Page:The L-poem of the Arabs.djvu/13

 pounced upon, and instantly secured with a stout rope, or a thong of raw hide."

Shanfarà, notwithstanding the darkness, witnesses the proceeding, unseen, from the foot of the hillock where he has taken up his post.

"Ta'abbat then addresses his captors aloud: 'Men of Bajlla, I offer you to ransom myself on equitable terms; and 'Umar son of Barrāq shall be your hostage for me.' They accept his proposal. Ta'abbat now calls out: 'Come forward, 'Umar. As for that fellow Shanfarà, he is already off to some friendly tribe, near at hand. You, 'Umar, must be hostage for me.'

"'Umar stood forward in full view,"—in spite of darkness and distance,—" and said: 'Not until I have shown them how to run.' So saying, he ran swiftly towards the hillock, and then back again towards the Bajila party," all of whom had now shown themselves, and were looking on to watch and admire 'Umar's deftness of foot.

"When he had repeated this course, to and fro, several times, the Bajlla men imagined that he would be sufficiently out of breath to be easily made prisoner," without becoming hostage for his friend.

According to Arab laws of private warfare, there would be no treachery or dishonesty in this. He had not yet chosen to constitute himself their hostage and guest. He was still their foe at large and had foolishly tired himself, out of bravado. He could be, therefore, honourably seized.

"The Bajīla men," all of them in a body, the simpletons, "set out, therefore, in pursuit of 'Umar," leaving Ta'abbat unguarded, even by a single sentry. He was so securely bound, he could not possibly escape.

Seeing the opportunity he had so adroitly planned, and the perfect manner in which his bait had been taken, Ta'abbat, when his captors were sufficiently distant at the heels of 'Umar, who kept just clear of them, without making clean off,—dangling, as it were in their grasp, and so enticing them to continue the pursuit,—"Ta'abbat shouted aloud," as though to cheer them on: '"Seize! Seize!' At this signal, Shanfarà came forth from his hiding-place, swiftly ran to Ta'abbat, cut loose his bonds, and set him free. The two now made for their companion 'Umar," still in spite of the pitchy darkness.

"Having joined him, Ta'abbat, in a vein of irony, addressed his late captors: 'Men of Bajīla! you have seen how 'Umar can run; look now, and admire the speed of Ta'abbata Sharran!' With this, the three friends put on speed, and were soon out of reach of their foes."

Such is the tale on which is said to have been based a proverb, not founded on the fleetness of foot of 'Umar, or of Ta'abbat, but on that of our bard, Shanfarà, respecting whose celerity not a word is explicitly stated in the whole course of the anecdote.

As a further proof that the Shanfarà proverb was founded on the nimbleness displayed by his double, Ta'abbat, on that memorable night of accommodating darkness, when all distant objects were so conveniently visible, De Sacy gravely continues to quote his Arabian guide, and gives the following three distichs, said to have been composed by Ta'abbat in commemoration of that night's adventure, but which might have been indited by any bard on almost any occasion of a nocturnal chase.

In these verses, it is not Ta'abbat who calls out; it is the men of Bujīla. Again, it is not the whole of them who run after 'Umar, but only their swiftest men who pursue Ta'abbat, while the rest urge them on with their voices. The verses do not fit the anecdote; the anecdote does not tally with the proverb; and the verses of Shanfarà himself, fully bearing out the sense of the latter, are not quoted in support of it, as though they were unknown to the commentator. These are the verses:

"On a night when they shouted, and excited against me