immediately remounted his horse, bitterly reproaching Haml. He returned
home with the utmost haste, and found his uncle and brothers waiting for
him in extreme anxiety. "O my son!" said his uncle Assyed as soon as he
saw him, "you have had a disastrous journey, for it has caused you to be
disgraced."

"If Hadifah had not been surrounded by certain chiefs, who gave him
treacherous counsels, I could have arranged the whole affair," answered
Cais. "There is now nothing left but to carry out the race and the bet."

King Cais did not sleep the whole of that night. On the morrow he
thought of nothing but the training of his horses during the forty days'
interval before the race. All the Arabs of the land agreed to come to
the pastures and see the race, and when the forty days had expired the
horsemen of the two tribes came in a crowd to the banks of lake
Zatalirsud. Next arrived the archer Ayas, who, turning his back to the
lake at the point where the horses were to start, drew his bow as he
walked toward the north a hundred times, and measured out to the goal
the course of a hundred bow-shots. Soon the horsemen of Ghitfan and
Dibyan arrived, for they were of the same territory, and because of
their friendly relations and kinship were comprised as one tribe under
the name of Adnan. King Cais had begged Antar not to show himself on
this occasion, fearing that his appearance might cause dissension. Antar
listened to this advice, but was unable to rest quiet in the tents. The
interest he felt in Cais, and the deep distrust with which the falseness
of the Fazareans--who were always ready for treason--inspired him,
induced him to show himself. Girding on his sword Dhami, and mounting
his famous charger, Abjer, he took with him his brother Shidoub, and
reached the spot fixed upon for the race, in order that he might watch
over the safety of King Zoheir's sons. On his arrival he seemed to excel