Chapter XVIII: Part 18

[FN#206] Here is a double entendre. The fisherman meant a word or two. The Jew understood the Shibboleth of the Moslem Creed, popularly known as the "Two Words,"--I testify that there is no Ilah (god) but Allah (the God) and I testify that Mohammed is the Messenger of Allah. Pronouncing this formula would make the Jew a Moslem. Some writers are surprised to see a Jew ordering a Moslem to be flogged; but the former was rich and the latter was poor. Even during the worst days of Jewish persecutions their money-bags were heavy enough to lighten the greater part, if not the whole of their disabilities. And the Moslem saying is, "The Jew is never your (Moslem or Christian) equal: he must be either above you or below you." This is high, because unintentional praise of the (self-) Chosen People.

[FN#207] He understands the "two words" (Kalmatáni) the Moslem's double profession of belief; and Khalifah's reply embodies the popular idea that the number of Moslems (who will be saved) is preordained and that no art of man can add to it or take from it.

[FN#208] Arab. "Mamarr al-Tujjár" (passing-place of the traders) which Lane renders "A chamber within the place through which the traders passed." At the end of the tale (Night dccxlv.) we find him living in a Khan and the Bresl. Edit. (see my terminal note) makes him dwell in a magazine (i.e. ground- floor store-room) of a ruined Khan.

[FN#209] The text is somewhat too concise and the meaning is that the fumes of the Hashish he had eaten ("his mind under the influence of hasheesh," says Lane) suggested to him, etc.

[FN#210] Arab. "Mamrak" either a simple aperture in ceiling or roof for light and air or a more complicated affair of lattice- work and plaster; it is often octagonal and crowned with a little dome. Lane calls it "Memrak," after the debased Cairene pronunciation, and shows its base in his sketch of a Ka'áh (M.E., Introduction).

[FN#211] Arab. "Kamar." This is a practice especially amongst pilgrims. In Hindostan the girdle, usually a waist-shawl, is called Kammar-band our old "Cummerbund." Easterns are too sensible not to protect the pit of the stomach, that great ganglionic centre, against sun, rain and wind, and now our soldiers in India wear flannel-belts on the march.

[FN#212] Arab. "Fa-immá 'alayhá wa-immá bihá," i.e. whether (luck go) against it or (luck go) with it.

[FN#213] "O vilest of sinners!" alludes to the thief. "A general plunge into worldly pursuits and pleasures announced the end of the pilgrimage-ceremonies. All the devotees were now "whitewashed"--the book of their sins was a tabula rasa: too many of them lost no time in making a new departure down South and in opening a fresh account" (Pilgrimage iii. 365). I have noticed that my servant at Jeddah would carry a bottle of Raki, uncovered by a napkin, through the main streets.

[FN#214] The copper cucurbites in which Solomon imprisoned the rebellious Jinns, often alluded to in The Nights.

[FN#215] i.e. Son of the Chase: it is prob. a corruption of the Persian Kurnas, a pimp, a cuckold, and introduced by way of chaff, intelligible only to a select few "fast" men.

[FN#216] For the name see vol. ii.61, in the Tale of Ghánim bin 'Ayyúb where the Caliph's concubine is also drugged by the Lady Zubaydah.

[FN#217] We should say, "What is this?" etc. The lines have occurred before so I quote Mr. Payne.

[FN#218] Zubaydah, I have said, was the daughter of Ja'afar, son of the Caliph al-Mansur, second Abbaside. The story-teller persistently calls her daughter of Al-Kásim for some reason of his own; and this he will repeat in Night dcccxxxix.

[FN#219] Arab. "Shakhs," a word which has travelled as far as Hindostan.

[FN#220] Arab. "Shamlah" described in dictionaries, as a cloak covering the whole body. For Hizám (girdle) the Bresl. Edit. reads "Hirám" vulg. "Ehrám," the waist-cloth, the Pilgrim's attire.

[FN#221] He is described by Al-Siyúti (p. 309) as "very fair, tall handsome and of captivating appearance."

[FN#222] Arab. "Uzn al-Kuffah" lit. "Ear of the basket," which vulgar Egyptians pronounce "Wizn," so "Wajh" (face) becomes "Wishsh" and so forth.

[FN#223] Arab. "Bi-fardayn" = with two baskets, lit. "two singles," but the context shows what is meant. English Frail and French Fraile are from Arab. "Farsalah" a parcel (now esp. of coffee-beans) evidently derived from the low Lat. "Parcella" (Du Cange, Paris, firmin Didot 1845). Compare "ream," vol. v. 109.

[FN#224] Arab. "Sátúr," a kind of chopper which here would be used for the purpose of splitting and cleaning and scaling the fish.

[FN#225] And, consequently, that the prayer he is about to make will find ready acceptance.

[FN#226] Arab. "Ruh bilá Fuzúl" (lit. excess, exceeding) still a popular phrase.

[FN#227] i.e. better give the fish than have my head broken.

[FN#228] Said ironicè, a favourite figure of speech with the Fellah: the day began badly and threatened to end unluckily.

