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THE BIRTH OF ABU-ZAID.

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Primitive Hieroglyph	Siloam Types	Moabite Types	Samaritan	Names of Letters

				Ayin = Eye.
				Pe = Mouth (with Beard).
				Tzade = Fish-Spear.
				Koph = Opening (Eye of Needle).
				Resh = Head.
				Shin = Tooth (Molar, with Fangs)
				Tau = Mark (for Cattle).

THE BIRTH OF ABU-ZAID.^[1]

By P. J. Baldensperger, Esq.

The Birth of Abu-Zaid and the poem of Beni-Helal were told me by an illiterate fellah of die plain of Philistia. I wrote them down whilst he told them by heart. When I had written it all from his dictation, I revised and translated it, using no published work whatever. Clot Bey, in his "Egypte," states that this is a very popular romance amongst the Egyptians.

Abu-Zaid is the popular name of the black hero, but his real name is Barakat, and Salamé Shiha is his sister. Both Shiha and Barakat are

↑ A recension of this story was published in Arabic under the title "Kissat al Khadra," &c., at Beyrout in the year 1869. A copy of this book is in the British Museum (14,570, C. 14 (I)). No English translation is known to have been published.—[Ed.]

[1] A recension of this story was published in Arabic under the title "Kissat al Khadra," &c., at Beyrout in the year 1869. A copy of this book is in the British Museum (14,570, C. 14 (I)). No English translation is known to have been published.—[Ed.]

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