Arabia. It would scarcely be possible to fix upon any individual writer
as its author, for it has been edited over and over again by Arabian
scribes, each adding his own glosses and enriching it with incidents.
Its original date may have been the sixth century of our era, about five
hundred years before the production of the "Thousand and One Nights."

E.W.




THE EARLY FORTUNES OF ANTAR

At the time the "Romance of Antar" opens, the most powerful and the best
governed of the Bedouin tribes were those of the Absians and the
Adnamians. King Zoheir, chief of the Absians, was firmly established
upon his throne, so that the kings of other nations, who were subject to
him, paid him tribute. The whole of Arabia in short became subject to
the Absians, so that all the chiefs of other tribes and all inhabitants
of the desert dreaded their power and depredations.

Under these circumstances, and as a consequence of a flagrant act of
tyranny on the part of Zoheir, several chieftains, among whom was
Shedad, a son of Zoheir, seceded from the Absian tribe, and set out to
seek adventures, to attack other tribes, and to carry off their cattle
and treasure. These chieftains arrived at the dwelling-place of a
certain tribe, named Djezila, whom they fought with and pillaged.
Amongst their booty was a black woman of extraordinary beauty, the
mother of two children. Her name was Zebiba; her elder son was Djaris;
her younger Shidoub. Shedad became passionately enamoured of this woman,