[FN#229] The penalty of Theft. See vol. i. 274.

[FN#230] This is the model of a courtly compliment; and it would still be admired wherever Arabs are not "frankified."

[FN#231] Arab. "Shibábah;" Lane makes it a kind of reed- flageolet.

[FN#232] These lines occur in vol. i. 76: I quote Mr. Payne.

[FN#233] The instinctive way of juggling with Heaven like our sanding the sugar and going to church.

[FN#234] Arab. "Yá Shukayr," from Shakar, being red (clay, etc.): Shukár is an anemone or a tulip and Shukayr is its dim. Form. Lane's Shaykh made it a dim. of "Ashkar" = tawny, ruddy (of complexion), so the former writes, "O Shukeyr." Mr. Payne prefers "O Rosy cheeks."

[FN#235] For "Sandal," see vol. ii. {55}. Sandalí properly means an Eunuch clean rasé, but here Sandal is a P.N. = Sandal-wood.

[FN#236] Arab. "Yá mumátil," one who retards payment.

[FN#237] Arab. "Kirsh al-Nukhál" = Guts of bran, a term little fitted for the handsome and distinguished Persian. But Khalifah is a Fellah-grazioso of normal assurance shrewd withal; he blunders like an Irishman of the last generation and he uses the first epithet that comes to his tongue. See Night dcccxliii. for the sudden change in Khalifah.

[FN#238] So the Persian "May your shadow never be less" means, I have said, the shadow which you throw over your servant. Shade, cold water and fresh breezes are the joys of life in arid Arabia.

[FN#239] When a Fellah demanded money due to him by the Government of Egypt, he was a once imprisoned for arrears of taxes and thus prevented from being troublesome. I am told that matters have improved under English rule, but I "doubt the fact."

[FN#240] This freak is of course not historical. The tale- teller introduces it to enhance the grandeur and majesty of Harun al-Rashid, and the vulgar would regard it as a right kingly diversion. Westerns only wonder that such things could be.

[FN#241] Uncle of the Prophet: for his death see Pilgrimage ii. 248.

[FN#242] First cousin of the Prophet, son of Abú Tálib, a brother of Al-Abbas from whom the Abbasides claimed descent.

[FN#243] i.e. I hope thou hast or Allah grant thou have good tidings to tell me.

[FN#244] Arab. "Nákhúzah Zulayt." The former, from the Persian Nákhodá or ship-captain which is also used in a playful sense "a godless wight," one owning no (ná) God (Khudá). Zulayt = a low fellow, blackguard.

[FN#245] Yásamín and Narjis, names of slave-girls or eunuchs.

[FN#246] Arab. Tamar-hanná, the cheapest of dyes used ever by the poorest classes. Its smell, I have said, is that of newly mown hay, and is prized like that of the tea-rose.

[FN#247] The formula (meaning, "What has he to do here?") is by no means complimentary.

[FN#248] Arab. "Jarrah" (pron. "Garrah") a "jar." See Lane (M.E. chapt. v.) who was deservedly reproached by Baron von Hammer for his superficial notices. The "Jarrah" is of pottery, whereas the "Dist" is a large copper chauldron and the Khalkinah one of lesser size.

[FN#249] i.e. What a bother thou art, etc.

[FN#250] This sudden transformation, which to us seems exaggerated and unnatural, appears in many Eastern stories and in the biographies of their distinguished men, especially students. A youth cannot master his lessons; he sees a spider climbing a slippery wall and after repeated falls succeeding. Allah opens the eyes of his mind, his studies become easy to him, and he ends with being an Allámah (doctissimus).

[FN#251] Arab. "Bismillah, Námí!" here it is not a blessing, but a simple invitation, "Now please go to sleep."

[FN#252] The modern inkcase of the Universal East is a lineal descendant of the wooden palette with writing reeds. See an illustration of that of "Amásis, the good god and lord of the two lands" (circ. B.C. 1350) in British Museum (p. 41, "The Dwellers on the Nile," by E. A. Wallis Bridge, London, 56, Paternoster Row, 1885).

[FN#253] This is not ironical, as Lane and Payne suppose, but a specimen of inverted speech--Thou art in luck this time!

[FN#254] Arab. "Marhúb" = terrible: Lane reads "Mar'úb" = terrified. But the former may also mean, threatened with something terrible.

[FN#255] i.e. in Kut al-Kulúb.

[FN#256] Lit. to the son of thy paternal uncle, i.e. Mohammed.

[FN#257] In the text he tells the whole story beginning with the eunuch and the hundred dinars, the chest, etc.: but -- "of no avail is a twice-told tale."

[FN#258] Koran xxxix. 54. I have quoted Mr. Rodwell who affects the Arabic formula, omitting the normal copulatives.

[FN#259] Easterns find it far easier to "get the chill of poverty out of their bones" than Westerns.

