"Does the blackened ruin, situated in the stony ground between Durraj and Mutathallam, which did not speak to me, when addressed, belong to the abode of Ummi Awfa?

"And is it her dwelling at the two stony meadows, seeming as though they were the renewed tattoo marks in the sinews of the wrist?

"The wild cows and the white deer are wandering about there, one herd behind the other, while their young are springing up from every lying-down place.

"I stood again near it, (the encampment of the tribe of Awfa,) after an absence of twenty years, and with some efforts, I know her abode again after thinking awhile.

"I recognized the three stones blackened by fire at the place where the kettle used to be placed at night, and the trench round the encampment, which had not burst, like the source of a pool.

"And when I recognized the encampment I said to its site, 'Now good morning, oh spot; may you be safe from dangers.'

"Look, oh my friend! do you see any women traveling on camels, going over the high ground above the stream of Jurthum?

"They have covered their howdahs with coverlets of high value, and with a thin screen, the fringes of which are red, resembling blood.

"And they inclined toward the valley of Soobán, ascending the center of it, and in their faces were the fascinating looks of a soft-bodied person brought up in easy circumstances;

"They arose early in the morning and got up at dawn, and they went straight to the valley of Rass as the hand goes unswervingly to the mouth, when eating.

"And amongst them is a place of amusement for the far-sighted one, and a pleasant sight for the eye of the looker who looks attentively.

"As if the pieces of dyed wool which they left in every place in which they halted, were the seeds of night-shade which have not been crushed.

"When they arrived at the water, the mass of which was blue from intense purity, they laid down their walking sticks, (i.e., took their lodging there,) like the dweller who has pitched his tents.

"They kept the hill of Qanan and the rough ground about it on their hand; while there are many, dwelling in Qanan, the shedding of whose blood is lawful and unlawful.

"They came out from the valley of Soobán, then they crossed it, riding in every Qainian howdah new and widened.

"Then I swear by the temple, round which walk the men who built it from the tribes of Quraish and Jurhum.

"An oath, that you are verily two excellent chiefs, who are found worthy of honor in every condition, between ease and distress.

"The two endeavorers from the tribe of Ghaiz bin Murrah strove in making peace after the connection between the tribes had become broken, on account of the shedding of blood.

"You repaired with peace the condition of the tribes of 'Abs and Zubyán, after they had fought with one another, and ground up the perfume of Manshim between them.

"And indeed you said, 'if we bring about peace perfectly by the spending of money and the conferring of benefits, and by good words, we shall be safe from the danger of the two tribes, destroying each other.'

"You occupied by reason of this the best of positions, and became far from the reproach of being undutiful and sinful.

"And you became great in the high nobility of Ma'add; may you be guided in the right way; and he who spends his treasure of glory will become great.

"The memory of the wounds is obliterated by the hundreds of camels, and he, who commenced paying off the blood money by instalments, was not guilty of it (i.e., of making war).

"One tribe pays it to another tribe as an indemnity, while they who gave the indemnity did not shed blood sufficient for the filling of a cupping glass.

"Then there was being driven to them from the property you inherited, a booty of various sorts from young camels with slit ears.

"Now, convey from me to the tribe of Zubyán and their allies a message,--'verily you have sworn by every sort of oath to keep the peace.'

"Do not conceal from God what is in your breast that it may be hidden; whatever is concealed, God knows all about it.

"Either it will be put off and placed recorded in a book, and preserved there until the judgment day; or the punishment be hastened and so he will take revenge.

"And war is not but what you have learnt it to be, and what you have experienced, and what is said concerning it, is not a story based on suppositions.

"When you stir it up, you will stir it up as an accursed thing, and it will become greedy when you excite its greed and it will rage fiercely.

"Then it will grind you as the grinding of the upper millstone against the lower, and it will conceive immediately after one birth and it will produce twins.

"By my life I swear, how good a tribe it is upon whom Husain Bin Zamzam brought an injury by committing a crime which did not please the