“Like rain of the heaven are we; there is not in all our line One blunt of heart, nor among us is counted a niggard. We say nay whenso we will to the words of other men: But no man to us says nay when we give sentence. When passes a lord of our line, in his stead there rises straight A lord to say the say and do the deeds of the noble. Our beacon is never quenched to the wanderer of the night Nor has ever a guest blamed us where men meet together.” (Lyall’s trans.) In a poem by Al-Fadl (Lyall XIII) occurs the following: “Each of us has his ground for the loathing his fellow moves, A grace it is from the Lord that we hate you, ye us.” Kurait, son of Unaif, poured scorn upon the people who weakly fail to avenge wrongdoing and holds up to contempt their softness in the words: “They requite with forgiveness the wrong of those that do them wrong, And the evil deeds of the evil they meet with kindness and love.” (Lyall I.) Poets form the most renowned class of men among the Arabs. Great enterprises were led by the word of the poet. To him they looked for stimulus and guidance in their raids, encampments, aspirations, disputes, loves and hates. The Arab is exceedingly sensitive to the spoken word of praise or blame. There is in him also a primitive response to the oracular, the mysterious and the magical. Speech is probably the most pretentious and commanding gift of man in early stages of culture. Even among highly civilized people it is the vehicle of the profoundest intellectual possessions and abilities. Human nature is impatient for the goods of the world. The slow process of causes has been brushed aside and resort has been had to magical means. Besides this there is the human hunger for the fairy-tale. We slip the leash of the real that we may run riot in the delights of a care-free world of the imagination. In that world the old time non-democratic spirit prevails and princes and powers and gorgeous effects are barbarously indulged. The poet is one of those who minister to us of this world of imagination.