[FN#260] Arab. "Dar al-Na'ím." Name of one of the seven stages of the Moslem heaven. This style of inscription dates from the days of the hieroglyphs. A papyrus describing the happy town of Raamses ends with these lines.--

Daily is there a supply of food:
Within it gladness doth ever brood
* * * *
Prolonged, increased; abides there Joy, etc., etc.

[FN#261] Arab. "Ansár" = auxiliaries, the men of Al-Medinah (Pilgrimage ii. 130, etc.).

[FN#262] Arab. "Asháb" = the companions of the Prophet who may number 500 (Pilgrimage ii. 81, etc.).

[FN#263] Arab. "Hásilah" prob. a corner of a "Godown" in some Khan or Caravanserai.

[FN#264] Arab. "Funduk" from the Gr. {pandocheîon}, whence the Italian Fondaco e.g. at Venice the Fondaco de' Turchi.

[FN#265] Arab. "Astár" plur. of Satr: in the Mac. Edit. Sátúr, both (says Dozy) meaning "Couperet" (a hatchet). Habicht translates it "a measure for small fish," which seems to be a shot and a bad shot as the text talks only of means of carrying fish. Nor can we accept Dozy's emendation Astál (plur. of Satl) pails, situlæ. In Petermann's Reisen (i. 89) Satr=assiette.

[FN#266] Which made him expect a heavy haul.

[FN#267] Arab. "Urkúb" = tendon Achilles in man hough or pastern in beast, etc. It is held to be an incrementative form of 'Akab (heel); as Kur'úb of Ka'b (heel) and Khurtúm of Khatm (snout).

[FN#268] Arab. "Karmút" and "Zakzúk." The former (pronounced Garmút) is one of the many Siluri (S. Carmoth Niloticus) very common and resembling the Shál. It is smooth and scaleless with fleshy lips and soft meat and as it haunts muddy bottoms it was forbidden to the Ancient Egyptians. The Zakzúk is the young of the Shál (Synodontis Schal: Seetzen); its plural form Zakázik (pronounced Zigázig) gave a name to the flourishing town which has succeeded to old Bubastis and of which I have treated in "Midian" and "Midian Revisited."

[FN#269] "Yá A'awar"=O one-eye! i.e.. the virile member. So the vulgar insult "Ya ibn al-aur" (as the vulgar pronounce it) "O son of a yard!" When Al-Mas'údi writes (Fr. Trans. vii. 106), "Udkhul usbu'ak fí aynih," it must not be rendered "Il faut lui faire violence": thrust thy finger into his eye ('Ayn) means "put thy penis up his fundament!" ('Ayn being=Dubur). The French remarks, "On en trouverait l'équivalent dans les bas-fonds de notre langue." So in English "pig's eye," "blind eye," etc.

[FN#270] Arab. "Nabbút"=a quarterstaff: see vol. i. 234.

[FN#271] Arab. "Banní," vulg. Benni and in Lane (Lex. Bunni) the Cyprinus Bynni (Forsk.), a fish somewhat larger than a barbel with lustrous silvery scales and delicate flesh, which Sonnini believes may be the "Lepidotes" (smooth-scaled) mentioned by Athenæus. I may note that the Bresl. Edit. (iv. 332) also affects the Egyptian vulgarism "Farkh-Banni" of the Mac. Edit. (Night dcccxxxii.).

[FN#272] The story-teller forgets that Khalif had neither basket nor knife.

[FN#273] Arab. "Rayhán" which may here mean any scented herb.

[FN#274] In the text "Fard Kalmah," a vulgarism. The Mac. Edit. (Night dcccxxxv.) more aptly says, "Two words" (Kalmatáni, vulg. Kalmatayn) the Twofold Testimonies to the Unity of Allah and the Mission of His Messenger.

[FN#275] The lowest Cairene chaff which has no respect for itself or others.

[FN#276] Arab. "Karrat azlá hú": alluding to the cool skin of healthy men when digesting a very hearty meal.

[FN#277] This is the true Fellah idea. A peasant will go up to his proprietor with the "rint" in gold pieces behind his teeth and undergo an immense amount of flogging before he spits them out. Then he will return to his wife and boast of the number of sticks he has eaten instead of paying at once and his spouse will say, "Verily thou art a man." Europeans know nothing of the Fellah. Napoleon Buonaparte, for political reasons, affected great pity for him and horror of his oppressors, the Beys and Pashas; and this affectation gradually became public opinion. The Fellah must either tyrannise or be tyrannised over; he is never happier than under a strong-handed despotism and he has never been more miserable than under British rule or rather misrule. Our attempts to constitutionalise him have made us the laughing-stock of Europe.

[FN#278] The turban is a common substitute for a purse with the lower classes of Egyptians; and an allusion to the still popular practice of turban-snatching will be found in vol. i. p. 259.

[FN#279] Arab. "Sálih," a devotee; here, a naked Dervish.

[FN#280] Here Khalif is made a conspicuous figure in Baghdad like Boccaccio's Calandrino and Co. He approaches in type the old Irishman now extinct, destroyed by the reflux action of Anglo-America (U.S.) upon the miscalled "Emerald Isle." He blunders into doing and saying funny things whose models are the Hibernian "bulls" and acts purely upon the impulse of the moment, never reflecting till (possibly) after all is over.

