Chapter XVII: Part 17

[FN#70] Arab. "Khatt Sharíf"=a royal autographical letter: the term is still preserved in Turkey, but Europeans will write "Hatt."

[FN#71] Meaning "Little tom-cat;" a dim. of "Kitt" vulg. Kutt or Gutt.

[FN#72] Arab. "Matmúrah"—-the Algerine "Matamor"—-a "silo," made familiar to England by the invention of "Ensilage."

[FN#73] The older "Mustapha"=Mohammed. This Intercession-doctrine is fiercely disputed. (Pilgrimage ii. 77.) The Apostle of Al- Islam seems to have been unable to make up his mind upon the subject: and modern opinion amongst Moslems is apparently borrowed from the Christians.

[FN#74] Lane (i. 486) curiously says, "The place of the stagnation of blood:" yet he had translated the word aright in the Introduction (i. 41). I have noticed that the Nat'a is made like the "Sufrah," of well-tanned leather, with rings in the periphery, so that a thong passed through turns it into a bag. The Sufrah used for provisions is usually yellow, with a black border and small pouches for knives or spoons. (Pilgrimage i. 111.)

[FN#75] This improbable detail shows the Caliph's greatness.

[FN#76] "Cousin" is here a term of familiarity, our "coz."

[FN#77] i.e. without allowing them a moment's delay to change clothes.

[FN#78] i.e. according to my nature, birth, blood, de race.

[FN#79] Our "Job." The English translators of the Bible, who borrowed Luther's system of transliteration (of A.D. 1522), transferred into English the German "j" which has the sound of "i" or "y"; intending us to pronounce Yacob (or Yakob), Yericho, Yimnites, Yob (or Hiob) and Yudah. Tyndall, who copied Luther (A.D. 1525-26), preserved the true sound by writing lacob, Ben Iamin and Iudas. But his successors unfortunately returned to the German; the initial I, having from the xiii century been ornamentally lengthened and bent leftwards, became a consonant. The public adopted the vernacular sound of "j" (da) and hence our language and our literature are disgraced by such barbarisms as "Jehovah" and "Jesus"; Dgehovah and Dgeesus for Yehovah and Yesus. Future generations of school-teachers may remedy the evil; meanwhile we are doomed for the rest of our days to hear

Gee-rusalem! Gee-rusalem! etc.

Nor is there one word to be said in favour of the corruption except that, like the Protestant mispronunciation of Latin and the Erasmian ill-articulation of Greek, it has become English, and has lent its little aid in dividing the Britons from the rest of the civilised world.

[FN#80] The moon, I repeat, is masculine in the so-called "Semitic" tongues.

[FN#81] i.e. camel loads, about lbs. 300; and for long journeys lbs. 250.

[FN#82] Arab. "Janázah," so called only when carrying a corpse; else Na'ash, Sarír or Tábút: Irán being the large hearse on which chiefs are borne. It is made of plank or stick-work; but there are several varieties. (Lane, M. E. chaps. xxviii.)

[FN#83] It is meritorious to accompany the funeral cortège of a Moslem even for a few paces.

[FN#84] Otherwise he could not have joined in the prayers.

[FN#85] Arab. "Halwá" made of sugar, cream, almonds, etc. That of Maskat is famous throughout the East.

[FN#86] i.e. "Camphor" to a negro, as we say "Snowball," by the figure antiphrase.

[FN#87] "Little Good Luck," a dim. form of "bakht"=luck, a Persian word naturalized in Egypt.

[FN#88] There are, as I have shown, not a few cannibal tribes in Central Africa and these at times find their way into the slave-market.

[FN#89] i.e. After we bar the door.

[FN#90] Arab. "Jáwísh" from Turk. Cháwúsh, Chiaoosh, a sergeant, poursuivant, royal messenger. I would suggest that this is the word "Shálish" or "Jálish" in Al-Siyuti's History of the Caliphs (p. 501) translated by Carlyle "milites," by Schultens "Sagittarius" and by Jarett "picked troops."

[FN#91] This familiarity with blackamoor slave-boys is common in Egypt and often ends as in the story: Egyptian blood is sufficiently mixed with negro to breed inclination for miscegenation. But here the girl was wickedly neglected by her mother at such an age as ten.

[FN#92] Arab. "Farj"; hence a facetious designation of the other sex is "Zawi'l-furuj" (grammatically Zawátu'l- furúj)=habentes rimam, slit ones.

[FN#93] This ancient and venerable practice of inspecting the marriage-sheet is still religiously preserved in most parts of the East; and in old-fashioned Moslem families it is publicly exposed in the Harem to prove that the "domestic calamity" (the daughter) went to her husband a clean maid. Also the general idea is that no blood will impose upon the exerts, or jury of matrons, except that of a pigeon-poult which exactly resembles hymeneal blood— when not subjected to the microscope. This belief is universal in Southern Europe and I have heard of it in England. Further details will be given in Night ccxi.

[FN#94] "Agha" Turk.=sir, gentleman, is, I have said, politely addressed to a eunuch.

[FN#95] As Bukhayt tells us he lost only his testes, consequently his erectio et distensio penis was as that of a boy before puberty and it would last as long as his heart and circulation kept sound. Hence the eunuch who preserves his penis is much prized in the Zenanah where some women prefer him to the entire man, on account of his long performance of the deed of kind. Of this more in a future page.

[FN#96] It is or rather was the custom in Egypt and Syria to range long rows of fine China bowls along the shelves running round the rooms at the height of six or seven feet, and they formed a magnificent cornice. I bought many of them at Damascus till the people, learning their value, asked prohibitive prices.

[FN#97] The tale is interesting as well as amusing, excellently describing the extravagances still practised in middle-class Moslem families on the death of the pater familias. I must again note that Arab women are much more unwilling to expose the back of the head covered by the "Tarhah" (head-veil) than the face, which is hidden by the "Burka" or nose bag.

[FN#98] The usual hysterical laughter of this nervous race.

[FN#99] Here the slave refuses to be set free and starve. For a master so to do without ample reasons is held disgraceful. I well remember the weeping and wailing throughout Sind when an order from Sir Charles Napier set free the negroes whom British philanthropy thus doomed to endure if not to die of hunger.

[FN#100] Manumission, which is founded upon Roman law, is an extensive subject discussed in the Hidáyah and other canonical works. The slave here lays down the law incorrectly but his claim shows his truly "nigger" impudence.

[FN#101] This is quite true to nature. The most remarkable thing in the wild central African is his enormous development of "destructiveness." At Zanzibar I never saw a slave break a glass or plate without a grin or a chuckle of satisfaction.

