By thy life, if I dwelt in the house of Monḳith (her father) Sa‘d would not have been injured, he the neighbour of my dwelling;

But I am in the house of exile, which, when the wolf assails, it is my sheep that he seizes.

O Sa‘d, be not careless but depart, for thou art among a people who are as dead men in the defence of a neighbour.

Take my camels, for I am about to set forth, in fear lest they wrong my daughters.

She raised her voice while she thus declaimed, in order that Jesṣâs might hear her. He said to her, “Be tranquil, to-morrow there shall be slain a male camel, whose houghing shall be a greater deed than this wounding of thy neighbour’s she-camel.” By this he meant that he would slay Kolayb, but the Prince suspected nothing, and when he heard the threat of Jessâs he said to himself, “He intends to slay my camel stallion Gho-layyân, but less than Gholayyân is the stripping of the ḳatâd:” Arab. Prov. I. 484; that is, to kill Gholayyân would be a more difficult thing than for a man to strip the thorny tragacanth with his naked hand. This phrase became proverbial, and is used when one attempts a task above his powers. Kolayb also uttered verses declaring that what he had done would be a warning to the family of Morrah. Jessâs also improvised verses, in which he swore by the altars of Wâ’il (or of his people, for the word is doubtful) that he would maintain the rights of hospitality.

The slaying of Kolayb was on this wise. Jessâs watched his opportunity, and one day when Kolayb went out into the field unarmed, he followed him, accompanied by ‘Amr ibn Abî Rabî‘at al Muzdalif ibn Thohl, or, as others say, ‘Amr ibn Al Ḥârith ibn Shaybân. Jessâs ran at him with his spear, and broke his spine, and went and stood over him. Kolayb, tor­mented, said to him, “Give me a drink of water.” “Thou hast passed by Shobayth and Al Aḥaṣṣ,” said Jessâs, alluding to two water-sources which Kolayb had prohibited to the Benû Shaybân: Arab. Prov. I. 249. These words became proverbial, and are used when one seeks a thing where it is not to be found. He then left him, and ‘Amr coming up, Kolayb asked him also for water, but ‘Amr got off his horse and despatched him, so that “To ask help of ‘Amr in need,” is a proverb meaning to suppli­cate a merciless person. The war or feud then began between the tribe of Taghlib, of which Kolayb’s brother, Mohalhil, was now the chief, and the tribe of Bekr, of which the Benû Shaybân were a branch. Mohalhil could not believe that one of the family of Morrah had dared to slay his brother, and when Hammâm ibn Morrah told him what Jessâs had done, he ex­claimed, “He is not a big enough man for it,” literally, “Podex ejus angustior est quam illud,” Arab. Prov. I. 607. But when he knew the truth he determined to avenge him. The real name of Mohalhil was ‘Adî, and he received the former appellation on account of the beauty of his poetry, since Mohalhil signifies, “one who weaves finely.” The elegy which Mohalhil composed on his brother’s death is generally held to have been the first regular poem (ḳaṣîdeh) composed among the Arabs. Some fragments of it are preserved in the Ḥamâseh, p. 420, and the invaluable commentary appended to these contains a full narrative of the death of Kolayb. These events took place, probably, in the last ten years of the fifth century after Christ. The war of Basûs lasted forty years between Taghlib and Bekr, so that it is said proverbially “More unlucky than Basûs,” Arab. Prov. I. 683, and “More unlucky than Sarâb.” In this war the tribe of Taghlib was in the end defeated; Mohalhil was taken prisoner and put to death, or, according to another account, forced to take refuge in Yemen, and the descendants of Rabî‘ah were so ex­hausted by mutual carnage as to be obliged to accept a viceroy of the Himyarite monarch.