[FN#281] Arab. "Kaylúlah," explained in vol. i. 51.

[FN#282] i.e. thy bread lawfully gained. The "Bawwák" (trumpeter) like the "Zammár" (piper of the Mac. Edit.) are discreditable craftsmen, associating with Almahs and loose women and often serving as their panders.

[FN#283] i.e. he was indecently clad. Man's "shame" extends from navel to knees. See vol vi. 118.

[FN#284] Rashád would be=garden-cresses or stones: Rashíd the heaven-directed.

[FN#285] Arab. "Uff 'alayka"=fie upon thee! Uff=lit. Sordes Aurium and Tuff (a similar term of disgust)=Sordes unguinum. To the English reader the blows administered to Khalif appear rather hard measure. But a Fellah's back is thoroughly broken to the treatment and he would take ten times as much punishment for a few piastres.

[FN#286] Arab. "Zurayk" dim. of Azrak=blue-eyed. See vol. iii. 104.

[FN#287] Of Baghdad.

[FN#288] Arab. "Hásil," i.e. cell in a Khan for storing goods: elsewhere it is called a Makhzan (magazine) with the same sense.

[FN#289] The Bresl. text (iv. 347) abbreviates, or rather omits; so that in translation details must be supplied to make sense.

[FN#290] Arab. "Kamán," vulgar Egyptian, a contraction from Kamá (as) + anna (since, because). So " Kamán shuwayh"=wait a bit; " Kamán marrah"=once more and "Wa Kamána-ka"=that is why.

[FN#291] i.e. Son of the Eagle: See vol. iv. 177. Here, however, as the text shows it is hawk or falcon. The name is purely fanciful and made mnemonically singular.

[FN#292] The Egyptian Fellah knows nothing of boxing like the Hausá man; but he is fond of wrestling after a rude and uncultivated fashion, which would cause shouts of laughter in Cumberland and Cornwall. And there are champions in this line, See vol. ii. 93.

[FN#293] The usual formula. See vol. ii. 5.

[FN#294] As the Fellah still does after drinking a cuplet ("fingán" he calls it) of sugared coffee.

[FN#295] He should have said "white," the mourning colour under the Abbasides.

[FN#296] Anglicè, "Fine feathers make fine birds"; and in Eastern parlance, "Clothe the reed and it will become a bride." (Labbis al-Búsah tabkí 'Arúsah, Spitta Bey, No. 275.) I must allow myself a few words of regret for the loss of this Savant, one of the most singleminded men known to me. He was vilely treated by the Egyptian Government, under the rule of the Jew-Moslem Riyáz; and, his health not allowing him to live in Austria, he died shortly after return home.

[FN#297] Arab. " Saub (Tobe) 'Atábi": see vol. iii. 149.

[FN#298] In text "Kimkhá," which Dozy also gives Kumkh=chenille, tissu de soie veloutee: Damasquète de soie or et argent de Venise, du Levant , à fleurs, etc. It comes from Kamkháb or Kimkháb, a cloth of gold, the well-known Indian "Kimcob."

[FN#299] Here meaning=Enter in Allah's name!

[FN#300] The Arabs have a saying, "Wine breeds gladness, music merriment and their offspring is joy."

[FN#301] Arab. "Jokh al-Saklát," rich kind of brocade on broadcloth.

[FN#302] Arab. "Hanabát," which Dozy derives from O. German Hnapf, Hnap now Napf: thence too the Lat. Hanapus and Hanaperium: Ital. Anappo, Nappo; Provenc. Enap and French and English "Hanap"= rich bowl, basket, bag. But this is known even to the dictionaries.

[FN#303] Arab. " Kirám," nobles, and " Kurúm," vines, a word which appears in Carmel=Karam-El (God's vineyard).

[FN#304] Arab. "Suláf al-Khandarísí," a contradiction. Suláf=the ptisane of wine. Khandarísí, from Greek {chóndros}, lit. gruel, applies to old wine.

[FN#305] i.e. in bridal procession.

[FN#306] Arab. "Al-'Arús, one of the innumerable tropical names given to wine by the Arabs. Mr. Payne refers to Grangeret de la Grange, Anthologie Arabe, p. 190.

[FN#307] Here the text of the Mac. Edition is resumed.

[FN#308] i.e. "Adornment of (good) Qualities." See the name punned on in Night dcccli. Lane omits this tale because it contains the illicit "Amours of a Christian and a Jewess who dupes her husband in various abominable ways." The text has been taken from the Mac. and the Bresl. Edits. x. 72 etc. In many parts the former is a mere Epitome.

[FN#309] The face of her who owns the garden.

[FN#310] i.e. I am no public woman.

[FN#311] i.e. with the sight of the garden and its mistress-- purposely left vague.

[FN#312] Arab. "Dádat." Night dcclxxvi. vol. vii. p. 372.

