Page:Mythology Among the Hebrews.djvu/97

Rh received this phrase into its inventory. It is connected with this preference of the nomads for the heavens by night, that Hind, daughter of ‘Otbâ, says on the day of the battle of Oḥod to the Koreyshites, the opponents of Islâm: 'We are the daughters of the Star,' (naḥnu binât Ṭâriḳ), thereby claiming descent for herself also from the nightly heaven. We put this exclamation of the brave Arab woman in the same category with the above-mentioned reference of the origin of the Arabs to the Rain, and consider ourselves justified in rejecting the explanation given by al-Jauharî, who finds in it a simile, with the sense, 'Our father excels others in nobility of birth, as that brilliant star excels the other stars.' It is then quite indifferent which star Ṭâriḳ is, whether the morning star, according to most lexicographers, or Zoḥal, (Saturn, or another of the five Chunnas-stars), as al-Baiḍâwî explains it. The point lies only in the fact that the Arab woman calls herself 'Star's daughter;' and this designation falls into the same category with Banû Badr 'Sons of the Full Moon,' Banû Hilâl 'Sons of the New Moon,' adopted by some Arabian tribes, and compared even by Bochart. with the name of the people Jerah. Thus also several clans of Arabian tribes, especially the Banû Temîm, Banû Ḍabbâ, and Banû Azd called themselves 'Sons of Night,' (Banû Ṣarîm). On the other hand, the townsman of Mecca called himself 'Child of the Sun,'—a name which has survived to the present time, as is to be seen from an interesting com munication of Kremer.