Note 276 — ARDASHIR AND HAYAT AL-NUFUS.[261]

Arab. Táir al-bayn, any bird, not only the Hátim or black crow, which announces separation. Crows and ravens flock for food to the camps broken up for the springtide and autumnal marches, and thus become emblems of desertion and desolation. The same birds are also connected with Abel’s burial in the Koran (v. 34), a Jewish tradition borrowed by Mohammed. Lastly, here is a paronomasia in the words “Ghuráb al-Bayn” = Raven of the Wold (the black bird with white breast and red beak and legs): “Ghuráb” (Heb. Oreb) connects with Cuba = strangerhood, exile, and “Bayn” with distance, interval, disunion, the desert (between the cultivated spots). There is another and a similar pun anent the Bán-tree; the first word meaning “he fared, he left.”