[FN#313] Meaning respectively "Awaking" (or blowing hard), "Affairs" (or Misfortunes) and "Flowing" (blood or water). They are evidently intended for the names of Jewish slave-girls.

[FN#314] i.e. the brow-curls, or accroche-cÂœurs. See vol. i. 168.

[FN#315] Arab. "Wisháh" usually applied to woman's broad belt, stomacher (Al-Hariri Ass. of Rayy).

[FN#317] The old Greek "Stephane."

[FN#317] Alluding to the popular fancy of the rain-drop which becomes a pearl.

[FN#318] Arab. "Ghází"=one who fights for the faith.

[FN#319] i.e. people of different conditions.

[FN#320] The sudden change appears unnatural to Europeans; but an Eastern girl talking to a strange man in a garden is already half won. The beauty, however, intends to make trial of her lover's generosity before yielding.

[FN#321] These lines have occurred in the earlier part of the Night: I quote Mr. Payne for variety.

[FN#322] Arab. "Al-Sháh mát"=the King is dead, Pers. and Arab. grotesquely mixed: Europeans explain "Checkmate" in sundry ways, all more or less wrong.

[FN#323] Cheating (Ghadr) is so common that Easterns who have no tincture of Western civilisation look upon it not only as venial but laudable when one can take advantage of a simpleton. No idea of "honour" enters into it. Even in England the old lady whist-player of the last generation required to be looked after pretty closely--if Mr. Charles Dickens is to be trusted.

[FN#324] Arab. "Al-Gháliyah," whence the older English Algallia. See vol. i., 128. The Voyage of Linschoten, etc. Hakluyt Society MDCCCLXXXV., with notes by my learned friend the late Arthur Coke Burnell whose early death was so sore a loss to Oriental students.

[FN#325] A favourite idiom, "What news bringest thou?" ("O Asám!" Arab. Prov. ii. 589) used by Háris bin Amrú, King of Kindah, to the old woman Asám whom he had sent to inspect a girl he purposed marrying.

[FN#326] Amongst the Jews the Arab Salám becomes "Shalúm" and a Jewess would certainly not address this ceremonial greeting to a Christian. But Eastern storytellers care little for these minutiæ; and the "Adornment of Qualities," was not by birth a Jewess as the sequel will show.

[FN#327] Arab. "Sálifah," the silken plaits used as adjuncts. See vol. iii, 313.

[FN#328] I have translated these lines in vol. i. 131, and quoted Mr. Torrens in vol. iv. 235. Here I borrow from Mr. Payne.

[FN#329] Mr. Payne notes:--Apparently some place celebrated for its fine bread, as Gonesse in seventeenth-century France. It occurs also in Bresl. Edit. (iv. 203) and Dozy does not understand it. But Arj the root=good odour.

[FN#330] Arab. "Tás," from Pers. Tásah. M. Charbonneau a Professor of Arabic at Constantine and Member of the Asiatic Soc. Paris, who published the Histoire de Chams-Eddine et Nour-Eddine with Maghrabi punctuation (Paris, Hachette, 1852) remarks the similarity of this word to Tazza and a number of other whimsical coincidences as Zauj, {zygós} jugum; Inkár, negare; matrah, matelas; Ishtirá, acheter, etc. To which I may add wasat, waist; zabad, civet; Bás, buss (kiss); uzrub (pron. Zrub), drub; Kat', cut; Tarík, track; etc., etc.

[FN#331] We should say "To her (I drink)" etc.

[FN#332] This is ad captandum. The lovers becoming Moslems would secure the sympathy of the audience. In the sequel (Night dccclviii) we learn that the wilful young woman was a born Moslemah who had married a Jew but had never Judaized.

[FN#333] The doggerel of this Kasidah is not so phenomenal as some we have seen.

[FN#334] Arab. "'Andam"=Brazil wood, vol. iii. 263.

[FN#335] Arab. " Himà." See supra, p. 102.

[FN#336] i.e. her favours were not lawful till the union was sanctified by heartwhole (if not pure) love.

[FN#337] Arab. "Mansúr wa munazzam=oratio soluta et ligata.

[FN#338] i.e. the cupbearers.

[FN#339] Which is not worse than usual.

[FN#340] i.e. "Ornament of Qualities."

[FN#341] The 'Akík, a mean and common stone, ranks high in Moslem poetry on account of the saying of Mohammed recorded by Ali and Ayishah "Seal with seals of Carnelian." ('Akik.)

[FN#342] See note ii. at the end of this volume.

[FN#343] Arab. "Mahall" as opposed to the lady's "Manzil," which would be better "Makám." The Arabs had many names for their old habitations, e.g.; Kubbah, of brick; Sutrah, of sun-dried mud; Hazírah, of wood; Tiráf, a tent of leather; Khabáa, of wool; Kash'a, of skins; Nakhád, of camel's or goat's hair; Khaymah, of cotton cloth; Wabar, of soft hair as the camel's undercoat and Fustát (the well-known P.N.) a tent of horsehair or any hair (Sha'ar) but Wabar.

