Page:The Celebrated Romance of the Stealing of the Mare.djvu/136

 custom of hospitality which considered the guest a blessing sent by Heaven.

3. "Built for her a tent."—Such is the Arabic expression which uses the same verb for the setting up of a tent as of a house. The same noun too is used, the tent being distinguished as the "house of hair," the house as the " house of stone."

4. "The dark one threw off his cloak.'—Abu Zeyd throws his cloak to his slave as showing his delight. 'This is a trait of openhandedness, indicating a hero, in modern as in ancient times. Abdul Kerim Jerba, the modern Hatim Tai, was nicknamed "' Abu Khod" (literally Father of Take it) from his custom of giving to all comers.

"Sultan Hassan."—The title Sultan, though pure Arabic, is not used by the Bedouins or at all by the Arabs until the eleventh century of our era. It is one of the indications of the date of the poem.

"So God send her to me."—This would seem to be a kind of competition between them as to the good fortune of entertaining the guest.

"he Lords of the Bedu."—The Bedu, ie., the Bedouins. "Bedu" is the correct plural of "Bedawi," a wanderer, which Europeans have changed into Bedouin, Bedouins.

5. "Fulano and Fulano."—So the Spaniards render the Arabic "Fulan," corresponding to our "Mr. So and So," or the French "Monsieur un tel."

6. "Thou slave and idle talker",—She mistakes Abu Zeyd for a slave on account of his colour, nor does heat first correct her.

"All, to the cord, I give."—As of one who gives a camel and the cord with it.

8. "We ask for him Betina."—Naaman's act of refusing Betina to her cousin Amer is a breach of Bedouin law, which acknowledges a right in first cousins to the hands of marriageable girls. At the present day the consent of all first cousins on the father's side must be obtained to a girl's marriage with a stranger.

10. "Colocynth of the desert."—Alkam, the bitter wild gourd of the desert.

"Clothed in the robes of amber."—The best of clothing, the more to ingratiate.