[FN#102] Arab. "Khassá-ni"; Khusyatáni (vulg.) being the testicles, also called "bayzatán" (the two eggs) a double entendre which has given rise to many tales. For instance in the witty Persian book "Dozd o Kazi" (The Thief and the Judge) a footpad strips the man of learning and offers to return his clothes if he can ask him a puzzle in law or religion. The Kazi (in folk-lore mostly a fool) fails, and his wife bids him ask the man to supper for a trial of wits on the same condition. She begins with compliments and ends by producing five eggs which she would have him distribute equally amongst the three; and, when he is perplexed, she gives one to each of the men taking three for herself. Whereupon the "Dozd" wends his way, having lost his booty as his extreme stupidity deserved. In the text the eunuch, Kafur, is made a "Sandali" or smooth-shaven, so that he was of no use to women.

[FN#103] Arab. "Khara," the lowest possible word: Yá Khara! is the commonest of insults, used also by modest women. I have heard one say it to her son.

[FN#104] Arab. "Kámah," a measure of length, a fathom, also called "Bá'a." Both are omitted in that sadly superficial book, Lane's Modern Egyptians, App. B.

[FN#105] Names of her slave-girls which mean (in order), Garden-bloom, Dawn (or Beautiful), Tree o' Pearl (P. N. of Saladin's wife), Light of (right) Direction, Star o' the Morn, Lewdness (= Shahwah, I suppose this is a chaff), Delight, Sweetmeat and Miss Pretty.

[FN#106] This mode of disposing of a rival was very common in Harems. But it had its difficulties and on the whole the river was (and is) preferred.

[FN#107] An Eastern dislikes nothing more than drinking in a dim dingy place: the brightest lights seem to add to his "drinkitite."

[FN#108] He did not sleep with her because he suspected some palace-mystery which suggested prudence, she also had her reasons.

[FN#109] This as called in Egypt "Allah." (Lane M. E. chaps. i.)

[FN#110] It would be a broad ribbon-like band upon which the letters could be worked.

[FN#111] In the Arab. "he cried." These "Yes, Yes! and No! No!" trifles are very common amongst the Arabs.

[FN#112] Arab. "Maragha" lit. rubbed his face on them like a fawning dog. Ghanim is another "softy" lover, a favourite character in Arab tales; and by way of contrast, the girl is masterful enough.

[FN#113] Because the Abbaside Caliphs descend from Al-Abbas, paternal uncle of Mohammed, text means more explicitly, "O descendant of the Prophet's uncle!"

[FN#114] The most terrible part of a belle passion in the East is that the beloved will not allow her lover leave of absence for an hour.

[FN#115] It is hard to preserve these wretched puns. In the original we have "O spray (or branch) of capparis-shrub (aráki) which has been thinned of leaf and fruit (tujna, i.e., whose fruit, the hymen, has been plucked before and not by me) I see thee (aráka) against me sinning (tajní).

[FN#116] Apparently the writer forgets that the Abbaside banners and dress were black, originally a badge of mourning for the Imám Ibrahim bin Mohammed put to death by the Ommiade Caliph Al-Marwan. The modern Egyptian mourning, like the old Persian, is indigo-blue of the darkest; but, as before noted, the custom is by no means universal.

[FN#117] Koran, chaps. iv. In the East as elsewhere the Devil quotes Scripture.

[FN#118] A servant returning from a journey shows his master due honour by appearing before him in travelling suit and uncleaned.

[FN#119] The first name means "Rattan", the second "Willow-wand," from the "Bán" or "Khiláf" the Egyptian willow (Salix Ægyptiaca Linn.) vulgarly called "Safsáf." Forskal holds the "Bán" to be a different variety.

[FN#120] Arab. "Ta'ám," which has many meanings: in mod. parlance it would signify millet, holcus-seed.

[FN#121] i.e. "I well know how to deal with him."

[FN#122] The Pen (title of the Koranic chaps. Ixviii.) and the Preserved Tablet (before explained).

[FN#123] These plunderings were sanctioned by custom. But a few years ago, when the Turkish soldiers mutinied about arrears of pay (often delayed for years) the governing Pasha would set fire to the town and allow the men to loot what they pleased during a stated time. Rochet (soi-disant D'Héricourt) amusingly describes this manoeuvre of the Turkish Governor of Al-Hodaydah in the last generation. (Pilgrimage iii. 381.)

[FN#124] Another cenotaph whose use was to enable women to indulge in their pet pastime of weeping and wailing in company.

[FN#125] The lodging of pauper travellers, as the chapel in Iceland is of the wealthy. I have often taken benefit of the mosque, but as a rule it is unpleasant, the matting being not only torn but over-populous. Juvenal seems to allude to the Jewish Synagogue similarly used: "in quâ te quæro proseuchâ"? (iii. 296) and in Acts iii. we find the lame, blind and impotent in the Temple-porch.

[FN#126] This foul sort of vermin is supposed to be bred by perspiration. It is an epoch in the civilised traveller's life when he catches his first louse.

[FN#127] The Moslem peasant is a kind-hearted man and will make many sacrifices for a sick stranger even of another creed. It is a manner of "pundonor" with the village.

[FN#128] Such treatment of innocent women was only too common under the Caliphate and in contemporary Europe.

[FN#129] This may also mean, "And Heaven will reward thee," but camel-men do not usually accept any drafts upon futurity.

[FN#130] He felt that he was being treated like a corpse.

[FN#131] This hatred of the Hospital extends throughout Southern Europe, even in places where it is not justified.

[FN#132] The importance of the pillow (wisádah or makhaddah) to the sick man is often recognised in The Nights. "He took to his pillow" is = took to his bed.

[FN#133] i.e in order that the reverend men, who do not render such suit and service gratis, might pray for him.

[FN#134] The reader will notice in The Nights the frequent mention of these physical prognostications, with which mesmerists are familiar.

[FN#135] The Pers. name of the planet Saturn in the Seventh Heaven. Arab. "Zuhal"; the Kiun or Chiun of Amos vi. 26.

[FN#136] i.e. "Pardon me if I injured thee"— a popular phrase.

[FN#137] A "seduction," a charmer. The double-entendre has before been noticed.

