Note 431 — TALE OF KING INS BIN KAYS AND HIS DAUGHTER WITH THE SON OF KING AL-’ABBAS.[342] (continued 2)

These guest-fires are famous in Arab poetry. So Al-Harírí (Ass. of Banu Haram) sings:—

A beacon fire I ever kindled high;

i.e. on the hill-tops near the camp, to guide benighted travellers. Also the Lamíyat al-Ajam says:—

The fire of hospitality is ever lit on the high stations.

This natural telegraph was used in a host of ways by the Arabs of The Ignorance; for instance, when a hated guest left the camp they lighted the “Fire of Rejection,” and cried, “Allah, bear him far from us!” Nothing was more ignoble than to quench such fire: hence in obloquy of the Fazár tribe it was said:—

Ne’er trust Fazár with an ass, for they

Once roasted ass-pizzle, the rabble rout:

And, when sight they guest, to their dams they say,

“Piss quick on the guest-fire and put it out!”

(Al-Mas’údi vi. 140.)