surely reach us: 
doomed are they to us and we to them. 
v. 9. “ The Mother of all the clustered stars” is variously explained; some say 
that it means the Sun (feminine in Arabic as in German), as the greatest of all the 
heavenly bodies : others that it is the Milky Way ; to me it seems most probable that it 
means the Heaven, and that the solitude which is spoken of in the first half-verse is fur¬ 
ther described in the second by saying that the wanderer’s only companion on his way 
is the turning Heaven. 
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