[FN#344] This is the Maghribi form of the Arab. Súk=a bazar-street, known from Tanjah (Tangiers) to Timbuctoo.

[FN#345] Arab. "Walímah" usually=a wedding-feast. According to the learned Nasíf al-Yazají the names of entertainments are as follows: Al-Jafalà=a general invitation, opp. to Al-Nakarà, especial; Khurs, a childbirth feast; 'Akíkah, when the boy-babe is first shaved; A'zár=circumcision-feast; Hizák, when the boy has finished his perlection of the Koran; Milák, on occasion of marriage-offer; Wazímah, a mourning entertainment; Wakírah=a "house-warming"; Nakí'ah, on returning from wayfare; 'Akírah, at beginning of the month Rajab; Kirà=a guest-feast and Maadubah, a feast for other cause; any feast.

[FN#346] Arab. "Anistaná" the pop. phrase=thy company gladdens us.

[FN#347] Here "Muákhát" or making mutual brotherhood would be=entering into a formal agreement for partnership. For the forms of "making brotherhood," see vol. iii. {151}.

[FN#348] Arab. "Ishárah" in classical Arab. signs with the finger (beckoning); Aumá with the hand; Ramz, with the lips; Khalaj, with the eyelids (wink); and Ghamz with the eye. Aumáz is a furtive glance, especially of women, and Ilház, a side-glance from lahaza, limis oculis intuitus est. See Preston's Al-Hariri, p. 181.

[FN#349] Arab. "Haudaj" (Hind. Haudah, vulg. Howda=elephant-saddle), the women's camel-litter, a cloth stretched over a wooden frame. See the Prize-poem of Lebid, v. 12.

[FN#350] i.e. the twelve days' visit.

[FN#351] See note, vol. vii. {226}. So Dryden (Virgil):--

"And the hoarse raven on the blasted bough
By croaking to the left presaged the coming blow."

And Gay (Fable xxxvii.),

"That raven on the left-hand oak,
Curse on his ill-betiding croak!"

In some Persian tales two crows seen together are a good omen.

[FN#352] Vulgar Moslems hold that each man's fate is written in the sutures of his skull but none can read the lines. See vol. iii. 123.

[FN#353] i.e. cease not to bemoan her lot whose moon-faced beloved ones are gone.

[FN#354] Arab. "Rukb" used of a return caravan; and also meaning travellers on camels. The vulgar however apply "Rákib" (a camel-rider) to a man on horseback who is properly Fáris plur. "Khayyálah," while "Khayyál" is a good rider. Other names are "Fayyál" (elephant-rider), Baghghál (mule-rider) and Hammár (donkey-rider).

[FN#355] A popular exaggeration. See vol. i. 117

[FN#356] Lit. Empty of tent-ropes (Atnáb).

[FN#357] Arab. "'Abír," a fragrant powder sprinkled on face, body and clothes. In India it is composed of rice flower or powdered bark of the mango, Deodar (uvaria longifolia), Sandalwood, lign-aloes or curcuma (zerumbat or zedoaria) with rose-flowers, camphor, civet and anise-seed. There are many of these powders: see in Herklots Chiksá, Phul, Ood, Sundul, Uggur, and Urgujja.

[FN#358] i.e. fair faced boys and women. These lines are from the Bresl. Edit. x. 160.

[FN#359] i.e. the Chief Kazi. For the origin of the Office and title see vol. ii. 90, and for the Kazi al-Arab who administers justice among the Badawin see Pilgrimage iii. 45.

[FN#360] Arab. "Raas al-Mál"=capital, as opposed to Ribá or Ribh=interest. This legal expression has been adopted by all Moslem races.

[FN#361] Our Aden which is thus noticed by Abulfeda (A.D. 1331): "Aden in the lowlands of Tehámah * * * also called Abyana from a man (who found it?), built upon the seashore, a station (for land travellers) and a sailing-place for merchant ships India-bound, is dry and sunparcht (Kashifah, squalid, scorbutic) and sweet water must be imported. * * * It lies 86 parasangs from San'á but Ibn Haukal following the travellers makes it three stages. The city, built on the skirt of a wall-like mountain, has a watergate and a landgate known as Bab al-Sákayn. But 'Adan Lá'ah (the modest, the timid, the less known as opposed to Abyan, the better known?) is a city in the mountains of Sabir, Al-Yaman, whence issued the supporters of the Fatimite Caliphs of Egypt." 'Adan etymologically means in Arab. and Heb. pleasure ({hédone}), Eden (the garden), the Heaven in which spirits will see Allah and our "Coal-hole of the East," which we can hardly believe ever to have been an Eden. Mr. Badger who supplied me with this note described the two Adens in a paper in Ocean Highways, which he cannot now find. In the 'Ajáib al-Makhlúkát, Al-Kazwíni (ob. A.D. 1275) derives the name from Ibn Sinán bin Ibrahím; and is inclined there to place the Bír al-Mu'attal (abandoned well) and the Kasr alMashíd (lofty palace) of Koran xxii. 44; and he adds "Kasr al-Misyad" to those mentioned in the tale of Sayf al-Mulúk and Badí'a al-Jamál.

