to the leader to move his banner back; “_My work_,” he answered, “_is to move the banner on_.” So forward we drove, and cut them up, not one reaching even to the river bank.’ Mothanna reproached himself afterwards with having closed the bridge, and caused (on his own side) a useless loss of life. ‘I made a grievous error,’ he would say: ‘follow not my example herein; it behoveth us not to close the way against those who may be driven to turn upon us by despair.’[220] The carnage was almost unparalleled even in the annals of Islam, and it went on amongst the fugitives all night. A hundred warriors boasted that they had slain each ten men to his lance; and hence the battle of Boweib is sometimes called _the field of Tens_. There was no engagement of which the marks were wider or more lasting. For ages the bones of the slain bleached upon the plain; and the men of Kûfa had here, at their very door, a lasting proof at once of the prowess and the mercilessness of their forefathers in the faith. [Sidenote: Persian general slain by a Christian youth.] The victory is remarkable, not only for the unexampled loss of life, but also as secured in great part by the valour of the Beni Namr, a Christian tribe. And yet further, the most gallant feat of the day was achieved by the member of another Christian clan. A party of Beni Taghlib merchants, with a string of horses for sale, arriving just as the ranks were being dressed, threw themselves into the battle, choosing the Arab side. A youth from amongst them, darting into the very centre of the Persians, slew Mehrân, and leaping on his richly caparisoned horse, rode back upon it, amidst the plaudits of the whole Moslem line, crying, as he passed in triumph: ‘I am of the Beni Taghlib. I am he that hath slain Mehrân’[221] [Sidenote: Loss on the Moslem side.] The loss on the Moslem side was considerable. Mothanna had to mourn the death of his brave brother Masûd. As this hero was borne from the field mortally wounded, he cried: ‘Exalt your banners high, ye Beni Bekr.[222] The Lord will exalt you, my men; and let not my fall disturb you!’ Amr, the Christian chieftain, met a similar fate. And Mothanna affectionately tended the last moments of both together--the Christian and the Moslem--an unwonted sight on these crusading fields. He performed the funeral service over his brother and the other fallen Moslems, and said in his panegyric of their heroism: ‘It assuageth my grief that they stood stedfast; that they yielded not a step; and now they lie here the martyrs of Boweib.’ [Sidenote: The spoil.]