[FN#138] This knightly tale, the longest in the Nights (xliv.— cxlv.), about one-eighth of the whole, does not appear in the Bres. Edit. Lane, who finds it "objectionable," reduces it to two of its episodes, Azíz-cum-Azízah and Táj al-Mulúk. On the other hand it has been converted into a volume (8vo, pp. 240) "Scharkan, Conte Arabe," etc. Traduit par M. Asselan Riche, etc. Paris: Dondey-Dupré. 1829. It has its longueurs and at times is longsome enough; but it is interesting as a comparison between the chivalry of Al-Islam and European knight-errantry. Although all the characters are fictitious the period is evidently in the early crusading days. Cæsarea, the second capital of Palestine, taken during the Caliphate of Omar (A.H. 19) and afterwards recovered, was fortified in A.H. 353 = 963 as a base against the Arabs by the Emperor Phocas, the Arab. "Nakfúr" i.e. Nicephorus. In A.H. 498=1104, crusading craft did much injury by plundering merchantmen between Egypt and Syria, to which allusion is found in the romance. But the story-teller has not quite made up his mind about which Cæsarea he is talking, and M. Riche tells us that Césarée is a "ville de la Mauritanie, en Afrique" (p. 20).

[FN#139] The fifth Ommiade Caliph reign. A.H. 65-86 = 685-704.

[FN#140] This does not merely mean that no one was safe from his wrath: or, could approach him in the heat of fight: it is a reminiscence of the masterful "King Kulayb," who established game-laws in his dominions and would allow no man to approach his camp-fire. Moreover the Jinn lights a fire to decoy travellers; but if his victim be bold enough to brave him, he invites him to take advantage of the heat.

[FN#141] China.

[FN#142] The Jaxartes and the Bactrus (names very loosely applied).

[FN#143] In full "Sharrun kána" i.e. an evil (Sharr) has come to being (kána), that is, "bane to the foe" a pagan and knightly name. The hero of the Romance "Al-Dalhamah" is described as a bitter gourd (colocynth), a viper, a calamity.

[FN#144] This is a Moslem law (Koran chaps. iv. bodily borrowed from the Talmud) which does not allow a man to marry one wife unless he can carnally satisfy her. Moreover he must distribute his honours equally and each wife has a right to her night unless she herself give it up. This was the case even with the spouses of the Prophet; and his biography notices several occasions when his wives waived their rights in favour of one another M. Riche kindly provides the King with la piquante francaise (p. 15).

[FN#145] So the celebrated mosque in Stambul, famed for being the largest church in the world is known to the Greeks as "Agia (pron. Aya) Sophia" and to Moslems as "Aya Sofíyeh" (Holy Wisdom) i.e. the Logos or Second Person of the Trinity (not a Saintess). The sending a Christian girl as a present to a Moslem would, in these days, be considered highly scandalous. But it was done by the Mukaukis or Coptic Governor of Egypt (under Heraclius) who of course hated the Greeks. This worthy gave two damsels to Mohammed; one called Sírín and the other Máriyah (Maria) whom the Prophet reserved for his especial use and whose abode is still shown at Al-Medinah. The Rev. Doctor Badger (loc. cit. p. 972) gives the translation of an epistle by Mohammed to this Mukaukis, written in the Cufic character ( ? ?) and sealed "Mohammed, The Apostle of Allah." My friend seems to believe that it is an original, but upon this subject opinions will differ. It is, however, exceedingly interesting, beginning with "Bismillah," etc., and ending (before the signature) with a quotation from the Koran (iii. 57); and it may be assumed as a formula addressee to foreign potentates by a Prophet who had become virtually "King of Arabia."

[FN#146] This prayer before "doing the deed of kind" is, I have said, Moslem as well as Christian.

[FN#147] Exodus i. 16, quoted by Lane (M. E., chaps. xxvii.). Torrens in his Notes cites Drayton's "Moon-calf':—

Bring forth the birth-stool—no, let it alone;
She is so far beyond all compass grown,
Some other new device us needs must stead,
Or else she never can be brought to bed.

It is the "groaning-chair" of Poor Robin's Almanac (1676) and we find it alluded to in Boccaccio, the classical sedile which according to scoffers has formed the papal chair (a curule seat) ever since the days of Pope Joan, when it has been held advisable for one of the Cardinals to ascertain that His Holiness possesses all the instruments of virility. This "Kursí al-wiládah" is of peculiar form on which the patient is seated. A most interesting essay might be written upon the various positions preferred during delivery, e.g. the wild Irish still stand on all fours, like the so-called "lower animals." Amongst the Moslems of Waday, etc., a cord is hung from the top of the hut, and the woman in labour holds on to it standing with her legs apart, till the midwife receives the child.

[FN#148] Some Orientalists call "lullilooing" the trilling cry, which is made by raising the voice to its highest pitch and breaking it by a rapid succession of touches on the palate with the tongue-tip, others "Ziraleet" and Zagaleet, and one traveller tells us that it began at the marriage-festival of Isaac and Rebecca (!). Arabs term it classically "Tahlíl" and vulgarly "Zaghrutah" (Plur. Zaghárit) and Persians "Kil." Finally in Don Quixote we have "Lelilies," the battle-cry of the Moors (Duffield iii. 289). Dr. Buchanan likens it to a serpent uttering human sounds, but the good missionary heard it at the festival of Jagannath. (Pilgrimage iii. 197 )

[FN#149] i.e. "Light of the Place" (or kingdom) and "Delight of the Age."

[FN#150] It is utterly absurd to give the old heroic Persian name Afridun or Furaydun, the destroyer of Zohák or Zahhák, to a Greek, but such anachronisms are characteristic of The Nights and are evidently introduced on purpose. See Boccaccio, ix. 9.

[FN#151] Arab. "Yunán" lit. Ionia, which applies to all Greece, insular and continental, especially to ancient Greece.

[FN#152] In 1870 I saw at Sidon a find of some hundreds of gold "Philippi" and "Alexanders."

[FN#153] M. Riche has (p. 21), "Ces talismans travaillés par le ciseau du célèbre Califaziri," adding in a note, "Je pense que c'est un sculpteur Arabe."

[FN#154] This periphrase, containing what seems to us a useless negative, adds emphasis in Arabic.

[FN#155] This bit of geographical information is not in the Bull Edit.

[FN#156] In Pers. = a tooth, the popular word.

[FN#157] This preliminary move, called in Persian Nakl-iiSafar, is generally mentioned. So the Franciscan monks in California, when setting out for a long journey through the desert, marched three times round the convent and pitched tents for the night under its walls.

[FN#158] In Arab. "Khazinah" or "Khaznah" lit. a treasure, representing 1,000 "Kís" or purses (each=£5). The sum in the text is 7,000 purses X 5=£35,000.

