15
rejoiced so at the victory of his foster-son; he loved[1] him as the rose loves the nightingale; smiling he made merry, all grief was gone from his heart.
83. There they both sat to cool themselves at the foot of the trees; the soldiers assembled and stood round them, countless as chaff; near them were the twelve slaves,[2] bravest of the brave. As they sported they gazed at the stream and the edge of the glens.[3]
II
HOW THE KING OF THE ARABIANS SAW THE KNIGHT CLAD IN THE PANTHER'S SKIN
84. They saw a certain stranger knight[4]; he sat weeping on the bank of the stream, he held his black horse by the rein, he looked like a lion and a hero; his bridle, armour and saddle were thickly bedight with pearls; the rose (of his cheek) was frozen in tears that welled up from his woe-stricken heart.[5]
85. His form was clad in a long coat[6] over which, was thrown a panther's skin,[7] his head, too, was covered with a cap of panther's skin[8]; in his hand he held a whip thicker
- ↑ Var. E. C. for midjnuroba reads siqvaruli.
- ↑ As a general rule Professor Marr's translation of qma, knight, and mona, slave, has been adopted throughout; but there are some cases where it seems doubtful if these are the proper equivalents: 998, 1112. In the West we have an analogy in "knight" and "knecht" (M., xii., xxxiv.).
- ↑ Var. E. C. for khevt'hasa reads tqet'hasa, "of the woods," which rhymes better.
- ↑ Moqme.
- ↑ Cf. this passage with Orlando Furioso, i. 89, 40, where Sacripante, King of Circassia, "par cangiato in insensibil pietra"; Tariel's likeness to Peredur (Lady Charlotte Guest's Mabinogion, ed. 1877, p. 97) is still more striking.
- ↑ Caba.
- ↑ ? a coat (made) of panther's skin, with the hair outside. 201.
- ↑ vep'hkhvi, vep'hkhi—Felis pardus. Panther is preferred to leopard as the English rendering. Cf. Jer. xiii. 23 in the Georgian Bible. Bacchus was a man in the panther's skin; so, too, was Jason, who appeared in Iolchos clad like Tariel; also Paris (Iliad, iii. 67). Cf. the leopard in English heraldry and in medieval poetry—Li Panthere d' Amours; also cf. note to 40. "The Man in the Panther's Skin" is the story of man enveloped in the passion spoken of in the introductory quatrains.
