Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/139

 tribes, and which are a mixture of Hebrew blood. One of the most famous tribes was that of the Beni Hasheniz, from which spring the Boshnàk and the Beni Omeyn, the Irish, always famed for the beauty of their women. The Scotch are likewise Koreish—the nobility descending from the King Al Yem (and his court), father of Gebailuata, who headed the 50,000 horse, when they took their flight from the Hedjáz, after a quarrel with the Caliph Omar. They resided some time in Syria; but, when the town of Gebeili became inadequate to contain their numbers, many took themselves off to the Emperor Herculius, towards Antioch and Tarsus.

You must look over the Scotch titles and names of persons and places, and you will see how many there are, who, it is plain to perceive, are of Arabic origin; and you will soon observe the relation they bear either to circumstances, former employments, propensities, or tastes.

You cannot expect, as when a Frenchman remains forty years in England, and can neither pronounce nor spell a name, that, during such a lapse of time, many of these names should not have undergone changes; but their origin is yet evident.

The Duke of Leinster’s motto (Croom Aboo—his father’s vineyards) has a grand signification, alluding