ssive application was
made to the three who were deemed most worthy of the trial. Abdallah,
the son of Abbas, had undertaken a distant journey, and his foot was in
the stirrup when he heard the voice of a suppliant, "O son of the uncle
of the apostle of God, I am a traveller, and in distress!" He instantly
dismounted to present the pilgrim with his camel, her rich caparison,
and a purse of four thousand pieces of gold, excepting only the sword,
either for its intrinsic value, or as the gift of an honored kinsman.
The servant of Kais informed the second suppliant that his master was
asleep: but he immediately added, "Here is a purse of seven thousand
pieces of gold, (it is all we have in the house,) and here is an order,
that will entitle you to a camel and a slave;" the master, as soon as
he awoke, praised and enfranchised his faithful steward, with a gentle
reproof, that by respecting his slumbers he had stinted his bounty.
The third of these heroes, the blind Arabah, at the hour of prayer, was
supporting his steps on the shoulders of two slaves. "Alas!" he replied,
"my coffers are empty! but these you may sell; if you refuse, I renounce
them." At these words, pushing away the youths, he groped along the wall
with his staff.

The character of Hatem is the perfect model of Arabian virtue: [43] he
was brave and liberal, an eloquent poet, and a successful robber; forty
camels were roasted at his hospitable feast; and at the prayer of a
suppliant enemy he restored both the captives and the spoil. The freedom
of his countrymen disdained the laws of justice; they proudly indulged
the spontaneous impulse of pity and benevolence.

[Footnote 39: Arrian, in the second century, remarks (in Periplo Maris
Erythraei, p. 12) the partial or total difference of the dialects of
the Arabs. Their language and letters are copiously treated by Pocock,
(Specimen, p. 150-154,) Casiri, (Bibliot. Hispano-Arabica, tom. i. p.
1, 83, 292, tom. ii. p. 25, &c.,) and Niebuhr, (Description de l'Arabie,
p. 72-36) I pass slightly; I am not fond of repeating words like a
parrot.]

[Footnote 40: A familiar tale in Voltaire's Zadig (le Chien et le
Cheval) is related, to prove the natural sagacity of the Arabs,
(D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 120, 121. Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom.
i. p. 37-46: ) but D'Arvieux, or rather La Roque, (Voyage de Palestine,
p. 92,) denies the boasted superiority of the Bedoweens. The one hundred
and sixty-nine sentences of A