Note 334 — HISTORY OF GHARIB AND HIS BROTHER AJIB.[312]
Richard Francis Burton translation · Edition 2
Arab. “Sá’ikah,” which is supposed to be a stone. The allusion is to Antar’s sword, “Dhámi,” made of a stone, black, brilliant and hard as a rock (an aerolite), which had struck a camel on the right side and had come out by the left. The blacksmith made it into a blade three feet long by two spans broad, a kind of falchion or chopper, cased it with gold and called it Dhámi (the “Trenchant”) from its sharpness. But he said to the owner:—
The sword is trenchant, O son of the Ghalib clan,
Trenchant in sooth, but where is the sworder-man?
Whereupon the owner struck off the maker’s head, a most satisfactory answer to all but one.