Page:Man in the Panther's Skin.djvu/37

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15

rejoiced so at the victory of his foster-son; he loved[1] him as the rose loves the nightingale; smiling he made merry, all grief was gone from his heart.

83. There they both sat to cool themselves at the foot of the trees; the soldiers assembled and stood round them, countless as chaff; near them were the twelve slaves,[2] bravest of the brave. As they sported they gazed at the stream and the edge of the glens.[3]


II


HOW THE KING OF THE ARABIANS SAW THE KNIGHT CLAD IN THE PANTHER'S SKIN


84. They saw a certain stranger knight[4]; he sat weeping on the bank of the stream, he held his black horse by the rein, he looked like a lion and a hero; his bridle, armour and saddle were thickly bedight with pearls; the rose (of his cheek) was frozen in tears that welled up from his woe-stricken heart.[5]

85. His form was clad in a long coat[6] over which, was thrown a panther's skin,[7] his head, too, was covered with a cap of panther's skin[8]; in his hand he held a whip thicker

  1. Var. E. C. for midjnuroba reads siqvaruli.
  2. As a general rule Professor Marr's translation of qma, knight, and mona, slave, has been adopted throughout; but there are some cases where it seems doubtful if these are the proper equivalents: 998, 1112. In the West we have an analogy in "knight" and "knecht" (M., xii., xxxiv.).
  3. Var. E. C. for khevt'hasa reads tqet'hasa, "of the woods," which rhymes better.
  4. Moqme.
  5. Cf. this passage with Orlando Furioso, i. 89, 40, where Sacripante, King of Circassia, "par cangiato in insensibil pietra"; Tariel's likeness to Peredur (Lady Charlotte Guest's Mabinogion, ed. 1877, p. 97) is still more striking.
  6. Caba.
  7. ? a coat (made) of panther's skin, with the hair outside. 201.
  8. vep'hkhvi, vep'hkhi—Felis pardus. Panther is preferred to leopard as the English rendering. Cf. Jer. xiii. 23 in the Georgian Bible. Bacchus was a man in the panther's skin; so, too, was Jason, who appeared in Iolchos clad like Tariel; also Paris (Iliad, iii. 67). Cf. the leopard in English heraldry and in medieval poetry—Li Panthere d' Amours; also cf. note to 40. "The Man in the Panther's Skin" is the story of man enveloped in the passion spoken of in the introductory quatrains.