Haml continued to abuse his brother, and to flatter Cais with expressions of admiration all the way, until in the evening they arrived at the tribe of Fazarah.  Hadifah, who at the moment was surrounded by many powerful chiefs, upon whose aid he depended in the hour of need, had changed his mind since his brother Haml’s departure, and in place of coming to terms and making peace with Cais he had determined to yield in nothing, but to maintain rigorously the conditions of the coming race.  He was speaking of this very matter with one of the chiefs at the moment when Cais and Haml presented themselves before him.  As soon as Hadifah saw Cais, he resolved to cover him with shame.  Turning therefore to his brother, he asked:  “Who ordered you to go to this man?  By the faith of a noble Arab, even if all the men who cover the surface of the earth were to come and importune me, saying, ’O Hadifah, give up one hair of these camels,’ I would not yield until a lance had pierced my heart and a sword stricken the head from my shoulders.”  Cais crimsoned, and immediately remounted his horse, bitterly reproaching Haml.  He returned home with the utmost haste, and found his uncle and brothers waiting for him in extreme anxiety.  “O my son!” said his uncle Assyed as soon as he saw him, “you have had a disastrous journey, for it has caused you to be disgraced.”

“If Hadifah had not been surrounded by certain chiefs, who gave him treacherous counsels, I could have arranged the whole affair,” answered Cais.  “There is now nothing left but to carry out the race and the bet.”

King Cais did not sleep the whole of that night.  On the morrow he thought of nothing but the training of his horses during the forty days’ interval before the race.  All the Arabs of the land agreed to come to the pastures and see the race, and when the forty days had expired the horsemen of the two tribes came in a crowd to the banks of lake Zatalirsud.  Next arrived the archer Ayas, who, turning his back to the lake at the point where the horses were to start, drew his bow as he walked toward the north a hundred times, and measured out to the goal the course of a hundred bow-shots.  Soon the horsemen of Ghitfan and Dibyan arrived, for they were of the same territory, and because of their friendly relations and kinship were comprised as one tribe under the name of Adnan.  King Cais had begged Antar not to show himself on this occasion, fearing that his appearance might cause dissension.  Antar listened to this advice, but was unable to rest quiet in the tents.  The interest he felt in Cais, and the deep distrust with which the falseness of the Fazareans—­who were always ready for treason—­inspired him, induced him to show himself.  Girding on his sword Dhami, and mounting his famous charger, Abjer, he took with him his brother Shidoub, and reached the spot fixed upon for the race, in order that he might watch over the safety of King Zoheir’s sons.  On his arrival he seemed to excel all that crowd,