and puffed him up with pride and he improvised these couplets and
cried,

"I plunge with my braves in the seething sea; * Seize the foe in
my strength and my valiancy;
And the doughtiest knights wot me well to be * Friend to friend
and fierce foe to mine enemy.
I will load Ghanb with the captive's chains * Right soon, and
return in all Joy and glee;
For I've donned my mail and my weapons wield * And on all sides
charge at the chivalry."[FN#14]

Hardly had Jawamard made an end of his verses when there came out
upon him from among the trees a horseman of terrible mien covered
and clad in steely sheen, who cried out to him, saying, "Stand, O
riff-raff of the Arabs! Doff thy dress and ground thine arms gear
and dismount thy destrier and be off with thy life!" When
Jawamard heard this, the light in his eyes became darkest night
and he drew his sabre and drove at Jamrkan, for he it was,
saying, "O thief of the Arabs, wilt thou cut the road for me, who
am captain of the host of Jaland bin Karkar and am come to bring
Gharib and his men in bond?" When Jamrkan heard these words, he
said, "How cooling is this to my heart and liver!" And he made at
Jawamard versifying in these couplets,

"I'm the noted knight in the field of fight, * Whose sabre and
spear every foe affright!
Jamrkan am I, to my foes a fear, * With a lance lunge known unto
every knight:
Gharib is my lord, nay my pontiff, my prince, * Where the two