[269] The battle lasted three days, and each day, it will be observed, had a different name. The first, Armâth; the second, Aghwâth (alluding, as some think, to the succour brought that day by the Syrian contingent); the third, Ghimâs; the final night,Harîr (noise or clangour). The last is the only name which clearly has a meaning, as we shall see. The others may have been taken from names of places. See C. de Perceval, vol. iii. p. 484. Gibbon (ch. li.), ignoring the first day, translates the other three as signifying Succour, Concussion, and Barking.
[270] Abu Mihjan confessed to Selma that in his cups he had been singing these verses:—
Bury me when I die by the roots of the vine;
The moisture thereof will distil into my bones;
Bury me not in the open plain, for then I much fear
That no more again shall I taste the flavour of the grape.
But he swore to her that he would not again indulge in drinking, nor in abuse of the Ameer. And Selma, explaining this to Sád, obtained his release, so that he joined his comrades on the last great day of battle.
[271] Cacâa is said to have dressed up a troop of camels with trappings, &c., resembling those of elephants, and so endeavoured to affright the Persian cavalry. But it reads like a story.
[272] Sád felt satisfied and assured, so long as this shouting of genealogies went on among his men, that all was right; and desired that his sleep should not be disturbed during the night unless it ceased. What kind of shouting the Persians’ was is not stated.
[273] So tradition says; but it seems a piece of extravagance that thirty Persians should come forward, one after another, to be thus cut down.