1S81.] 
C. J. Lyall —Translations from the HamaseTi. 
130 
Notes. 
The metre is Wqfir, as in No. III. The English only roughly imi¬ 
tates it, and does not attempt to keep up the equivalence of two short 
syllables or one long in the third place of each foot: the second hemistich 
of the English is also catalectic, the Arabic not. 
v. 1. “Our beasts,” “ el- l zs” : ‘ is , plural of ‘ eysd , means a she-camel 
almost white in colour, slightly tinged with yellow. This is one of the 
colours most esteemed in camels among the Arabs. 
El-Munifeh and ed-Dimar are evidently stages on the road out of 
Nejd. The Marasid gives the former (iii, 167) as the name of a water 
belonging to Temim towards Felj, where was fought one of their battles. 
The Qamus says it is a water of Temim between Nejd and el-Yemameh. 
Ed-Dimar in the Marasid (ii, 185) is likewise given as the name of a 
place between Nejd and el-Yemameh. This locality does not however suit 
very well here. El-Yemameh is as much part of Nejd as any other portion 
of that region; and a rider going from central to southern Nejd would 
hardly speak of himself as quitting the upland for the plain. El-Munifeh 
means merely “ the high place,” and ed-Dimar “ the valley that hides, by 
enclosing him, the traveller therein” (or perhaps a hollow in the sand-sea 
rather than a valley) ; and both may be the names of many other places 
than those specified. I take it that the journey intended was rather 
towards the north than the south. 
v. 2. l Arar is the name (in the collective form) of a sweet-smelling 
yellow flower which in the spring season covers the uplands of Nejd. 
El-Khalil says that it is el-baharet el-barriyyeh , Buphthalmum or ox-eye. 
Others say that it is a bush ( Buplithalmum arbor esc ens ), and Ibn-Barri that 
it is the wild narcissus. The complexion of a woman is compared to the 
colour of its blossoms by el-’A‘sha in the line 
beydadu dahwatalia was af¬ 
ro? it-l-ashiyyeta ka-l^ararah. 
“ White in the noonday, and clear yellow in the even like the ‘ ararah .” 
v. 5. More literally, “ Months passed away, and we marked neither 
the full moons nor the new moons thereof.” 
Nejd, “the Upland,” is the whole of that portion of Arabia which lies, 
on the south, west, and east, inland from the mountain barrier which separa¬ 
tes it from the lowland by the coast (called Tihameh on the western shore) : 
on the north the mountains of Tayyi’ are included in, and form the limit on 
this side of Nejd. Though a great part of this area is desert during the 
rainless season, in the spring it is covered with verdure, and affords excellent 
pasture. 
s 
