Page 74 - Arabiab Studies (IV)

64 Arabian Studies IV
for a particular detail in the story. The bloody handprint in this
story is one such detail, and, though a beautiful person is
conventionally compared with a moon, the veils on the head of the
second companion seem to be a different motif from an old
repertory.
In any case this story is an interesting item in the almost
inexhaustible cycle of tales and poems related of the B. Hilal from
one end of the Arab world to the other.

Notes

1. Stith Thompson, Motif-index of folk literature, Bloomington and
London, 1966 (2nd imp.), A531.
2. W. P. Ker, Epic and romance: essays on medieval literature,
London, 1931, 168.
3. B. Thomas, Arabia Felix, London, 1938, 246-51, mentions a similar
tale he heard from the Bedouin in the Empty Quarter. This story and a
number of other stories of more general interest are discussed by Dr H.
Norris in his (still unpublished) chapter for vol. I of the Cambridge
History of Arabic Literature, ‘Fables and legends in pre-Islamic and early
Islamic times’. Unless I am mistaken the Siidarabiscbe Expedition texts
give no comparable story.
4. Cf. F. A. Mukhlis, ‘Studies and comparisons of the cycles of the
Banu Hilal romance’, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of London,

5. Cf. B. Doe and R. B. Seijeant, ‘A fortified tower-house in Wadi
Jirdan (WabidI sultanate), I, BSOAS, 1975, xxxviii, I, 3, and the references
cited there.
6. Loc. cit.
7. This version is less literal than that I intend to publish with the
M(ahri) and J(iball) texts (which differ in a minor way in wording).
8. This is what the M text says. The J text says ‘They had nobody with
them.* Both mean that they had no human company.
9. The test of strength and quickness involved in catching the stick is
the same as that related of the Irish hero Cu Chulainn in his early
boyhood. Cf. J. Strachan, Stories from the Tiin. Dublin, 1944, 2. Strachan
gives references to all the ancient accounts. In some of the later versions,
such as C. O’Rahilly (ed.), The Stowe version of the Tiin B6 Cuailnge,
Dublin, 1961, 27, the exploits of the Irish boy-hero are more exaggerated.
For an English version of the incident see T. Kinsella, The Tain, London,
1972 (reprint), 77.
10. M: 'et£m bet m<5n? ‘Whose house (bayt) are you?’
11. Bayt Abu Zayd al-Hilall (M:Bet Bo Zld el-Helali, J: B6t (A)bo Zid
el-Hel&li) is used throughout to mean, either Abu Zayd alone, or Abu
Zayd and his two companions. Where it is clear that only the hero is
referred to, I translate as ‘Aba Zayd’.

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