HATIM OF THE TRIBE OF TAYY.

It is told of Hátim of the tribe of Tayy,[[129]] that when he died, they buried him on the top of a mountain and set over his grave two troughs hewn out of two rocks and stone girls with dishevelled hair. At the foot of the hill was a stream of running water, and when wayfarers camped there, they heard loud crying and keening in the night, from dark till daybreak; but when they arose in the morning, they found nothing but the girls carved in stone. Now when Zú ‘l-Kurá’a,[[130]] King of Himyar, going forth of his tribe, came to that valley, he halted to pass the night there——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

Now when it was the Two Hundred and Seventieth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Zu ‘l-Kura’a passed by the valley he nighted there; and, when he drew near the mountain, he heard the keening and said, “What lamenting is that on yonder hill?” They answered him, saying, “Verily this be the tomb of Hatim al-Táyyi over which are two troughs of stone and stone figures of girls with dishevelled hair; and all who camp in this place by night hear this crying and keening.” So he said jestingly, “O Hatim of Tayy! we are thy guests this night, and we are lank with hunger.” Then sleep overcame him, but presently he awoke in affright and cried out, saying, “Help, O Arabs! Look to my beast!” So they came to him, and finding his she-camel struggling and struck down, they stabbed her in the throat and roasted her flesh and ate. Then they asked him what had happened and he said, “When I closed my eyes, I saw in my sleep Hatim of Tayy who came to me sword in hand and cried:—Thou comest to us and we have nothing by us. Then he smote my she-camel with his sword, and she had surely died even though ye had not come to her and slaughtered her.”[[131]] Now when morning dawned the King mounted the beast of one of his companions and, taking the owner up behind him, set out and fared on till midday, when they saw a man coming towards them, mounted on a camel and leading another, and said to him, “Who art thou?” He answered, “I am Adi,[[132]] son of Hatim of Tayy; where is Zu ‘l-Kura’a, Emir of Himyar?” Replied they, “This is he;” and he said to the prince, “Take this she-camel in place of thy beast which my father slaughtered for thee.” Asked Zu ‘l-Kura’a, “Who told thee of this?” and Adi answered, “My father appeared to me in a dream last night and said to me:—Harkye, Adi; Zu ‘l-Kura’a King of Himyar, sought the guest-rite of me and I, having naught to give him, slaughtered his she-camel, that he might eat: so do thou carry him a she-camel to ride, for I have nothing.” And Zu ‘l-Kura’a took her, marvelling at the generosity of Hatim of Tayy alive and dead. And amongst instances of generosity is the

[129]. A noble tribe of Badawin that migrated from Al-Yaman and settled in Al-Najd. Their Chief, who died a few years before Mohammed’s birth, was Al-Halim (the “black crow”), a model of Arab manliness and munificence; and although born in the Ignorance he will enter Heaven with the Moslems. Hatim was buried on the hill called Owárid: I have already noted this favourite practice of the wilder Arabs and the affecting idea that the Dead may still look upon his kith and kin. There is not an Arab book nor, indeed, a book upon Arabia which does not contain the name of Hatim: he is mentioned as unpleasantly often as Aristides.

[130]. Lord of “Cattle-feet,” this King’s name is unknown; but the Kámús mentions two Kings called Zu ‘l Kalá’a, the Greater and the Less. Lane’s Shaykh (ii. 333) opined that the man who demanded Hatim’s hospitality was one Abu ‘l-Khaybari.

[131]. The camel’s throat, I repeat, is not cut as in the case of other animals; the muscles being too strong: it is slaughtered by the “nahr,” i.e. thrusting a knife into the hollow at the commissure of the chest. (Pilgrimage iii. 303.)

[132]. Adi became a Moslem and was one of the companions of the Prophet.

TALE OF MA’AN THE SON OF ZAIDAH.[[133]]

It is told of Ma’an bin Záidah that, being out one day a-chasing and a-hunting, he became athirst but his men had no water with them; and while thus suffering behold, three damsels met him bearing three skins of water;——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

Now when it was the Two Hundred and Seventy-first Night,[[134]]

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that three girls met him bearing three skins of water; so he begged drink of them, and they gave him to drink. Then he sought of his men somewhat to give the damsels but they had no money; so he presented to each girl ten golden-piled arrows from his quiver. Whereupon quoth one of them to her friend, “Well-a-day! These fashions pertain to none but Ma’an bin Zaidah! so let each one of us say somewhat of verse in his praise.” Then quoth the first:—

He heads his arrows with piles of gold, ✿ And while shooting his foes is his bounty doled:

Affording the wounded a means of cure, ✿ And a sheet for the bider beneath the mould!

And quoth the second:—

A warrior showing such open hand, ✿ His boons all friends and all foes enfold:

The piles of his arrows of or are made, ✿ So that battle his bounty may not withhold!

And quoth the third:—

From that liberal hand on his foes he rains ✿ Shafts aureate-headed and manifold:

Wherewith the hurt shall chirurgeon pay, ✿ And for slain the shrouds round their corpses roll’d.[[135]]

And there is also told a tale of

[133]. A rival in generosity to Hatim: a Persian poet praising his patron’s generosity says that it buried that of Hatim and dimmed that of Ma’an (D’Herbelot). He was a high official under the last Ommiade, Marwán al-Himár (the “Ass,” or the “Century,” the duration of Ommiade rule) who was routed and slain in A.H. 132 = 750. Ma’an continued to serve under the Abbasides and was a favourite with Al-Mansúr. “More generous or bountiful than Ka’ab” is another saying (A. P., i. 325); Ka’ab ibn Mámah was a man who, somewhat like Sir Philip Sidney at Zutphen, gave his own portion of drink while he was dying of thirst to a man who looked wistfully at him, whence the saying “Give drink to thy brother the Námiri” (A. P., i. 608). Ka’ab could not mount, so they put garments over him to scare away the wild beasts and left him in the desert to die. “Scatterer of blessings” (Náshir al-Ni’am) was a title of King Malik of Al-Yaman, son of Sharhabil, eminent for his liberality. He set up the statue in the Western Desert, inscribed “Nothing behind me,” as a warner to others.

[134]. Lane (ii. 352) here introduces, between Nights cclxxi and ccxc, a tale entitled in the Bresl. Edit. (iv. 134.) “The Sleeper and the Waker,” i.e. the sleeper awakened; and he calls it:—The Story of Abu-l-Hasan the Wag. It is interesting and founded upon historical fact; but it can hardly be introduced here without breaking the sequence of The Nights. I regret this the more as Mr. Alexander J. Cotheal of New York has most obligingly sent me an addition to the Breslau text (iv. 137) from his MS. But I hope eventually to make use of it.

[135]. The first girl calls gold “Tibr” (pure, unalloyed metal); the second “Asjad” (gold generally) and the third “Ibríz” (virgin ore, the Greek ὄβρυζον). This is a law of Arab rhetoric never to repeat the word except for a purpose and, as the language can produce 1,200,000 (to 100,000 in English) the copiousness is somewhat painful to readers.