[FN#159] Travellers often prefer such sites because they are sheltered from the wind, and the ground is soft for pitching tents; but many have come to grief from sudden torrents following rain.

[FN#160] Arab "Ghábah" not a forest in our sense of the word, but a place where water sinks and the trees (mostly Mimosas), which elsewhere are widely scattered, form a comparatively dense growth and collect in thickets. These are favourite places for wild beasts during noon-heats.

[FN#161] At various times in the East Jews and Christians were ordered to wear characteristic garments, especially the Zunnár or girdle.

[FN#162] The description is borrowed from the Coptic Convent, which invariably has an inner donjon or keep. The oldest monastery in the world is Mar Antonios (St. Anthony the Hermit) not far from Suez. (Gold Mines of Midian, p. 85.)

[FN#163] "Dawáhí," plur. of Dáhiyah = a mishap. The title means "Mistress of Misfortunes" or Queen of Calamities (to the enemy); and the venerable lady, as will be seen, amply deserved her name, which is pronounced Zát al-Dawáhí.

[FN#164] Arab. "Kunfuz"=hedgehog or porcupine.

[FN#165] These flowers of speech are mere familiarities, not insults. In societies where the sexes are separated speech becomes exceedingly free. "Étourdie que vous êtes," says M. Riche, toning down the text.

[FN#166] Arab. "Zirt," a low word. The superlative "Zarrát" (fartermost) or, "Abu Zirt" (Father of farts) is a facetious term among the bean-eating Fellahs and a deadly insult amongst the Badawin (Night ccccx.). The latter prefer the word Taggáa (Pilgrimage iii. 84). We did not disdain the word in farthingale=pet en air.

[FN#167] Arab. "kicked" him, i.e. with the sharp corner of the shovel-stirrup. I avoid such expressions as "spurring" and "pricking over the plain," because apt to give a wrong idea.

[FN#168] Arab. "Allaho Akbar!" the classical Moslem slogan.

[FN#169] Arab horses are never taught to leap, so she was quite safe on the other side of a brook nine feet broad.

[FN#170] "Batrík" (vulg. Bitrík)=patricius, a title given to Christian knights who commanded ten thousand men; the Tarkhan (or Nobb) heading four thousand, and the Kaumas (Arab. Káid) two hundred. It must not be confounded with Batrak (or Batrik)=patriarcha. (Lane's Lex.)

[FN#171] Arab. "Kázi al-Kuzát," a kind of Chief Justice or Chancellor. The office wag established under the rule of Harun al-Rashid, who so entitled Abú Yúsuf Ya'akub al-Ansári: therefore the allusion is anachronistic. The same Caliph also caused the Olema to dress as they do still.

[FN#172] The allusion is Koranic: "O men, if ye be in doubt concerning the resurrection, consider that He first created you of the dust of the ground (Adam); afterwards of seed" (chaps. xxii.). But the physiological ideas of the Koran are curious. It supposes that the Mani or male semen is in the loins and that of women in the breast bone (chaps Ixxxvi.); that the mingled seed of the two (chaps. Ixxvi.) fructifies the ovary and that the child is fed through the navel with menstruous blood, hence the cessation of the catamenia. Barzoi (Kalilah and Dímnah) says:— "Man's seed, falling into the woman's womb, is mixed with her seed and her blood: when it thickens and curdles the Spirit moves it and it turns about like liquid cheese; then it solidifies, its arteries are formed, its limbs constructed and its joints distinguished. If the babe is a male, his face is placed towards his mother's back; if a female, towards her belly." (P. 262, Mr. L G.N. Keith- Falconer's translation.) But there is a curious prolepsis of the spermatozoa-theory. We read (Koran chaps. vii.), "Thy Lord drew forth their posterity from the loins of the sons of Adam;" and the commentators say that Allah stroked Adam's back and extracted from his loins all his posterity, which shall ever be, in the shape of small ants; these confessed their dependence on God and were dismissed to return whence they came." From this fiction it appears (says Sale) that the doctrine of pre-existence is not unknown to the Mohammedans, and there is some little conformity between it and the modern theory of generatio ex animalculis in semine marium. The poets call this Yaum-i-Alast = the Day of Am-I-not (-your Lord)? which Sir William Jones most unhappily translated "Art thou not with thy Lord ?" (Alasta bi Rabbi- kum); fand they produce a grand vision of unembodied spirits appearing in countless millions before their Creator.

[FN#173] The usual preliminary of a wrestling bout.

[FN#174] In Eastern wrestling this counts as a fair fail. So Ajax fell on his back with Ulysses on his breast. (Iliad xxxii., 700, etc.)

[FN#175] So biting was allowed amongst the Greeks in the ἀνακλινοπάλη, the final struggle on the ground.

[FN#176] Supposed to be names of noted wrestlers. "Kayim" (not El-Kim as Torrens has it) is a term now applied to a juggler or "professor" of legerdemain who amuses people in the streets with easy tricks. (Lane, M. E., chaps. xx.)

[FN#177] Lit. "laughed in his face" which has not the unpleasant meaning it bears in English.

[FN#178] Arab. "Abu riyáh"=a kind of child's toy. It is the "Ρόμβος" of the Greeks, our "bull-roarer" well known in Australia and parts of Africa.

[FN#179] The people of the region south of the Caspian which is called "Sea of Daylam." It has a long history; for which see D'Herbelot, s.v. "Dilem."

[FN#180] Coptic convents in Egypt still affect these drawbridges over the keep-moat.

[FN#181] Koran iv., xxii. etc., meaning it is lawful to marry women taken in war after the necessary purification although their husbands be still living. This is not permitted with a free woman who is a True Believer. I have noted that the only concubine slave-girl mentioned in the Koran are these "captives possessed by the right hand."

[FN#182] The Amazonian dame is a favourite in folk-lore and is an ornament to poetry from the Iliad to our modern day. Such heroines, apparently unknown to the Pagan Arabs, were common in the early ages of Al-Islam as Ockley and Gibbon prove, and that the race is not extinct may be seen in my Pilgrimage (iii. 55) where the sister of Ibn Rumi resolved to take blood-revenge for her brother.

