Fahm Arabs, nomad once, but tamed down | the "dæmon" character of the man himby the process of the suns into semi-agri- self. Another and a more prosaic version culturists, still, as in the century the fifth substitutes for the goat-ghowl, Thabit's of our era, when Ta'abbet-Shurran lent own sword, which he was in the habit of his sinister lustre to their name, frequent thus carrying no less persistently than the wild and secluded, but well-watered Louis Philippe his umbrella, and which gorges that lie immediately behind the certainly wrought mischief enough, as we mountains of Ta'if and Aseer, south-east shall soon see. of Mecca, somewhat apart from the main lines of Arab land communication; and while they have secured a practical independence by nominal acquiescence in the political or religious phases of their more powerful neighbours, scarcely bear themselves a trace of the many influences that have again and again remodelled the not distant capital of the Peninsula. A few earth villages with low yellowish walls, a somewhat larger number of black-tent groups; here and there a scraggy enclosure of palms, melons, and vetches, or a thinly verdant patch of pasture; a fair allowance of goats and camels, of rock and sand between; lean dusky men in long shirts and tattered cloaks, striped or black; near the houses some muffled women in dark-blue cloth, and glass arm-rings; some very brown and naked children, seemingly such belonging to no one in particular,

is the land and tribe of Fahm, rich in blood and genealogies, miserably poor in all besides, and a fit nursing-stock for robbers, even now.

On details like these, historical criticism would be a mere waste of learning and ingenuity; the general truthfulness of a portrait is more to our present purpose than the minute precision of a photograph. All annalists agree in representing Ta'abbetShurran as an essentially "wild man clever, talented even, but irreclaimable; a born rebel to all social law and custom; one of the fera naturâ whom the literature of modern times is wont to paint in somewhat rounded contours and prismatic colours, but whose real lineaments stand out harsh and vigorous in one of the son of Jabir's authentic poems, where his own ultimate hero-ideal is thus portrayed:

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Nor exults he nor complains he; silent bears whate'er befalls him,

Much desiring, much attempting; far the wanderings of his venture.

In one desert noon beholds him; evening finds him in another;

As the wild ass lone he crosses o'er the jagged and headlong ridges.

Swifter than the wind unpausing, onward yet, nor rest nor slackness,

While the howling gusts outspeeded in the distance moan and faulter.

Light the slumber on his eyelids, yet too heavy all he deems it;

Ever watchful for the moment when to draw the bitter faulchion;

When to plunge it in the heart-blood of the

many-mustered foemen,

While the Fates bystanding idly grin to see their work accomplished.

Loneliness his choice companion; and the guide-marks of his roaming

Tell me, whither guide the mazes of the streaky spangled heavens?"

How the Fahmite Thabit, son of Jabir, came by the denominative sentence which has almost superseded his original name in his country's literature, is variously related. According to one account, he had gone out while yet a mere boy on some lonely errand, probably to look after some stray camel, and had advanced far into the desert, when suddenly he saw what seemed a large goat perched upon a rock before him. At his approach the thing darted away; the lad followed, and being fleet and sure of foot, soon overtook and captured it. But to bring it home was no easy matter, for the brute, not content with kicking and struggling, took to becoming "As the dawn, so the day," says an Arab heavier and heavier every minute, till Tha- proverb; and the circumstances under bit, whose strength had only just sufficed which Ta'abbet-Shurran quitted his family to carry it up to the limits of the encamp- and tribe while yet a mere boy, give a tolment, was forced to let it drop. But hard-erable insight into what his character even ly had it touched the ground than, in full then was, and what an after career might view of all the horrified bystanders, it as- be augured for him. The "frightful, dessumed its proper form, that of a Ghowl, or perate, wild, and furious" of Shakespeare's demon, and vanished. "Ta'abbet-Shur- young Richard is no less applicable to the ran ("He has brought a mischief under former stage of Ta'abbet's life, than "darhis arm "), said the clansmen one to anoth-ing, bold, and venturous" to the latter. er; and this henceforth was Thabit's name. In this story is adumbrated what the Greeks, like the Arabs, would have called

