pass through which the enemy must march. Abrahah now approached the city, and had entered the narrow valley which led to it; not knowing, apparently, that the Koreish occupied the heights; but the army of Hamyar, which had hitherto overcome all resistance, fell beneath the shower of masses of rock and other missiles, incessantly poured on them by their assailants. The combat was continued till evening, when Abrahah was obliged to make his retreat. The remains of his army were almost annihilated by the attacks of their victorious enemies, and the king returned a fugitive to Sanaa, where he died soon after of vexation as much as of his wounds.[1]
The Arabian writers, not less skilful in such compositions than the Christian monks, have invented a fable, to account for the miraculous defeat of the Hamyaritic army. The elephants of the Christians, they tell us, awestruck at the sight of the holy building, resisted every attempt to proceed, till towards evening, when an immense flock of birds of a kind which were called ababeel, rose like a cloud from the sea, and took their course towards the camp of Abrahah. These birds were about the size of a swallow, with green plumage and yellow beaks;
- ↑ The manner of Abrahah's defeat, as here told, is only a conjecture. Others have endeavoured to account for it by supposing his army to have been destroyed by the small-pox, or some epidemic disease. The situation, the traditional fables of the Arabs, which all say that the Christians were destroyed by stones that fell from the air, and the position of the Koreish, all favour the supposition which is here adopted.
