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By God 'twas given and by God preserved,
Fostered by breath of Islam through the ages.
The Cafe-keeper or his negro page,
The village constable or any man
That may be present is our fellow guest!
It is a spacious world where Nature rules,
And not convention born of sickly brains.
Great is his admiration for that" man of might"
King Ibn Sa'ud, the present ruler of Hedjaz, whom
he looks upon as a worthy successor of the Great
Caliphs.
A man of balanced power and noble heart,
A far-famed warrior dreaded by his foes,
And justly more renowned as one who brought
Peace to a lawless land that knew no peace.
His is the master-mind, the master-hand
That has the feuds of jealous tribes controlled,
Made robbers and marauders mendicants !
The desert wilds where Caravans were robbed,
And pilgrims slaughtered for a trifling gain,
Are now the home of peace from bourne to bourne I
A man of patriarchal dignity,
Reminder of the greatness of the past,
Who at his post a fearless watchman stands
To guard Arabia's peace.
" Whenever I visited Mecca/' I quote from his
recollections, " I had the honour of seeing His
Majesty the King Abdul Aziz, Ibn Sa'ud whom I
look upon as a great man on account of his heroic
achievements. He represents the Islamic type of
ruler and seems to have stepped out of the back-
ground of Islamic history—a redoubtable warrior
in the field, a wise and cautious leader in affairs,
a simply-clad, courteous, gracious, soft-voiced