and Antar witnessed all the amusements in which his beloved took part.
His passion for her became intensified. He was once tempted to violate
the modesty of love by the violence of desire, but, at that moment, he
saw a great cloud of dust rise in the distance; the shouts of war were
heard; and suddenly the warriors of the tribe of Cathan appeared on the
scene, and, descending on the pleasure-seekers, carried off the women,
including Ibla. Antar, being unarmed, ran after one of the horsemen,
seized him, strangled and threw him to the ground. Then he put on the
armor of the vanquished foe, attacked and put to flight the tribe of
Cathan, rescued the women, and obtained a booty of twenty-five horses.
From that moment Semiah, the wife of Shedad, who hitherto had a
pronounced aversion to Antar, conceived a sincere affection for him.

King Zoheir, meantime, had returned victorious from his expedition.
Shedad returned at the same moment, and went to visit his herds. Seeing
Antar surrounded by horses which he did not know, and mounted upon a
fine black courser, he asked, "Where did these animals, and particularly
this superb horse, come from?" Then Antar, not willing to betray the
imprudence of Semiah, declared that, as the Cathanians had left their
horses behind them, he had seized them. Shedad was indignant, and
treated Antar as a robber, reproached him for his wickedness, and after
repeatedly telling him how wrong it was to rouse discord among the
Arabs, struck him with his whip, with such violence as to draw blood.
Then Semiah, distressed by the sight of this unjust treatment, took off
her veil, letting her hair fall over her shoulders, took Antar into her
arms and told all that had happened and how she and all the other women
of her tribe were indebted to this hero for their honor and liberty.
Shedad could not restrain his tenderness on learning the magnanimity of
his son's silence. Soon afterwards King Zoheir, to whom this incident
had been related, summoned Antar into his presence, and declared that a