There was, it is said, another Basûs, to whom the proverb “More unlucky than Basûs” refers. According to Sheref ad Dîn, and the author of the Ḳâmûs, she and her husband were of the children of Israel, and God had promised the husband to fulfil for him three wishes. Basûs persuaded her husband to ask that she should be made the most beautiful woman in Israel, and God granted the request. She then, being greatly admired, ceased to care for her husband, on which he prayed God that she might be turned into a bitch, which also came to pass. Her children then, being in much affliction, implored their father to ask that she should be restored to her original form, before she was beautiful. The husband did this, and Basûs became as she was at the beginning. Thus the man’s three wishes were exhausted without gaining any good.

The Kitâb al Aghâni contains a narrative of the war of Basûs; a short summary of the events will be found in the second volume of M. Caussin de Perceval’s Essai. See also the verses of Jaḥdar ibn Ḍobay‘ah, in the Ḥamâseh, p. 252.

Take omen of the raven of separation.—The crow and raven were looked upon as birds of ill omen, because in the ceaseless migrations of the Arabs they alighted on each deserted encamp­ment to scratch and search for what they could find, and were consequently taken as emblems of departure and desolation. This image recurs continually in the poets. Various kinds of crow were distinguished, one said to be properly the “crow of separation,” being of mixed black and white, or with a white breast, or, as others say, a crow with red beak and feet, while the black crow was called ḥâtim, because it decided or announced separation to be inevitable. On this subject see Lane’s Lexicon, at word . The crow is associated with death in the history of Cain and Abel at Koran v. 34. The word signifies literally to start a bird by making a noise or throwing a stone at it, and has the meaning of taking an omen, because he who wished to take an omen from the flight of birds did this. If the bird flew towards his right it was a good omen, if towards his left it was a bad one. A distinction is made between and , the former being to take omens from the names, or the voices, or the settlings of birds; while the latter appears to have been restricted to omens from their flight. The practice of taking omens by birds is alluded to at Koran xxxvi. 17, where the inhabitants of Antioch say to Simon and John, and another apostle, who had been sent to them by Jesus, “We look upon you as an ill omen, and if ye abstain not (from preaching) we will stone you.” (They were all destroyed by a shout of Gabriel, with the exception of Ḥabîb, the carpenter; see Bayḍâwi.) The word is used of a bad omen; of a good one. The meaning of is illustrated as follows in the commentary to the Thirty-eighth Assembly: “If a man be sick and he hear somebody say , or if he be seeking something, and he hear one say , or , it is a good omen.” There is a Tradition of the Prophet that he said , literally, “No infection, no bird-omening; but good omening pleases me,” that is, as I understand it, “Do not worry yourselves to escape infection of or (the two forms of leprosy), nor to take omens of birds, but if you hear a word of good omen, rejoice and be thankful for it.” The was afterwards used to signify a practice resembling the “sortes Virgilianæ” of Europe. The Koran was opened and a certain line, as the seventh on the right hand side, was read. Then seven leaves would be turned, and the seventh line on the left hand side would be read. Whatever the inquirer could gather from a certain number of passages obtained in this manner was supposed to indicate the future.

The Arabs had, from early times, many forms of soothsaying and augury. Not only was the flight of birds or the track of beasts ominous, but certain animals were supposed to indicate misfortune. Thus, when Imr al Ḳays received the poisoned shirt from Cæsar he went forth and saw a wild ass lying in his path. He knew then that he was to die, and when his companions congratulated him on the gift, he merely replied, “Why lay down the wild ass?” which became proverbial. Arab. Prov. II. 204. See also “More unlucky than the crow of separation;” than “the bird ,” that is, the green wood-pecker, picus viridis; than . Arab. Prov. I. 694–5. When a man going from home desired to be assured whether his wife would remain faithful to him he secretly bound the twigs of a tree together. If, on his return, he found them as he left them he knew that she was virtuous; if they had loosened them­selves he concluded that she was faithless. This knot was called ; or was the name of the plant, the broom, which was usually tied. It is described as useless at Arab. Prov. II. 716. The discovery of a thief by the twisting of a pitcher was also known among them. Arab. Prov. II. 115. Often the omen or divina­tion depended on tejnîs or paronomasia, itself having the same root of . Thus , the ben-tree, was ominous of separation from its relation to . Compare the names , and , and . Arab. Prov. I. 697.