writings with the sign of the cross, +. Thus, in the King^s Quair, by James I., of Scotland :
And forthwithal my pen in hand I took, And made a + , and thus b^;an my book.
Modem Christians do not so literally follow the scriptural injunction : *' In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.*' But with Muslims it is no empty form.
The English reader will be interested in observing, in the following four first couplets of El-Biism's Poem, in italic characters, the movement of the qasida rhyme :
1 e min tezekkuri jlrdmin H dhi-selemi
maejta tUm'an jerh min muqUtin H (Umi
2 eni hebeii ^r-rthu min tOqdH katzimdin
wa ewmadxa ^l-barqu ft ^tz-tzalma^i min idsami
^/a mti U ^ayney-ke'in quUa ^kfufh hemeth wa mh li qalbi'ke in quUa ^stefiq yehimi
4 e yahsibu *S'Sabbu enna ^l-hubha munkeh'mun md beyna munsefimin min-ku wa mudztarimi
The two halves of the first distich, as above, rhyme ; and the
final syllable {mt) of the second half of every succeeding distich,
to the end of the poem, is the same as those of the hemistichs of
the opening verse.
W. A. C.
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