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To Western ears the tale may sound a strange one; but to those who have passed a day among the tents of Wadee-l-Kora, or

a night on the gravel-strewn plains of 'Aared, it has little startling, and nothing incredible.

ing, till the second evening closed in, by which time 'Amir made certain that the lad must be well-nigh famished for want of The mother of Ta'abbet-Shurran, left a food. Thus thinking, he led the way in a widow by the death of her first husband direction where enemies were likely to be, Jabir, while our hero and his four brave till at last there appeared the gleam of a but less celebrated brothers were yet mere fire burning at some distance in front. children, had married again, and this time! 'Amir then stopped and said to his stepher choice had fallen on a man named son, "Halloa, boy! we are short of food, 'Amir, of the tribe of Hodeyl; a clan fa- and must get something to eat; go over mous alike for warriors and poets, the lat- to where you see that fire, and ask the ter of whom have bequeathed to posterity folks who are cooking by it to give us a an entire volume, or Divan, of verses, share of their meal." Thabit answered, oftener studied than understood, even by "What, man! is this a time for eating?" Arab commentators and critics. 'Amir "Time or not, I am hungry," 'Amir rehimself was a poet; and some by no means joined, "so off with you, and bring me contemptible performances of his in this some supper." Thabit made no further line have come down to us. Second, or answer, but went. As he neared the fire even third and fourth marriages have never he saw two of the most notorious ruffians involved any discredit in Arab opinion, in the whole land sitting by it; they were whether Pagan or Mahometan; nor would in fact the very men into whose hands his the merry wife of Bath have needed much step-father had designed that he should argument to make good her case, had her fall. When the reflection of the fire fell on pilgrimage been to 'Okad, or Mecca, in- the lad, the ruffians saw him and sprang stead of Canterbury. The only inconven- up to seize him; he turned and ran; they iences a buxom and well-to-do Arab widow followed; but he was lighter of foot than needed, or, for the matter of that, still they, and kept ahead, till looking over his needs carefully to avoid, were family jeal- shoulder he observed that one of his purousies and clannish dissensions: the relict suers had outstripped the other; then sudof Jabir ran her matrimonial ship in its denly turning on the nearer of the two, he second voyage on both these rocks. Hod- closed with him, and laid him dead at a eyl, though a neighbouring, was not a kin-blow. This done, without a moment's dred clan to Fahm; and Ta'abbet-Shurran, pause he rushed on the other, who stood or, to give him his domestic name, Thabit, bewildered, and disposed of him in the who was the eldest and fiercest among his same manner. He then walked leisurely brothers, soon learned to look on his step- to the fire which they had lighted, and father as an intruder, and on his position there found some unleavened bread baking in the household as an abiding insult. under the cinders; this he took, and brought When 'Amir (so continues the narrative) it, without tasting it, to his step-father, saw the lad beside him growing up with saying, "Eat - may it choke you! evident signs in his face of a hatred which he himself refused to touch a morsel. he took no pains to conceal, he said one 'Amir said, "Tell me all about it, and how day to his wife, "By heaven, this young-you came by it." The lad answered, ster's manner causes me real uneasiness: "What is that to you? eat, and ask no our marriage is the cause; had we not bet- questions." So 'Amir ate, but more from ter separate at once before worse happens? compulsion than appetite, while his fear of Divorce is a less evil than bloodshed." the young devil increased every instant, But the woman, who seems to have liked till, unable to contain his curiosity, he again the company of her new husband better begged the boy, adjuring him by all the than the children of her old one, answered: rights of companionship to tell him the "First try if you cannot clear the fellow whole adventure. Thabit did so, and the out of the way by some stratagem." 'Amir result was that 'Amir now feared him accordingly waited his opportunity, till worse than ever. After some hours' rest when a convenient time came he said to they again went on, and soon reached the the lad, "Are you disposed to accompany pasture grounds of the hostile tribe, me on a raid?" "With all my heart," whence they succeeded in driving off some was the ready answer. "Come along, camels, and then turned homewards with then," said 'Amir. So they set out both their booty, taking, however, a distant and of them together; but 'Amir purposely circuitous way to avoid pursuit. For three omitted to take any provisions with them successive nights on the road 'Amir said for the road. They journeyed on all that to his step-son, "Make choice which half night and the next day, without once halt- of the night you would best like to keep

