Milford chronicle., 1895-04-05
How sAA-eA-kA VS. sroLgn.
a Quick witted Raider Obtained His sup
per and Horse.

A Quick witted Raider Obtained His Sup.
per and Horse.
The following curious story, translated
from an old Arabian book, is quoted by q
reviewer in Blackwood's Edinburgh Mag
azine from a recently published work on
THE Arabian Horse whose author, Ma
jor General W. Tweedle, was for many
years the British consul general at Bag
dad 1t describesa dead heat that was
run in the desert once and illustrates in
the most striking manner multitude Of
Arab characteristics, customs and morals:
A respectable person relates that one
day he saw a man Of the Agel on whose
back We're marks like those Of cupping
and asked for an explanation of them and
received this answer:
Il loved fair cousin, and sought her
in marriage and her kindred said, We
will not give her TO thee unless thou
masest Sha- ba-ka the wedding gift. And
Sha- ba-ka was a mare, the aeetest Of all,
and she belonged to one Of the Ba-nu
Bakr And ON that l married my cousin.
Aud / went out to effect by stratagem the
taking Of the mare from her owner.
In the guiso Of a camel butcher Wis
tied the tribe in which the mare was and
kept going in among them till learned
to distinguish her place from the tent in
which her master was And l saw that
she had a flly And l contriyed to enter
the tent and conceal myself under a heap
Of wool carded for washing. And when
night came and the master Of the tent ap-
peared, and his wife had dressed supper
for him, and they both began TO eat. and
the gloom had deepened, and they had no
lamp, and l was hungry, / put out my
hand and stretched it toward the platter
and ate with them. And the man became
conscious Of my hand and did not know
what it was, and he gripped it, and / laid
hold of the woman's hand with my other
hand, and she said to him, What do you
want with my handr And he supposed
the case to De that 10 vas holding his
wife's hand and let 60 my hand, and re-
leased the womans hand, and we ate,
And the meal came to an end, and the
man stretched himself on his back and
slept. And while be slept l watched
them, and the mare was shackled beside
the tent and her flly was unshackled in
the tent and the key of the mare fetter
was under the woman's head After
little time a black slave arrived and threw
a small pebble. And the woman awoke
and rose and left the key in its place and
went out of the tent, and I crept and took
AAlI kNf anu AnADEkDu MAlu ~ tllb AutiLd 5
shaokles And had hair bride with
me, and brldled the mare and mounted /
her and went of with her from the tent. |
Then the woman came back and entered /
the tent
Then she called out and the tribe |
caught the alarm and became aware OF me
and mounted in pursuit, And l put the
mare to her Cpeed with a troop Of them
after me. ASd 1 entered Oh the time of
and did not see save one horse
man, armed with a lance, and he overlook
me, and the sun had risen, and the man
began TO thrust at me and could not get
his point any nearer to me than suilio5d
to make these traces on my back. Neither
did his mare come up TO me So that he
might have me in his power, nor did my
mare carry me away so that the spear
should not touch me.
And we came to a stream, and I shout
ed to the mare, and she jumped it, and
the horseman shouted to his mare, and she
did not jump. And when l saw that she
could not cross got off my mare Co rest
myself and her And the man called to
me- and 1 said, what is it?' and be an
iwered, am the owner of the mare that is
lnder thee, and this is her hlly and as
7ou have got her take care of her and
ruly, by God, never asked anything Of
Ter without attaining TO it, ana she was
ike fisherman's net (shabaka) in the
natter of taking I