[FN#183] And Solomon said, "O nobles, which of you will bring me her throne ?" A terrible genius (i.e. an If rit of the Jinn named Dhakwan or the notorious Sakhr) said, " I will bring it unto thee before thou arise from thy seat (of justice); for I am able to perform it, and may be trusted" (Koran, xxvii. 38-39). Balkís or Bilkís (says the Durrat al-Ghawwás) daughter of Hozád bin Sharhabíl, twenty-second in the list of the rulers of Al- Yaman, according to some murdered her husband, and became, by Moslem ignorance, the Biblical " Queen of Sheba." The Abyssinians transfer her from Arabian Saba to Ethiopia and make her the mother by Solomon of Menelek, their proto-monarch; thus claiming for their royalties an antiquity compared with which all reigning houses in the world are of yesterday. The dates of the Tabábi'ah or Tobbas prove that the Bilkis of history ruled Al-Yaman in the early Christian era.

[FN#184] Arab. "Fass," fiss or fuss; the gem set in a ring; also applied to a hillock rounded en cabochon. In The Nights it is used to signify "a fine gem."

[FN#185] This prominence of the glutæi muscles is always insisted upon, because it is supposed to promise well in a bed-fellow. In Somali-land, where the people are sub- steatopygous, a rich young man, who can afford such luxury, will have the girls drawn up in line and choose her to wife who projects furthest behind

[FN#186] The "bull" is only half mine.

[FN#187] A favourite Arab phrase, the "hot eye" is one full of tears.

[FN#188] i.e., "Coral," coral branch, a favourite name for a slave-girl, especially a negress. It is the older "Morgiana." I do not see why Preston in Al-Haríni's "Makamah (Séance) of Singar" renders it pearls, because Golius gives "small pearls," when it is evidently "coral." Richardson (Dissert. xlviii.) seems to me justified in finding the Pari (fairy) Marjan of heroic Persian history reflected in the Fairy Morgain who earned off King Arthur after the battle of Camelon.

[FN#189] Arab. "'Ud Jalaki"=Jalak or Jalik being a poetical and almost obsolete name of Damascus.

[FN#190] The fountain in Paradise whose water shall be drunk with "pure" wine mixed and sealed with musk (for clay). It is so called because it comes from the "Sanam" (Sanima, to be high) boss or highest ridge of the Moslem Heaven (Koran lv. 78 and lxxxiii. 27). Mr. Rodwell says "it is conveyed to the highest apartments in the Pavilions of Paradise." (?)

[FN#191] This "hysterical" temperament is not rare even amongst the bravest Arabs.

[FN#192] An idea evidently derived from the Æolipyla (olla animatoria) the invention of Hero Alexandrinus, which showed that the ancient Egyptians could apply the motive force of steam.

[FN#193] Kuthayyir ibn Abi Jumah, a poet and far-famed Ráwí or Tale-reciter, mentioned by Ibn Khallikan he lived at Al-Medinah and sang the attractions of one Azzah, hence his soubriquet Sáhib (lover of) Azzah. As he died in A. H. 105 (=726), his presence here is a gross anachronism the imaginary Sharrkan flourished before the Caliphate of Abd al-Malik bin Marwán A. H. 65-86.

[FN#194] Jamíl bin Ma'amar, a poet and lover contemporary with Al-Kuthayrir.

[FN#195] Arab. "Tafazzal," a word of frequent use in conversation="favour me," etc.

[FN#196] The word has a long history. From the Gr. στίμμι or στίβι is the Lat. stibium; while the Low Latin "antimonium" and the Span. Althimod are by metathesis for Al-Ithmid. The dictionaries define the substance as a stone from which antimony is prepared, but the Arabs understand a semi-mythical mineral of yellow colour which enters into the veins of the eyes and gives them Iynx-like vision. The famous Anz nicknamed Zarká (the blue eyed) of Yamámah (Province) used it; and, according to some, invented Kohl. When her (protohistoric) tribe Jadis had destroyed all the rival race of Tasm, except Ribáh ibn Murrah; the sole survivor fled to the Tobba of Al-Yaman, who sent a host to avenge him. The king commanded his Himyarites to cut tree-boughs and use them as screens (again Birnam wood). Zarká from her Utum, or peel-tower, saw the army three marches off and cried, "O folk, either trees or Himyar are coming upon you!" adding, in Rajaz verse:—

I swear by Allah that trees creep onward, or that Himyar beareth somewhat which he draweth along!

She then saw a man mending his sandal. But Jadis disbelieved; Cassandra was slain and, when her eyes were cut out the vessels were found full of Ithmid. Hence Al-Mutanabbi sang:

"Sharper-sighted than Zarká of Jau" (Yamámah).

See C. de Perceval i. 101; Arab. Prov. i. 192; and Chenery p. 381. (The Assemblies of Al-Hariri; London, Williams and Norgate, 1867). I have made many enquiries into the true nature of Ithmid and failed to learn anything: on the Upper Nile the word is=Kohl.

[FN#197] The general colour of chessmen in the East, where the game is played on a cloth more often than a board.

[FN#198] Arab. "Al-fil," the elephant=the French fol or fou and our bishop. I have derived "elephant" from Píl (old Persian, Sansk. Pilu) and Arab. Fil, with the article Al-Fil, whence the Greek ἐλέφας the suffix—as being devoted to barbarous words as Obod-as (Al Ubayd), Aretas (Al-Háris), etc. Mr. Isaac Taylor (The Alphabet i. 169), preserves the old absurdity of "eleph-ant or ox-like (!) beast of Africa." Prof. Sayce finds the word al-ab (two distinct characters) in line 3, above the figure of an (Indian) elephant, on the black obelisk of Nimrod Mound, and suggests an Assyrian derivation.

[FN#199] Arab. "Shaukat" which may also mean the "pride" or "mainstay" (of the army).

[FN#200] Lit. "smote him on the tendons of his neck." This is the famous shoulder-cut (Tawash shuh) which, with the leg-cut (Kalam), formed, and still forms, the staple of Eastern attack with the sword.

[FN#201] Arab. "Dirás." Easterns do not thresh with flails. The material is strewed over a round and smoothed floor of dried mud in the open air and threshed by different connivances. In Egypt the favourite is a chair-like machine called "Norag," running on iron plates and drawn by bulls or cows over the corn. Generally, however, Moslems prefer the old classical Τρίβολον, the Tribulum of Virgil and Varro, a slipper-shaped sled of wood garnished on the sole with large-headed iron nails, or sharp fragments of flint or basalt. Thus is made the "Tibn" or straw, the universal hay of the East, which our machines cannot imitate.

[FN#202] These numbers appear to be grossly exaggerated, but they were possible in the days of sword and armour: at the battle of Saffayn the Caliph Ali is said to have cut down five hundred and twenty-three men in a single night.

[FN#203] Arab. "Bika'á": hence the "Buka'ah" or Cœlesyria.

