d retired in good order to their
camp. The chief loss on this, the "day of concussion," was suffered
by the Arabs, who admit that they had 500 killed, and must have had a
proportional number of wounded.

On the morning of the second day the site of the battle was somewhat
changed, the Persians having retired a little during the night.
Reinforcements from Syria kept reaching the Arab camp through most
of the day; and hence it is known to the Arab writers as the "day of
succors." The engagement seems for some time not to have been general,
the Arabs waiting for more troops to reach them, while the Persians
abstained because they had not yet repaired the furniture of their
elephants. Thus the morning passed in light skirmishes and single
combats between the champions of either host, who went out singly before
the lines and challenged each other to the encounter. The result of the
duels was adverse to the Persians, who lost in the course of them two of
their best generals, Bendsuwan and Bahman-Dsulhadjib. After a time the
Arabs, regarding themselves as sufficiently reinforced, attacked the
Persians along their whole line, partly with horse, and partly with
camels, dressed up to resemble elephants. The effect on the Persian
cavalry was the same as had on the preceding day been produced by the
real elephants on the horse of the Arabs; it was driven off the field
and dispersed, suffering considerable losses. But the infantry stood
firm, and after a while the cavalry rallied; Rustam, who had been in
danger of suffering capture, was saved; and night closing in, defeat was
avoided, though the advantage of the day rested clearly with the Arabs.
The Persians had lost 10,000 in killed and wounded, the Arabs no more
than 2000.

In the night which followed "the day of succors" great efforts were made
by the Persians to re-equip their elephants, and when morning dawned
they were enabled once more to bring the unwieldy beasts into line. But
the Arabs and their horses had now grown more familiar with the strange
animals; they no longer shrank from meeting them; and some Persian
deserters gave the useful information that, in order to disable the
brutes it was only necessary to wound them on the proboscis or in the
eye. Thus instructed, the Arabs made the elephants the main object of
their attack, and, having wounded the two which were accustomed to lead
the rest, caused the whole body on a sudden to take to flight, cross the
canal El At