[FN#362] Meaning that she had been carried to the Westward of Meccah.

[FN#363] Arab. "Zahrawíyah" which contains a kind of double entendre. Fátimah the Prophet's only daughter is entitled Al-Zahrá the "bright-blooming"; and this is also an epithet of Zohrah the planet Venus. For Fatimah see vol. vi. 145. Of her Mohammed said, "Love your daughters, for I too am a father of daughters" and, "Love them, they are the comforters, the dearlings." The Lady appears in Moslem history a dreary young woman (died æt. 28) who made this world, like Honorius, a hell in order to win a next-world heaven. Her titles are Zahrá and Batúl (Pilgrimage ii. 90) both signifying virgin. Burckhardt translates Zahrá by "bright blooming" (the etymological sense): it denotes literally a girl who has not menstruated, in which state of purity the Prophet's daughter is said to have lived and died. "Batúl" has the sense of a "clean maid" and is the title given by Eastern Christians to the Virgin Mary. The perpetual virginity of Fatimah even after motherhood (Hasan and Husayn) is a point of orthodoxy in Al-Islam as Juno's with the Romans and Umá's with the Hindú worshippers of Shiva. During her life Mohammed would not allow Ali a second wife, and he held her one of the four perfects, the other three being Asia wife of "Pharaoh," the Virgin Mary and Khadijah his own wife. She caused much scandal after his death by declaring that he had left her the Fadak estate (Abulfeda I, 133, 273) a castle with a fine palm-orchard near Khaybar. Abu Bakr dismissed the claim quoting the Apostle's Hadis, "We prophets are folk who will away nothing: what we leave is alms-gift to the poor," and Shí'ahs greatly resent his decision. (See Dabistan iii. 51–52 for a different rendering of the words.) I have given the popular version of the Lady Fatimah's death and burial (Pilgrimage ii. 315) and have remarked that Moslem historians delight in the obscurity which hangs over her last resting-place, as if it were an honour even for the receptacle of her ashes to be concealed from the eyes of men. Her repute is a curious comment on Tom Hood's

"Where woman has never a soul to save."

[FN#364] For Sharif and Sayyid, descendants of Mohammed, see vol. iv. 170.

[FN#365] These lines have occurred with variants in vol. iii. 257, and iv. 50.

[FN#366] Arab. "Hazrat," esp. used in India and corresponding with our mediæval "præsentia vostra."

[FN#367] This wholesale slaughter by the tale-teller of worshipful and reverend men would bring down the gallery like a Spanish tragedy in which all the actors are killed.

[FN#368] They are called indifferently "Ruhbán"=monks or "Batárikah"=patriarchs. See vol. ii. 89.

[FN#369] Arab. "Khilál." The toothpick, more esteemed by the Arabs than by us, is, I have said, often used by the poets as an emblem of attenuation without offending good taste. Nizami (Layla u Majnún) describes a lover as "thin as a toothpick." The "elegant" Hariri (Ass. of Barkaid) describes a toothpick with feminine attributes, "shapely of shape, attractive, provocative of appetite, delicate as the leanest of lovers, polished as a poinard and bending as a green bough."

[FN#370] From Bresl. Edit. x. 194.

[FN#371] Trébutien (vol. ii. 344 et seq.) makes the seven monks sing as many anthems, viz. (1) Congregamini; (2) Vias tuas demonstra mihi; (3) Dominus illuminatis; (4) Custodi linguam; (5) Unam petii a Domino; (6) Nec adspiciat me visus, and (7) Turbatus est a furore oculus meus. Dánis the Abbot chaunts Anima mea turbata est valdè.

[FN#372] A neat and characteristic touch: the wilful beauty eats and drinks before she thinks of her lover. Alas for Masrur married.

[FN#373] The unfortunate Jew, who seems to have been a model husband (Orientally speaking), would find no pity with a coffee-house audience because he had been guilty of marrying a Moslemah. The union was null and void therefore the deliberate murder was neither high nor petty treason. But, The Nights, though their object is to adorn a tale, never deliberately attempt to point a moral and this is one of their many charms.

[FN#374] These lines have repeatedly occurred. I quote Mr. Payne.

[FN#375] i.e. by the usual expiation. See vol. {ii. 186}.

[FN#376] Arab. "Shammirí"=up and ready!

[FN#377] I borrow the title from the Bresl. Edit. x. 204. Mr. Payne prefers "Ali Noureddin and the Frank King's Daughter." Lane omits also this tale because it resembles Ali Shar and Zumurrud (vol. iv. 187) and Alá al-Din Abu al-Shámát (vol. iv. 29), "neither of which is among the text of the collection." But he has unconsciously omitted one of the highest interest. Dr. Bacher (Germ. Orient. Soc.) finds the original in Charlemagne's daughter Emma and his secretary Eginhardt as given in Grimm's Deutsche Sagen. I shall note the points of resemblance as the tale proceeds. The correspondence with the King of France may be a garbled account of the letters which passed between Harun al-Rashid and Nicephorus, "the Roman dog."