[FN#204] Richardson in his excellent dictionary (note 103) which modern priggism finds "unscientific " wonderfully derives this word from Arab. "Khattáf," a snatcher (i.e. of women), a ravisher. It is an evident corruption of "captivus" through Italian and French

[FN#205] These periodical and fair-like visitations to convents are still customary; especially amongst the Christians of Damascus.

[FN#206] Camphor being then unknown.

[FN#207] The "wrecker" is known all over the world; and not only barbarians hold that ships driven ashore become the property of the shore

[FN#208] Arab. "Jokh": it is not a dictionary word, but the only term in popular use for European broadcloth.

[FN#209] The second person plural is used because the writer would involve the subjects of his correspondent in the matter.

[FN#210] This part of the phrase, which may seem unnecessary to the European, is perfectly intelligible to all Orientalists. You may read many an Eastern letter and not understand it. Compare Boccacoo iv. 1.

[FN#211] i.e. he was greatly agitated

[FN#212] In text "Li-ajal a al-Taudi'a," for the purpose of farewelling, a low Egyptianism; emphatically a "Kalám wáti." (Pilgrimage iii. 330.)

[FN#213] In the Mac. Edit. Sharrkan speaks, a clerical error.

[FN#214] The Farsakh (Germ. Stunde) a measure of time rather than distance, is an hour's travel or its equivalent, a league, a meile=three English stat. miles. The word is still used in Persia its true home, but not elsewhere. It is very old, having been determined as a lineal measure of distance by Herodotus (ii. 5 and 6 ; v. 53), who computes it at 30 furlongs (=furrow-lengths, 8 to the stat. mile). Strabo (xi.) makes it range from 40 to 60 stades (each=606 feet 9 inches), and even now it varies between 1,500 to 6,000 yards. Captain Francklin (Tour to Persia) estimates it = about four miles. (Pilgrimage ii. 113.)

[FN#215] Arab. "Ashhab." Names of colours are few amongst semi civilised peoples, but in Arabia there is a distinct word for every shade of horseflesh.

[FN#216] She had already said to him "Thou art beaten in everything!"

[FN#217] Showing that she was still a Christian.

[FN#218] This is not Badawi sentiment: the honoratioren amongst wild people would scorn such foul play; but amongst the settled Arabs honour between men and women is unknown and such "hocussing" would be held quite fair.

[FN#219] The table of wine, in our day, is mostly a japanned tray with glasses and bottles, saucers of pickles and fruits and, perhaps, a bunch of flowers and aromatic herbs. During the Caliphate the "wine-service" was on a larger scale.

[FN#220] Here the "Bhang" (almost a generic term applied to hellebore, etc.) may be hyoscyamus or henbane. Yet there are varieties of Cannabis, such as the Dakha of South Africa capable of most violent effect. I found the use of the drug well known to the negroes of the Southern United States and of the Brazil, although few of their owners had ever heard of it.

[FN#221] Amongst Moslems this is a reference to Adam who first "sinned against himself,' and who therefore is called " Safíyu'llah," the Pure of Allah. (Pilgrimage iii. 333.)

[FN#222] Meaning, an angry, violent man.

[FN#223] Arab. "Inshád," which may mean reciting the verse of another or improvising one's own. In Modern Egypt "Munshid" is the singer or reciter of poetry at Zikrs (Lane M. E. chaps. xxiv.). Here the verses are quite bad enough to be improvised by the hapless Princess.

[FN#224] The negro skin assumes this dust colour in cold, fear, concupiscence and other mental emotions.

[FN#225] He compares her glance with the blade of a Yamani sword, a lieu commun of Eastern poetry. The weapons are famous in The Nights; but the best sword-cutlery came from Persia as the porcelain from China to Sana'á. Here, however, is especial allusion as to the sword "Samsam" or "Samsamah." It belonged to the Himyarite Tobba, Amru bin Ma'ad Kurb, and came into the hands of Harun al-Rashid. When the Emperor of the Greeks sent a present of superior sword-blades to him by way of a brave, the Caliph, in the presence of the Envoys, took "Samsam" in hand and cut the others in twain as if they were cabbages without the least prejudice to the edge of "Samsam."

[FN#226] This touch of pathos is truly Arab. So in the "Romance of Dalhamah" (Lane, M. E. xxiii.) the infant Gundubah sucks the breast of its dead mother and the King exclaims, "If she had committed this crime she would not be affording the child her milk after she was dead."

[FN#227] Arab. "Sadda'l-Aktár," a term picturesque enough to be preserved in English. "Sadd," I have said, is a wall or dyke, the term applied to the great dam of water- plants which obstructs the navigation of the Upper Nile, the lilies and other growths floating with the current from the (Victoria) Nyanza Lake. I may note that we need no longer derive from India the lotus-llily so extensively used by the Ancient Egyptians and so neglected by the moderns that it has well-nigh disappeared. All the Central African basins abound in the Nymphæa and thence it found its way down the Nile Valley.

[FN#228] Arab. "Al Marhúmah": equivalent to our "late lamented."

[FN#229] Vulgarly pronounced "Mahmal," and by Egyptians and Turks "Mehmel." Lane (M. E. xxiv.) has figured this queenly litter and I have sketched and described it in my Pilgrimage (iii. 12).

[FN#230] For such fits of religious enthusiasm see my Pilgrimage (iii. 254).

[FN#231] "Irák" (Mesopotamia) means "a level country beside the banks of a ever."

[FN#232] "Al Kuds," or "Bays al-Mukaddas," is still the popular name of Jerusalem, from the Heb. Yerushalaim ha-Kadushah (legend on shekel of Simon Maccabeus).

[FN#233] "Follow the religion of Abraham" says the Koran (chaps. iii. 89). Abraham, titled "Khalílu'llah," ranks next in dignity to Mohammed, preceding Isa, I need hardly say that his tomb is not in Jerusalem nor is the tomb itself at Hebron ever visited. Here Moslems (soi disant) are allowed by the jealousies of Europe to close and conceal a place which belongs to the world, especially to Jews and Christians. The tombs, if they exist, lie in a vault or cave under the Mosque.

[FN#234] Abá, or Abáyah, vulg. Abayah, is a cloak of hair, goat's or camel's; too well known to require description.

[FN#235] Arab. "Al-Wakkád," the man who lights and keeps up the bath-fires.

[FN#236] Arab. "Má al-Khaláf" (or "Khiláf") a sickly perfume but much prized, made from the flowers of the Salix Ægyptiaca.

