Note 106 — AL-MUTALAMMIS AND HIS WIFE UMAYMAH.

King of Hirah in Chaldæa, a drunken and bloodthirsty tyrant. When offended by the lampoons of the two poets he sent them with litteræ Bellerophontiæ to the Governor of Al-Bahrayn. Al-Mutalammis “smelt a rat” and destroyed his charge, but Tarafah was mutilated and buried alive, the victim of a trick which is old as (and older than) good King David and Uriah. Of course neither poet could read.