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 writings with the sign of the cross, +. Thus, in the King^s Quair, by James I., of Scotland :

And forthwithal my pen in hand I took, And made a +, and thus b^;an my book.

Modem Christians do not so literally follow the scriptural injunction : *' In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.*' But with Muslims it is no empty form.

The English reader will be interested in observing, in the following four first couplets of El-Biism's Poem, in italic characters, the movement of the qasida rhyme :

1 e min tezekkuri jlrdmin H dhi-selemi

maejta tUm'an jerh min muqUtin H (Umi

2 eni hebeii ^r-rthu min tOqdH katzimdin

wa ewmadxa ^l-barqu ft ^tz-tzalma^i min idsami

^/a mti U ^ayney-ke'in quUa ^kfufh hemeth wa mh li qalbi'ke in quUa ^stefiq yehimi

4 e yahsibu *S'Sabbu enna ^l-hubha munkeh'mun md beyna munsefimin min-ku wa mudztarimi

The two halves of the first distich, as above, rhyme ; and the

final syllable {mt) of the second half of every succeeding distich,

to the end of the poem, is the same as those of the hemistichs of

the opening verse.

W. A. C.