1881.] 
C. J. Lyall —Translations from the Hamdseh. 
113 
Notes. 
The metre is the most ordinary form of the Tawil; the English 
imitates it:— 
KJ _ 
KJ _ 
■ | u - 
KJ __ 
KJ _ 
KJ _ 
I KJ _ 
VJ 
VJ 
1 “ 
KJ 
(rare) (rare) 
‘Orweh son of el-Ward was a warrior and singer of ‘Abs in the long war 
which that tribe waged against Bubyan called the War of Dahis, A. D. 
568—608 (C. de Perceval). He was a proverb for his generosity, and it 
was said of him by one of the early Khalifehs—“ He who calls Hatim the 
most generous of the Arabs wrongs ‘Orweh.” His very name implies his 
character : for ‘orweh means those trees and bushes fit for pasture which 
do not dry up in seasons of drought, and are therefore a resource in times 
of dearth. He was called l Orwat-es-$a l dliJc, “The resource in time of 
hunger of all vagabonds,” because he never failed to give them of his 
store, or to find food for them by plundering others. Much of his poetry 
has survived and has been edited and published by Prof. Noeldeke. 
Such a vagabond as ‘Orweh delighted to help, and such an one as he 
despised, are here set before us by himself. These Sa‘dlilc , outlaws, home¬ 
less men, were numerous in the days of the Ignorance. Ta’abbata Sherra 
was such an one: such were es-Suleyk son of es-Sulakeh and esh-Shenfara 
of Azd. They were men who had on them the guilt of blood and had 
been disowned by their tribe. All men’s hands were against them, and 
they alone against all. What hardness and heroic strength of heart this 
solitude bred are nowhere so strikingly seen as in that most magnificent 
of old Arab poems, the Ldmiyyeli of esh-Shenfara. 
v. 1. “God’s scorn be on him,” literally, “ may God smite him on 
the cheek” and so disgrace him. 
The word musafi in this line is difficult, both to parse and render : 
for the discussion of it the reader is referred to et-Tebrizi and Freytag’s 
notes. I have taken it in the sense of “ gathering up out of the dust and 
cleaning,” but with some diffidence. There is a various reading for it— 
madaft: “who goes after, or in search of:” but this has the aspect of a 
device to smoothe a difficulty, and is frigid. 
v. 2. “His fill of milk :” that “ milk” is intended by the “ entertain¬ 
ment,” qira, spoken of, I infer from the meaning of nmyessir, which 
denotes “ one whose herds and flocks yield him abundance of milk.” 
v. 3. He goes to rest early and rises late, still drowsy, 
v. 6. “ As losers curse the luckless shaft” : zejra-l-memhi-l-mushali- 
heri ; el-menih was the name of one of the three arrows which, in the game 
played with ten arrows by the pagan Arabs, had no lots assigned to them. 