But

ter, an unpleasant one; so he divided his goods with his wife, and divorcing himself from her, returned to the pastures of Hodeyl.

watch over the camels; as for me, I will and flung it away with all his force as far take charge of them for the other half, as possible. But the result was all one; while you sleep." But Thabit as regularly up leapt the lad, fresh as at first only that answered, "Make your choice yourself; it this time he asked no questions, but, setis all one to me." Free thus to arrange ting off without a word, searched thoroughmatters according to his own liking, 'Amir ly on all sides around; then returned, and used to sleep during the first half of the coming close up to his stepfather, said, night, while his step-son sat up and kept "Fellow, I do not like these doings of guard; at midnight 'Amir rose and re- yours; so I give you now fair warning, the lieved the lad, who then went and lay down next time I hear anything more of this for a few hours; but when Thabit seemed kind, by God you are a dead man." With once to be fast asleep, 'Amir took the op- this he went a little apart and settled portunity to lie down and go to sleep also; himself again to sleep; while 'Amir, as he so that in fact he never kept watch at all. himself afterwards told the story, passed Thus passed three nights. On the fourth the remaining hours of darkness wide and last- for they were now nearing their awake, and in mortal fear, lest by some own land. 'Amir thought that the lad accident any one of the camels should must certainly be overcome with fatigue really stir, and the lad jump up and kill and drowsiness. So he lay down as usual him. Next day they reached the tents of and took his fill of sleep, while Thabit Fahm; but Thabit, who guessed rightly remained keeping good watch till midnight enough that a plot had been laid against came, when it was 'Amir's turn to rise him, and that his mother had been privy and guard. This he did, till after a to it, would not remain any longer in the while he saw the lad to all appear- family, but took to the desert. Amir also ance sound asleep, when he said with- shortly after found his position in the in himself, " Surely the fellow must tribe, who had got an inkling of the matnow be tired out, and hard of waking; now or never is the time to get rid of him altogether." Not feeling, however, quite sure whether his stepson's slumbers were in reality as deep as they seemed, he thought it best to try an experiment first; so, taking up a pebble from the ground beside him, he flung it to some distance, when lo hardly had the stone touched the sand, than the lad started up bolt upright, with "What noise was that?" 'Amir, feigning surprise, answered, "On my life I do not know; but it seemed to me to come from the direction where the camels are. I heard it, but could not make it out clearly." Hereon Thabit went and prowled about, searching on all sides in the darkness, till, having discovered nothing, he returned and lay down. A second time the stepfather waited, long enough as he thought; then took a little pebble, smaller than the first, and jerked it away. It fell a long way off; but no sooner had it struck the plain, than the boy was on his feet again, exclaiming. "What was that?" 66 Really I cannot say," was the answer: "this is the second time I have heard it; perhaps one of the camels has got loose." Instantly Thabit began prowling hither and thither in the dark night, but of course could find nothing on which to fix his suspicions; so he returned to his place and laid him down once more. A third time 'Amir waited till a full hour had passed, and then took up the very smallest pebble he could find,

However, Thabit, or Ta'abbet-Shurran, as, in compliance with his Arab chroniclers, I shall henceforth call him, became subsequently reconciled with his mother; and often when weary, or hard-pressed by pursuers, availed himself of the temporary repose and shelter of her tent. With his own tribe too, the men of Fahm, he always remained on friendly terms, though he took no part henceforth in their public affairs; nor was he regarded by them as entitled to their protection, much less assistance. But for all others whatever, he was simply an outlaw and a robber; while the clan of Hodeyl, which he had early learned to hate on his stepfather's account, was, his whole life through, the special object of his depredations.

