ancient race of 'Âd the people of Thamûd inherited their possessions and were called ‘Ád el-Âkhireh, “the later 'Âd." The first reason must be rejected, for it would have been easy to the poet so to frame the verse that Thamûd might have been used instead of 'Âd: for instance, he might have said— Fatuntej lakum ghilmâna, kullun ka'annahu Qudûru Thamûdin: thumma turḍi' fatefṭimi. Moreover other poets also speak of Ahmar of 'Âd: e. g., Abû Jundab el-Huðalî, quoted by et-Tebrîzî in the Ḥamâseh, p. 421. The second is more probable, though the Biblical genealogies framed for 'Âd and Thamûd by later Muslim writers can hardly have been known to Zuheyr. According to these, the following was the descent of these two tribes A third hypothesis is possible—that some version of the legend of Saliḥ and his Camel, and the judgment which followed its slaying, was current in the days of Zuheyr which dropped out of mind when cl-Islâm overspread the land. If this verse is genuine, it would seem strongly to support the opinion that vv. 27-28 may also be genuine; for it refers plainly to a legend (mentioned in the Qur'ân in a way which shows that it was well known to those addressed) of God's judgment on the wicked. That it is genuine and not a Muslim interpolation appears highly probable from the mention of 'Âd rather than Thamûd: the latter would have been named by a Muslim following the version of the legend embodied in the Qur'ân. v. 33. "Of bushels of corn and gold," min qafizin wa dirhemi: the coinage called dirhem was silver, not gold; but the latter is here used (like the word dirhem in the original) in the general sense of money. The qafiz was a measure of capacity containing eight mekkûks or twelve șû's of cl-'Irâq: one șa' of Baghdâd is 5} riṭls, or pints: the qafiz is thus 64 pints. The word is originally Persian, kawish (5). v. 37. "Though there in their midst tho Vulture-mother had entered in," ledà ḥeythu 'alget raḥlahâ 'Ummu qash'ami: literally, "In that place where the Vulturemother cast down her camel-saddle." "To cast down one's saddle" (as "to lay down one's staff" in v. 13) means to halt in a place. "The Vulture-mother" is a name of Death, or Calamity; qash'am means an old vulture, and is used in that sense in the last verse of 'Antarah's Mo'allaqah. v. 38. “A bulwark for men in fight," muqaððaf: literally, "one whom men cast before them (in battle)," to shield themselves or to do a dosperate deed. v. 40. As explained at the end of the second note to the Introduction, this verse appears to refer to the breaking out again of strife which followed the deed of Hoseyn. "They pastured their camels athirst," ra'au dim'ahum: literally, "They pastured (their camels) for their dim', or period between two drinkings." Camels in Arabia are not taken down to drink every day; in the greatest heat they are watered every alternate day: this is called ghibb; as the weather gets colder, they pass two days without water, and come down on the fourth: this is called rib'; then follow khims, sids, and so on to 'ishr, when the ḍim' is eight days, and they are watered on the tenth. The camels are the warriors, and the pools the pools of Death. The image seems intended to figure the senselessness of the strife, and its want of object and aim. : v. 41. "Till their thirst should grow anew" these words have been added in the translation to complete the sense; they follow from the description of the pasture (kela') as unwholesome, heavy (mustaubal), and indigestible (mutawakhkham): such, that is, as to stir their thirst again in a short time. The unwholesome pasture is the brooding over wrong in the intervals of combat. In like manner Qeys son of Zuheyr says, of the bitter results of wrong in this same War of Dâhis (Hamâseh, p. 210. Aghânî xvi., 32)— v. 44. "But the stout warrior Hamal son of Bedr wrought wrong and wrong is a surfeiting pasturage." The commentary on this verse seems to me to err in taking kullan as equivalent to kulla wûḥidin mina-l-'âqilîn; it is, I think, equivalent to kulla waḥidin mina-l-qatlà: this follows from the hu in yaʻqilûnahu at the end of the hemistich. I have translated accordingly. ،، v. 45. This verse contains a difficult word which the dictionaries do not satisfactorily explain, viz. ḥilâl in liḥayyin ḥilâlin. In form it is the plural of hall, "alighting or abiding in one place"; but it seems always to be used, as here, as an epithet of praise. Lane (s. v. hâll) says that it means a numerous tribe alighting or abiding in one place." I have not found it in the Ḥamâseh, though hayyun ḥolûlun (another plural of hall) occurs in a poem on p. 171 ; but it is used in a poem by Amr son of Kulthûm given in the Aghânî, vol. ix,, p. 183— أَلَا أَبْلِعْ بَني جُشم بن بَكْرٍ وَ تَغْلِبَ كُلَّمَا أَنهَا حِلَالًا در بأَنَّ الْمَاجِدَ الْقَرمَ بن عمرو غَدَالاً نطاع قَدْ صَدَقَ الْقِتَالاً نَطَاعِ Which seems to mean "Ho! carry my message to the sons of Jusham son of Bekr, and Teghlib, (that they may know) as often as they come to the great tribe, How that the glorious warrior, the son of 'Amr, on the morn of Natâ* bore himself stoutly in battle." *For the vocalization of Națâ' here given see the Marâşid, s. v. It is a village of el-Yemâmeh belonging to the Benû Ḥanîfeh. It may possibly mean numerous, and hence strong, this sense being derived from that of a body of men halting together in a compact host, on the alert and prepared for all attacks. v. 46. This verse is in praise of 'Abs, and is in continuation of v. 45. The second hemistich offers some difficulty: one does not expect to find their protection of "him that wrongs them" set down to their credit; but