[FN#237] Used by way of soap; like glasswort and other plants.

[FN#238] i.e., "Thou art only just recovered."

[FN#239] To "Nakh" is to gurgle "Ikh! Ikh!" till the camel kneels. Hence the space called "Barr al-Manákhah" in Al-Medinah (Pilgrimage i. 222, ii. 91). There is a regular camel vocabulary amongst the Arabs, made up like our "Gee" (go ye!), etc. of significant words worn down.

[FN#240] Arab. "Laza," the Second Hell provided for Jews.

[FN#241] The word has been explained (vol. i. 112).[see Volume 1, note 199] It is trivial, not occurring in the Koran which uses "Arabs of the Desert ;" "Arabs who dwell in tents," etc. (chaps. ix. and xxxiii.). "A'arábi" is the classical word and the origin of "Arab" is disputed. According to Pocock (Notæ Spec. Hist. Arab.): "Diverse are the opinions concerning the denomination of the Arabs; but the most certain of all is that which draws it from Arabah, which is part of the region of Tehama (belonging to Al-Medinah Pilgrimage ii. 118), which their father Ismail afterwards inhabited." Tehamah (sierra caliente) is the maritime region of Al Hijaz, the Moslems Holy Land; and its "Arabah," a very small tract which named a very large tract, must not be confounded, as some have done, with the Wady Arabah, the ancient outlet of the Dead Sea. The derivation of "Arab" from "Ya'arab" a fancied son of Joktan is mythological. In Heb. Arabia may be called "Eretz Ereb" (or "Arab")=land of the West; but in Arabic "Gharb" (not Ereb) is the Occident and the Arab dates long before the Hebrew.

[FN#242] "When thine enemy extends his hand to thee, cut it off if thou can, or kiss it," wisely said Caliph al-Mansur.

[FN#243] The Tartur was a peculiar turban worn by the Northern Arabs and shown in old prints. In modern Egypt the term is applied to the tall sugar-loaf caps of felt affected mostly by regular Dervishes. Burckhardt (Proverbs 194 and 398) makes it the high cap of felt or fur proper to the irregular cavalry called Dely or Delaty. In Dar For (Darfour) "Tartur" is a conical cap adorned with beads and cowries worn by the Manghwah or buffoon who corresponds with the Egyptian "Khalbús" or "Maskharah" and the Turkish "Sutari." For an illustration see Plate iv. fig. 10 of Voyage au Darfour par Mohammed El Tounsy (The Tunisian), Paris, Duprat, 1845.

[FN#244] The term is picturesque and true; we say "gnaw," which is not so good.

[FN#245] Here, meaning an Elder, a Chief, etc.; the word has been almost naturalised in English. I have noted that Abraham was the first "Shaykh."

[FN#246] This mention of weighing suggests the dust of Dean Swift and the money of the Gold Coast It was done, I have said, because the gold coin, besides being "sweated" was soft and was soon worn down.

[FN#247] Fem. of Nájí (a deliverer, a saviour)=Salvadora.

[FN#248] This, I have noted, is according to Koranic command (chaps. iv. 88). "When you are saluted with a salutation, salute the person with a better salutation." The longer answer to "Peace be with (or upon) thee! " is still universally the custom. The "Salem" is so differently pronounced by every Eastern nation that the observant traveller will easily make of it a Shibboleth.

[FN#249] The Badawi, who was fool as well as rogue, begins to fear that he has kidnapped a girl of family.

[FN#250] These examinations being very indecent are usually done in strictest privacy. The great point is to make sure of virginity.

[FN#251] This is according to strict Moslem law: the purchaser may not look at the girl's nakedness till she is his, and he ought to manage matters through an old woman.

[FN#252] Lit. wrath; affliction which chokes; in Hindustani it means simply anger.

[FN#253] i.e. Heaven forbid I be touched by a strange man.

[FN#254] Used for fuel and other purposes, such as making "doss stick."

[FN#255] Arab "Yaftah'Allah" the offer being insufficient. The rascal is greedy as a Badaw and moreover he is a liar, which the Badawi is not.

[FN#256] The third of the four great Moslem schools of Theology, taking its name from the Imam al-Sháfi'í (Mohammed ibn Idrís) who died in Egypt A.H. 204, and lies buried near Cairo. (Sale's Prel. Disc. sect. viii.)

[FN#257] The Moslem form of Cabbala, or transcendental philosophy of the Hebrews.

[FN#258] Arab. "Bakh" the word used by the Apostle to Ali his son-in-law. It is the Latin "Euge."

[FN#259] Readers, who read for amusement, will do well to "skip" the fadaïses of this highly educated young woman.

[FN#260] There are three Persian Kings of this name (Artaxerxes) which means "Flour and milk," or "high lion." The text alludes to Ardeshir Babegan, so called because he married the daughter of Babak the shepherd, founder of the Sassanides in A.D. 202. See D,Herberot, and the Dabistan.

[FN#261] Alluding to the proverb, "Folk follow their King's faith," "Cujus regio ejus religio" etc.

[FN#262] Second Abbaside, A.H. 136-158 (=754-775).

[FN#263] The celebrated companion of Mohammed who succeeded Abu Bakr in the Caliphate (A.H. 13-23=634-644). The Sunnis know him as Al-Adil the Just, and the Shiahs detest him for his usurpation, his austerity and harshness. It is said that he laughed once and wept once. The laugh was caused by recollecting how he ate his dough-gods (the idols of the Hanifah tribe) in The Ignorance. The tears were drawn by remembering how he buried alive his baby daughter who, while the grave was being dug, patted away the dust from his hair and beard. Omar was doubtless a great man, but he is one of the most ungenial figures in Moslem history which does not abound in genialities. To me he suggests a Puritan, a Covenanter of the sourest and narrowest type; and I cannot wonder that the Persians abhor him, and abuse him on all occasions.

[FN#264] The austere Caliph Omar whose scourge was more feared than the sword was the - author of the celebrated saying "Consult them (feminines) and do clear contrary-wise."

[FN#265] Our "honour amongst thieves."

[FN#266] The sixth successor of Mohammed and founder of the Banu Umayyah or Ommiades, called the "sons of the little mother" from their eponymus (A.H. 41-60=661-680). For his Badawi wife Maysun, and her abuse of her husband, see Pilgrimage iii. 262.

[FN#267] Shaykh of the noble tribe, or rather nation, Banu Tamím and a notable of the day, surnamed, no one knows why, "Sire of the Sea."

