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Yet dost thou not speak it as we used to
speak. Thy talk doth lack the music of the sweet tongue of the tribes of
Hamyar which I was wont to hear. Some of the words too seemed changed,
even as among these Amahagger, who have debased and defiled its purity,
so that I must speak with them in what is to me another tongue."[*]
[*] Yarab the son of Kahtan, who lived some centuries
before the time of Abraham, was the father of the ancient
Arabs, and gave its name Araba to the country. In speaking
of herself as "al Arab al Ariba," _She_ no doubt meant to
convey that she was of the true Arab blood as distinguished
from the naturalised Arabs, the descendants of Ismael, the
son of Abraham and Hagar, who were known as "al Arab al
mostaraba." The dialect of the Koreish was usually called
the clear or "perspicuous" Arabic, but the Hamaritic dialect
approached nearer to the purity of the mother Syriac.--L. H.
H.
"I have studied it," I answered, "for many years.


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