the words el-jûnî 'aleyhim cannot be otherwise rendered. Probably the wronger spoken of is the man who by slaying a member of another tribe involves his own in difficulties. It sometimes happened that such an one found himself unsupported by his kinsmen, and turned out from among them as a khali', or outcast: for instance, el-Hârith son of Dâlim, who slew Khâlid son of Ja'far of 'Amir while the latter was under the protection of en-No'mân son of el-Mundir, King of el-Hireh, was so treated by his tribe of Murrah, the same as that to which the men whom Zuheyr praises in this poem belonged. Such a desertion, unless for the gravest possible cause, was held to be disgraceful; and 'Abs are accordingly praised because they would not give up the wrongdoer, though he brought evil upon them. v. 47. Zuheyr was eighty years old when he composed his Mo'allaqah; if this was in 608 or 610 A. D., as M. de Perceval supposes, he may well have been a hundred, as the Aghânî relates (ix. 148), when he was seen by Mohammed, who said "O God! grant me a refuge from his Devil!"—that is, his cunning in song; it is added that he made no more poems from that day till his death, which ensued shortly after. This would be about 628 or 630 A. D.; and we know that his son Ka'b gave in his adhesion to the Prophet in 631 (the latter part of the ninth year of the Hijrah), after Zuheyr's other surviving son Bujeyr, together with the greater part of his tribe, the Muzeyneh, had already embraced el-Islâm. v. 49. "Blind beast," 'ashwa: literally, "a weak-eyed she-camel"-one that sees not well where she is going, and therefore strikes everything with her forefeet, not paying attention to the places where she sets down her feet (Lane). The word is used proverbially: you say-Rekiba fulânuni-l-‘ashwû, “Such an one rides the weakeyed she-camel"; that is, he prosecutes his affair without due deliberation; and Khabaṭa khabṭa-l-'ashwa, "He trod with the careless tread of a weak-eyed shecamel," he acted at random. v. 50. If this verse is rightly placed next after v. 49, the rending by the teeth: and the treading under foot should refer to the weak-eyed she-camel spoken of in that verse; and so I have taken it, the camel being blind Chance. v. 53. I am far from satisfied with the translation given of this verse, in which, however, I have scrupulously followed the commentary. The doubtful words are muţmaʼinnu-l-birri and yetejemjem; the former is explained as meaning birrun khâlişun, that is, pure goodness"; and the latter as the same as yetaradded, that is, "he is disturbed, confounded, perplexed." But Lane ronders muṭma'innu-l-birri as at rest, in heart or mind" (s. v. birr, end); for lejemjema, he gives-" he spoke indistinctly, he concealed a thing in his bosom, he held back from the thing, not daring to “quiet, D do it”; the sense of "being disturbed in mind" does not occur, though it may, perhaps, fairly be gathered from the last of those given by Lane. I should be inclined to render man yuhda qalbuhu, §c-" He whose heart is guided to quietness and rest of soul is not disturbed in his doings, but acts without fear or trouble of spirit." v. 56. Among the Arabs, when two parties of men met, if they meant peace, they turned towards each other the iron feet (zijáj, plural of zujj) of their spears: if they meant war, they turned towards each other the points. v. 57. The "cistern", haud, is a man's home and family. v. 60. This verse, the commentary tells us, was quoted by 'Othmân son of 'Affân, the third Khalîfeh, v. 62. This accords with the proverb―innama-l-mar'u biasghareyhi—“A man is accounted of according to his two smallest things"—his heart and his tongue. vv. 60-62 seem consecutive in sense, and probably belong to the same poem; but it is very difficult to see how they cohere with the rest of this. v. 63, on the other hand, seems separate not only from the rest of the poem, but also from the three verses that precede it; grammar would require that the verb at the end of it should be marfû', not mejzúm-yaḥlumu, not yaḥlum: but to read it so would disturb the rhyme, and be a fault of the kind called iqwâ. The commentary says that the mim of yaḥlum is originally mauquf (quiescent in a pause), and is read with kesr, because that is the appropriate vowel for making a quiescent letter moveable; but this reason is very lame. On the whole, it seems certain that v. 63 does not properly belong to the piece, and it is probable that vv. 60-62 are also intrusions. No other poem of those by Zuheyr that remain has the same metre and rhyme as his Mo‘allaqah, and it is most likely that fragments of other poems, now lost, in this measure and rhyme that have survived have been included in it, because there was no other piece into which they could be put. The rest of the maxims forming the conclusion of the poem can be understood as arising, some more, some less closely, out of its subject; but the different order in which they occur in different recensions, and the fact that some recensions omit some of them which others supply, make it doubtful whether even they all properly belong to the Mo‘allaqah. Stray Arians in Tibet.-By R. B. SHAW, Political Agent. (With one plate.) The line which divides the Musalmàn from the Buddhist populations of Asia, where it crosses the valley of the Upper Indus, passes through the villages of a small tribe which is worthy of some attention. It is Arian in blood though surrounded on all sides but one by Turanians of the Tibetan branch. The people of this tribe are proved by their language and their customs, which are supported by their traditions of former migrations, to |