[FN#268] This is essential for cleanliness in hot lands: however much the bath may be used, the body-pile and lower hair, if submitted to a microscope, will show more or less sordes adherent. The axilla-hair is plucked because if shaved the growing pile causes itching and the depilatories are held deleterious. At first vellication is painful but the skin becomes used to it. The pecten is shaved either without or after using depilatories, of which more presently. The body-pile is removed by "Takhfíf"; the Libán Shámi (Syrian incense), a fir- gum imported from Scio, is melted and allowed to cool in the form of a pledget. This is passed over the face and all the down adhering to it is pulled up by the roots (Burckhardt No. 420). Not a few Anglo-Indians have adopted these precautions

[FN#269] This Caliph was a tall, fair, handsome man of awe-inspiring aspect. Omar used to look at him and say, "This is the Cæsar of the Arabs," while his wife called him a "fatted ass."

[FN#270] The saying is attributed to Abraham when "exercised" by the unkindly temper of Sarah; "woman is made hard and crooked like a rib;" and the modern addition is, "whoso would straighten her, breaketh her."

[FN#271] i.e. "When ready and in erection."

[FN#272] "And do first (before going in to your wives) some act which may be profitable unto your souls" or, for you: soul's good. (Koran, chaps. ii. 223.) Hence Ahnaf makes this prayer.

[FN#273] It was popularly said that "Truth-speaking left Omar without a friend." Entitled "The Just" he was murdered by Abu Lúlúah, alias Fírúz, a (Magian ?) slave of Al-Maghírah for denying him justice.

[FN#274] Governor of Bassorah under the first four Caliphs. See D'Herbelot s.v. "Aschári."

[FN#275] Ziyad bin Abi Sufyan, illegitimate brother of the Caliph Mu'awiyah afterwards governor of Bassorah, Cufa and Al-Hijaz.

[FN#276] The seditions in Kufah were mainly caused by the wilful nepotism of Caliph Othman bin Asákir which at last brought about his death. His main quality seems to have been personal beauty: "never was seen man or woman of fairer face than he and he was the most comely of men:" he was especially famed for beautiful teeth which in old age he bound about with gold wire. He is described as of middling stature, large- limbed, broad shouldered, fleshy of thigh and long in the fore-arm which was hairy. His face inclined to yellow and was pock-marked; his beard was full and his curly hair, which he dyed yellow, fell below his ears. He is called "writer of the Koran" from his edition of the M.S., and "Lord of the two Lights" because he married two of the Prophet's daughters, Rukayyah and Umm Kulthum; and, according to the Shi'ahs who call him Othman-i-Lang or" limping Othman," he vilely maltreated them. They justify his death as the act of an Ijmá' al-Muslimín, the general consensus of Moslems which ratifies "Lynch law." Altogether Othman is a mean figure in history.

[FN#277] "Nár" (fire) is a word to be used delicately from its connection with Gehenna. You say, e.g. "bring me a light, a coal (bassah)" etc.; but if you say "bring me fire! " the enemy will probably remark "He wanteth fire even before his time!" The slang expression would be "bring the sweet." (Pilgrimage i. 121.)

[FN#278] Omar is described as a man of fair complexion, and very ruddy, but he waxed tawny with age, when he also became bald and grey. He had little hair on the cheeks but a long mustachio with reddish ends. In stature he overtopped the people and was stout as he was tall. A popular saying of Mohammed's is, "All (very) long men are fools save Omar, and all (very) short men are knaves save Ali." The Persians, who abhor Omar, compare every lengthy, ungainly, longsome thing with him; they will say, "This road never ends, like the entrails of Omar." We know little about Ali's appearance except that he was very short and stout, broad and full-bellied with a tawny complexion and exceedingly hairy, his long beard, white as cotton, filling all the space between his shoulders. He was a "pocket. Hercules," and incredible tales, like that about the gates of Khaybar, are told of his strength. Lastly, he was the only Caliph who bequeathed anything to literature: his "Cantiloquium" is famous and he has left more than one mystical and prophetic work. See Ockley for his "Sentences" and D'Herbelot s. D. "Ali" and "Gebr." Ali is a noble figure in Moslem history.

[FN#279] The emancipation from the consequences of his sins; or it may mean a holy death.

[FN#280] Battle fought near Al-Medinah A.D. 625. The word is derived from "shad" (one). I have described the site in my Pilgrimage, (vol. ii. 227).

[FN#281] "Haphsa" in older writers; Omar's daughter and one of Mohammed's wives, famous for her connection with the manuscripts of the Koran. From her were (or claimed to be) descended the Hafsites who reigned in Tunis and extended their power far and wide over the Maghrib (Mauritania), till dispossessed by the Turks.

[FN#282] i.e. humbly without the usual strut or swim: it corresponds with the biblical walking or going softly. (I Kings xxi. 27; Isaiah xxxviii. 15, etc.)

[FN#283] A theologian of the seventh and eighth centuries.

[FN#284] i.e. to prepare himself by good works, especially alms-giving, for the next world.

[FN#285] A theologian of the eighth century.

[FN#286] Abd al-Aziz was eighth Ommiade (regn. A.H. 99=717) and the fifth of the orthodox, famed for a piety little known to his house. His most celebrated saying was, " Be constant in meditation on death: if thou bein straitened case 'twill enlarge it, and if in affluence 'twill straiten it upon thee." He died. poisoned, it is said, in A.H 101,

[FN#287] Abu Bakr originally called Abd al-Ka'abah (slave of the Ka'abah) took the name of Abdullah and was surnamed Abu Bakr (father of the virgin) when Mohammed, who before had married only widows, took to wife his daughter, the famous or infamous Ayishah. "Bikr" is the usual form, but "Bakr," primarily meaning a young camel, is metaphorically applied to human youth (Lane's Lex. s. c.). The first Caliph was a cloth-merchant, like many of the Meccan chiefs. He is described as very fair with bulging brow, deep set eyes and thin-checked, of slender build and lean loined, stooping and with the backs of his hands fleshless. He used tinctures of Henna and Katam for his beard. The Persians who hate him, call him "Pir-i-Kaftár," the old she-hyaena, and believe that he wanders about the deserts of Arabia in perpetual rut which the males must satisfy.

[FN#288] The second, fifth, sixth and seventh Ommiades.

[FN#289] The mother of Omar bin Abd al-Aziz was a granddaughter of Omar bin al-Khattab.

[FN#290] Brother of this Omar's successor, Yezid II.

[FN#291] So the Turkish proverb "The fish begins to stink at the head."

[FN#292] Calling to the slaves.