condition, I shall be perfectly indifferent to everything else.
Nevertheless, if you wish it, I will seize the camels by force, or, if
it be your good pleasure, I will waive every claim, save as a debt of
honor." In spite of all that Cais could say, Hadifah remained firm in
his resolution, and as his brother began to deride Cais, the latter lost
his temper, and with a face blazing with wrath he asked of Hadifah,
"What stake did you offer in your wager with my cousin?" "Twenty
she-camels," said Hadifah. "As for this first wager," answered Cais, "I
cancel it, and propose another one in its stead: I will bet thirty
camels." "And I forty," replied Hadifah, "I make it fifty," was the
retort of Cais. "Sixty," quickly added the other; and they continued
raising the terms of the wager, until the number of camels staked was
one hundred. The contract of the bet was deposited in the hands of a man
named Sabic, son of Wahhab, and in the presence of a crowd of youths and
old men. "What shall be the length of the race?" asked Hadifah of Cais.
"One hundred bow-shots," replied Cais, "and we have an archer here,
Ayas, the son of Mansour, who will measure the ground." Ayas was in fact
the strongest and most accomplished archer then living among the Arabs.
King Cais, by choosing Ayas, wished the course to be made long, knowing
the endurance of his horse, and the longer distance Dahir had to travel,
the more he gained speed, from the increased excitement of his spirit.
"Well now, we had better fix the day for the race," said Cais to
Hadifah. "Forty days will be required," replied Hadifah, "to bring the
horses into condition." "You are right," said Cais, and they agreed that
the horses should be trained for forty days, that the race should take
place by the lake Zatalirsad, and that the horse that first reached the
goal should be declared winner. All these preliminaries having been
arranged, Cais returned to his tents.

Meanwhile one of the horsemen of the tribe of Fazarah said to his