There is a region which, while it belongs to none of the three great provinces of Western and Central Arabia to Hejaz, that it, Nejd, or Yemen - yet forms a kind of junction-tract between them, and is in consequence traversed by most of the great Arab routes that lead from all directions to the old centre of commercial and social activity, the territory of Mecca. From the earliest times down to our own, this border-land has been a favourite resort of highwaymen; partly on account of the frequent opportunities of plunder afforded by passing travellers and caravans,

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partly from its own topographical peculi- quire, lie small pale green spots, marked arities, which seem to mark it out as a fit-out by the wild palm, the feathery "Ithel," ing repair for brigands and outlaws. It is and the tangled 66 Semr" thorn. Here an intricate labyrinth of valleys, narrow water is to be found when dug for at the and winding where they first descend from depth of a few feet under earth; here also the rugged ranges of Jebel Aseer on the is wood enough for the modest requirewest, but widening out as they approach ments of Arab cookery; here the travelthe low level of the great desert or ler may occasionally halt at mid-day or "Dahna'," and assuming the form of long nightfall; and here the robber, flying or shallow gullies where they rise again to- pursuing, may take a few hours' stolen wards the table-land of Nejd. Westward repose. the hills are frequently wooded with This is the land now known as El-Kora, "Ithel," the Arabian tamarisk, with Soleyyel, Bisha', and Aftaj; a land long Rind," or wild laurel, with "Sidr," a unchanged, and likely long to remain so, pretty dwarf acacia, besides the spreading both in itself and in its inhabitants. "Markh," and other large semi-tropical On its outskirts west and north spread trees; while under the shade of these cov- the pastures of Hodeyl, a tribe once nuerts numerous wild animals make their merous and powerful, and even now not lair wolves, foxes, jackals, hyænas, and only independent of, but actively hostile especially the small but ferocious Arabian to, the powers that be; to the south are panther, black-spotted on a light yellow the small but many villages of Bajeelah, a ground, the terror of the herded gazelles, Yemenite or "Arab" tribe, who, with and sometimes of the hunter also. In others of their kindred extend down to other places the rocks are precipitous, the frontiers of rich and populous Nejran; bare, and inaccessible to all but the wild to the east stretched, in Ta'abbet-Shurgoats that browse on the occasional tufts of thin grass or dwarf shrubs springing from their clefts. The valleys, where narrow, form water-courses in the rainy season; and even in the heats of mid-summer not unfrequently shelter deep pools, protected from sun and wind by some overhanging rock little patches too of cultivation occur here and there, marking the permanent establishment of a few families, or a moderate stretch of green justifies the presence of some herdsmen's tents. But nowhere do the conditions of the land allow of anything like real populousness; and the abruptness of the local barriers tends to divide the scanty inhabitants into small, almost isolated clusters, while by the same fact it detains them in a state of semi-barbarism, scarcely, if at all, affected by centuries of comparative civilization around.

Further on however, where these valleys enter the "Dahna'," the prospect is dreary indeed: rock and sand, the latter light and ever shifting, the former abrupt and rugged, or spreading into miles of continuous stone-sheet; the whole appearing much as the bottom of the ocean might possibly do were it upheaved and left exposed to the sun; an imagination not far removed, it may be, in this case, from the geological reality of things. But, jotted as at random through the waste, where least expected amid the utter seeming drought, and discoverable only by long practice and that intimacy with the desert which few but outlaws are likely to ac

ran's time, the vast encampments of Temeen and 'Aamir, the chief of all the central "Most'areb," or " adscititious" clans; but these last are now crystallized into Wahhabee provinces.

On all of these, now one, now the other, Ta'abbet-Shurran made his predatory attacks, disregardful alike of national alliance or enmity; sometimes alone, more often in company with other outlaws, to whom he acted as a temporary leader. Many of these raids have been recorded at great length by Arab chroniclers who have besides preserved to us the verses in which the robber-hero, not more modest in selfpraise than the generality of poets, celebrated his own prowess. A few of these anecdotes, rendered as literally as may be, consistently with transferring, or at least attempting to transfer the vividness of the original Arab picture to the dissimilar canvass of the European mind—no easy task will best illustrate the man and those amongst whom he lived.

Once on a time he had led a band of fellow-brigands on an expedition directed against the herds and havings of the Benoo Hodeyl, not far from Ta'if. On their way the party passed beneath a precipice of great height; its face showed far up the entrance of a cavern, above which Ta'abbet-Shurran's practised eyes could detect a swarm of bees hovering. Now, wild honey for art-made hives and tame bees were yet unknown was the only substitute possessed by the Arabs of those days for sugar, and ranked accord

"This my answer to the foemen, when alone I stood defenceless,

Closed the paths behind, before me, in the hour of doubt and danger.

