Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/348

 generosity 326 THE DECLINE AND FALL union of generosity and valour was the darling theme of their song ; and, when they pointed their keenest satire against a despicable race, they affirmed, in the bitterness of reproach, that the men knew not how to give nor the women to Examples of dcny.*^ The same hospitality which was practised by Abraham and celebrated by Homer is still renewed in the camps of the Arabs. The ferocious Bedoweens, the terror of the desert, embrace, without inquiry or hesitation, the stranger who dares to confide in their honour and to enter their tent. His ti-eat- ment is kind and respectful ; he shares the wealth or the poverty of his host ; and, after a needful repose, he is dismissed on his way, with thanks, with blessings, and perhaps with gifts. The heart and hand are more largely expanded by the wants of a brother or a friend ; but the heroic acts that could deserve the public applause must have surpassed the narrow measure of dis- cretion and experience. A dispute had arisen, who, among citizens of Mecca, was entitled to the prize of generosity ; and a successive application was made to the three who were deemed most worthy of the trial. Abdallah, the son of Abbas, had un- dertaken a distant journey, and his foot was in the stirrup when he heard the voice of a suppliant, " O son of the uncle of the apostle of God, I am a traveller, and in distress! " He instantly dismounted to present the pilgrim with his camel, her rich ca- parison, and a purse of four thousand pieces of gold, excepting only the sword, either for its intrinsic value or as the gift of an honoured kinsman. The servant of Kais informed the second suppliant that his master was asleep ; but he immediately added, " Here is a purse of seven thousand pieces of gold (it is all we have in the house), and here is an order that will entitle you to a camel and a slave ". The master, as soon as he awoke, praised and enfranchised his faithful steward, with a gentle reproof that by respecting his slumbers he had stinted his bounty. The third of these heroes, the blind Arabah, at the hour of prayer, was supporting his steps on the shoulders of two slaves. " Alas ! " he replied, " my coffers are empty ! but these you may sell ; " if you refuse, I renounce them." At these words, pushing away the youths, he groped along the wall with his staff. The character of Hatem is the perfect model of Arabian virtue ; '*'' •*® D'Herbelot, Bibliot Orient, p. 458. Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, torn. iii. p. 118. Caab and Hesnus (Pocock, Specimen, p. 43, 46, 48) were likewise conspicuous for their liberality ; and the latter is elegantly praised by an Arabian poet : " Videbis eum cum accesseris e.xultantem, ac si dares illi quod ab illo petis ",
 * ^ Sale's Preliminary Discourse, p. 29, 30.