Page:Hutcheson Macaulay Posnett - Comparative Literature (1886).djvu/168

 spears all missed the man who stood as his fellows' shield. The matron of ʿAbd-Shems laughed as she saw me led in bonds, as though she had seen before no captive of el-Yemen; but one knows—Muleykeh my wife—that time was when I stood forth a lion in fight, whether men bore against me or I led on. I said to them when they bound my tongue with a leathern thong—'O kinsmen of Teym, I pray you, leave me my tongue yet free! O kinsmen of Teym, ye hold me fast: treat me gently then; the brother ye lost was not the equal in place of me. And, if ye must slay me, let me die at least as a lord; and if ye will let me go, take in ransom all my wealth.' | Is it truth, ye servants of God—I shall hear no more the voice of herdsmen who shout for their camels in the distant grazing-grounds? | Yea, many a beast did I slay and many a camel urge | to her swiftest, and journey steadfast where no man dared to go; | and ofttimes I slew for my fellows my camel at the feast and ofttimes I rent my robe in twain for two singing girls, | and ofttimes withstood a host like locusts that swept on me | with my hand alone when all the lances on me were turned. | Now am I as though I never had mounted a noble steed, or called to my horsemen—Charge! give our footmen breathing space!' | or bought the full skin of wine for much gold, or shouted loud | to my comrades stout—'Heap high the blaze of our beacon fire!'"

§ 40. But, beside the songs which have come down to us reeking of bloodshed, we have early Arab poems in which the personal character of the clansman is less violently expressed. Thus in the Moʿallaqah of Lebid the poet draws a picture of the clansman's generosity which reminds us of Antar, but is again to be