Is it thus the choice ye give me? ransomed life, and scornful mercy?

These, or death? not two the offers; one alone befits the freeman.

Yet a third is mine, ye know not; reason scarce admits the venture; .

Daring prompts it; and the peril bids me test it to the utmost.'

ingly as a choice, almost indeed a neces- other side, was far away beyond all chance sary dainty. Ta'abbet and his crew at of pursuit. once postponed their original design on So brilliant an escape deserved to be sheep and camels in favour of this rarer commemorated by its hero in a spirited booty; and by long circuitous paths clam- poem, from which I will quote a few bered up the mountain till they stood on lines:its brow, right above the caverned cliff. Next, Ta'abbet tied a camel-rope round his waist, while his comrades made fast the other end to the stump of a tree, and, taking with him a couple of empty skins, allowed himself to be lowered against the mountain face, till he dangled opposite to the mouth of the cave, into which he then contrived to swing himself; much like Shakespeare's samphire-gatherer, or a Norwegian in quest of sea-fowl. As he had conjectured, a large store of excellent honey had collected within the cavern, and he proceeded at his leisure to fill the skins he had brought with the desired prize, unsuspicious of any danger from without. But while he thus busied himself, some men of Hodeyl, who, hidden in the brushwood on the upper slope, had watched all these doings, suddenly rushed out on the associates of the Fahm brigand, and drove them off from their post. The Hodeylees, now masters of the position, began twitching the upper end of the rope that girdled Ta'abbet's waist, and thus apprised him of an unfriendly presence. Without hesitation he cut the cord with his dagger, and then advancing to the mouth of the cave looked up.

Caught," exclaimed his enemies. Caught, indeed!" sneeringly repeated Ta'abbet; "that we have yet to see. Do you mean to take ransom and let me go unharmed?”

"No conditions with such as you," they answered from aboye.

Iron-hard the rocks, and 'neath them Death
securely waits his victim;
Harder than the rocks my breast; and Death
askance beholds my safety."

The image of Death enraged at his escape, like that of the Fates idly grinning, their occupation gone, over the enemies he had slaughtered without biding their permission, was, it would seem, in Ta'abbet-Shurran's wild fancy, more than a mere poetical figure of speech. For him

so the Arab narrative, half credulous, half sceptic, records - - the desert was peopled with weird phantom shapes, all horrible, and befitting the guilty imaginings or companionship of a man of blood.

Foremost among these was the "Ghowl," a monster half flesh, half spirit; tangible, yet ever changing its form; endowed with speech and reason, but for evil only; hating man, and ever seeking his harm. It may not be amiss here to remark, that præ-Islamitic Arab spiritualism, in the metaphysical sense of the word, seems, "Aha! that is your game?" rejoined like that of the Jews, to have been nearly the robber; "you think that you have if not quite exhausted by the sole concepalready caught me, and killed me, and tion of a Supreme Ruler; all else, whateaten my honey too, which I have been at ever is known among other races as soul, such pains to get. No, by God! that shall ghost, spectre, angel, demon, fairy, sprite, never be." Thus saying, he brought the goblin, and so forth, was for them corposkins to the mouth of the hole, and poured real, or at best quasi-coporeal, and subject, out all the honey, so that it went trickling though with certain appropriate modifidown the face of the precipice in their cations, to the principal conditions of anisight; next he took the empty skins, mated matter, such as we experimentally honey-smeared as they were, and tied reckon them. Nor was Mahomet himself, them tight against his breast and body; the Koran to witness, much ahead of his and then, while the men of Hodeyl stood ancestors in this respect. It is not till a looking on in stupid amazement, let him- later date, when Persian, Greek, and Tatar self slip feet foremost down the crag, with ideas had infiltrated the national mind, such dexterity that in a few minutes he that anything like the Teuton, Celtic, or was safe at the bottom, some hundreds of even Norse spirit appears among the phanyards below; and long before his intended tasmagoria of Arab literature. As for the captors, descending by the ordinary path," Ghowl," that most popular of præ-Islahad circled the mountain and reached the mitic superstitions, and the nearest ap