Page:Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894.djvu/323

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THE BIRTH OF ABU-ZAID.
277
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

  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.]