Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/565

Rh M O B M B 539 poets are always to be taken au serieux when they describe those carousals, and other adventures in peace and war, of which they love to boast. They are probably more serious in the narratives of their love experiences : these are often very highly coloured, and yet are always pervaded by a certain natural refinement, which is too often wanting in the later erotic poetry of the Moslems. But there, too, our enjoy ment is frequently marred by minute and even prosy de scriptions of the physical charms of the object of affection. The lyrical and even the more rhetorical passages of the poems make in general a deeper impression upon us than the descriptive portions, to which they owe their distinctive character, and which are often intimately blended with the former. When those old Arabs are really moved by love, or rage, or grief, when personal or tribal vanity vents itself in immoderate boasting, invective, or banter, then they strike chords that thrill our breasts. In those passages where genuine human feeling is stirred, they also display far greater individuality than in the more conventional descriptions. Especially affecting are the numerous pass ages or complete poems which mourn over the beloved and venerated dead. Their sober practical philosophy too, as it is presented in the Mo allaka of Zohair and in many of Labfd s poems, is really impressive. The Mo allakat are highly characteristic specimens of this poetry. They exhibit nearly all its merits as well as most of its defects. Amongst its merits we ought, perhaps, to include the unfailing regularity of the verse. That a people living under such extremely simple conditions should have cultivated a purely quantitative metre, so euphonious and so rigorously adhered to, is a fact worthy of our highest admiration. It is one evidence of that sense of measure and fixed form which is, in other directions also, a marked feature in the life and speech of the Arabs. The mere fact that in their verses they give so much attention to elegance of expression deserves commendation. Amongst the defects of this poetry we must emphasize the loose connexion between the separate parts. We require a poem, like any other work of art, to be a compact unity ; the Arabs and many other Orientals lay all the stress on the details. In the Mo allaka of Tarafa, for instance, after the poet has spoken long enough about his beloved, he starts off in this fashion : &quot; But I banish care when it comes near with a &quot;- she-camel of such and such qualities, and then proceeds to give a description of his riding-camel. Equally abrupt transitions occur in almost all these poems, generally more than once in the same poem. In many cases a sort of unity is preserved by making the different sections represent so many scenes from the life of the poet or from the common life of the Bedouins ; but even then there is something unsatisfactory in the want of real connexion. It does not mend matters much when the poet keeps up a merely mechanical transition ; as, for example, Avhen he speaks first of his camel, then with the words &quot;it is as swift as a wild ass which,&quot; Arc., passes to a description of that animal, and again proceeds, &quot;or as swift as an ostrich which,&quot; &c., in order to introduce the ostrich. This loose structure of the poems explains the fact that from a very early period particular pieces were culled from larger works and recited by themselves. For the town- Arabs of later times this procedure was especially convenient. For them the wild ass or oryx-antelope had little attraction ; and on the camel they bestowed about as much notice as we do on our dray-horses and waggons. But the love and hate, the pride and scorn, the fierce lust of revenge and the wailing grief, the bravery and the gaiety, which breathed through the old Bedouin songs, had an intense fascination for them. We see that their attitude towards that poetry had in some degree approximated to our own. Hence it is that some anthologies from the old poetry, made by men of learning and ability, with an eye to contemporary tastes, are on the whole much more pleasing to us than the com plete poems themselves. This is eminently true of the excellent collection edited by Abu TammAm, himself a con siderable poet (first half of the 9th century), under the title &quot; Hamasa &quot; (Valour). This collection, which, however, embraces many pieces of the Moslem period, is certainly fitted to give a European a rather too favourable idea of ancient Arabic poetry. Whoever wishes really to know that poetry and without this knowledge it is impossible to understand the Arabs themselves or their language must betake himself to those which, like the Mo allakatand others, have been preserved more or less in their integrity. The Mo allakat have been repeatedly printed, separately and collectively, both in the West and the East, generally with an Arabic commentary. A good commentary by a competent European is a real desideratum. A work of this kind would do more for the understanding of the poems than any poetical translation, which must always fail in rendering these definite concrete expressions of the Arabs for which we possess neither the idea nor the image. A translation must either be a mere paraphrase or else substitute some thing utterly vague. (TH. N.) MOBILE, a city and port of entry of the United States, the capital of Mobile county, and, though not the capital, the largest city of Alabama, lies 140 miles east of New- Orleans, on a sandy plain on the west bank of Mobile river, one of the arms of the Alabama. The municipal boundary includes an area about 6 miles long by 2 or 3 in breadth ; but, excluding the suburban villas scattered about the nearer hills, the portion occupied by the buildings of the city proper is not more than a mile square. In the matter of paving and shade the streets are generally good, and Government Street especially, with its fine oak trees and gardens, forms an attractive promenade. Besides the spacious granite building erected in 1859 to accommodate the Custom-House, the Post Office, and the United States courts, the principal edifices are the Roman Catholic cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (1833), Christ Church (Episcopal) (1837), the City Hos pital (1830), the United States Marine Hospital (1836), the Providence Infirmary, the conjoint market-house and municipal buildings, Barton Academy (occupied by the high schools), and the Alabama Medical College (founded in 1859). About 6 miles out, at Spring Hill, is the Jesuit College of St Joseph, established by Bishop Portier in 1832. As a commercial centre Mobile is in some re spects very favourably situated. It is the only port of Alabama ; the estuary on which it stands is the outlet for several navigable rivers ; and it is the seaward terminus of the Mobile and Ohio railroad, the Mobile and Mont gomery, and the Grand Trunk. But, on the other hand, it lies 25 miles from the coast ; the lagoon-like bay cut off from the Gulf of Mexico by the narrow isthmus of Mobile Point is extremely shallow; and in 1879 no vessel drawing more than 13 feet could load and unload in the harbour with safety. Since 1827, it is true, various works have been undertaken to improve the approaches : the Choctaw Pass and the Dog River Bar, which had formerly a depth of little more than 5 and 8 feet respectively, were deepened to 17 feet by 1882; but Mobile will not take rank as a satisfactory ocean port till the scheme (now in operation) for constructing a wide channel more than 20 feet deep right through the bay has been fully carried out. The cost of the necessary works being beyond the power both of the city and State, Con gress has granted $270,000 for the purpose of widening the channel to 200 feet, and deepening it to 23 feet. A private company, established in 1876, has built a break water in the bay, and greatly increased the safety of the harbour. For the years between 1855 and 1859 the average value of exports and imports was respectively