[FN#378] Arab. "Allaho Akbar," the Moslem slogan or war-cry. See vol. ii. 89.

[FN#379] The gate-keeper of Paradise. See vol. iii. 15, 20.

[FN#380] Negroes. Vol. iii. 75.

[FN#381] Arab. "Nakat," with the double meaning of to spot and to handsel especially dancing and singing women; and, as Mr. Payne notes in this acceptation it is practically equivalent to the English phrase "to mark (or cross) the palm with silver." I have translated "Anwá" by Pleiads; but it means the setting of one star and simultaneous rising of another foreshowing rain. There are seven Anwá (plur. of nawa) in the Solar year viz. Al-Badri (Sept.-Oct.); Al-Wasmiyy (late autumn and December); Al-Waliyy (to April); Al-Ghamír (June); Al-Busriyy (July); Bárih al-Kayz (August) and Ahrák al-Hawá extending to September 8. These are tokens of approaching rain, metaphorically used by the poets to express "bounty". See Preston's Hariri (p. 43) and Chenery upon the Ass. of the Banu Haram.

[FN#382] i.e. They trip and stumble in their hurry to get there.

[FN#383] Arab. "Kumm" = sleeve or petal. See vol. v. 32.

[FN#384] Arab. "Kiráb" = sword-case of wood, the sheath being of leather.

[FN#385] Arab. "Akr kayrawán," both rare words.

[FN#386] A doubtful tradition in the Mishkát al-Masábih declares that every pomegranate contains a grain from Paradise. See vol. i. 134. The Koranic reference is to vi. 99.

[FN#387] Arab. "Aswad," lit. black but used for any dark colour, here green as opposed to the lighter yellow.

[FN#388] The idea has occurred in vol. i. 158.

[FN#389] So called from the places where they grow.

[FN#390] See vol. vii. for the almond-apricot whose stone is cracked to get at the kernel.

[FN#391] For Roum see vol. iv. 100: in Morocco "Roumi" means simply a European. The tetrastich alludes to the beauty of the Greek slaves.

[FN#392] Arab. "Ahlan" in adverb form lit. = "as one of the household": so in the greeting "Ahlan wa Sahlan" (and at thine ease), wa Marhabá (having a wide free place).

[FN#393] For the Sufrah table-cloth see vol. i. 178.

[FN#394] See vol. iii. 302, for the unclean allusion in fig and sycamore.

[FN#395] In the text "of Tor": see vol. ii. 242. The pear is mentioned by Homer and grows wild in South Europe. Dr. Victor Hehn (The Wanderings of Plants, etc.) comparing the Gr.{ápios} with the Lat. Pyrus, suggests that the latter passed over to the Kelts and Germans amongst whom the fruit was not indigenous. Our fine pears are mostly from the East. e.g. the "bergamot" is the Beg Armud, Prince of Pears, from Angora.

[FN#396] i.e. "Royal," it may or may not come from Sultaníyah, a town near Baghdad. See vol. i. 83; where it applies to oranges and citrons.

[FN#397] 'Andam = Dragon's blood: see vol. iii. 263.

[FN#398] Arab. "Jamár," the palm-pith and cabbage, both eaten by Arabs with sugar.

[FN#399] Arab. "Anwár" = lights, flowers (mostly yellow): hence the Moroccan "N'wár," with its usual abuse of Wakf or quiescence.

[FN#400] Mr. Payne quotes Eugène Fromentin, "Un Eté dans le Sahara," Paris, 1857, p. 194. Apricot drying can be seen upon all the roofs at Damascus where, however, the season for each fruit is unpleasantly short, ending almost as soon as it begins.

[FN#401] Arab. "Jalájal" = small bells for falcons: in Port. cascaveis, whence our word.

[FN#402] Khulanján. Sic all editions; but Khalanj, or Khaulanj adj. Khalanji, a tree with a strong-smelling wood which held in hand as a chaplet acts as perfume, as is probably intended. In Span. Arabic it is the Erica-wood. The "Muhit" tells us that is a tree parcel yellow and red growing in parts of India and China, its leaf is that of the Tamarisk (Tarfá); its flower is coloured red, yellow and white; it bears a grain like mustard-seed (Khardal) and of its wood they make porringers. Hence the poet sings,

"Yut 'amu 'l-shahdu fí 'l-jifáni, wa yuska * Labanu 'l-Bukhti fi Kusá'i 'l-Khalanji: Honey's served to them in platters for food; * Camels' milk in bowls of the Khalanj wood."

The pl. Khalánij is used by Himyán bin Kaháfah in this "bayt",

"Hattá izá má qazati 'l-Hawáijá * Wa malaat Halába-há 'l-Khalánijá: Until she had done every work of hers * And with sweet milk had filled the porringers."

[FN#403] In text Al-Shá'ir Al-Walahán, vol. iii. 226.

[FN#404] The orange I have said is the growth of India and the golden apples of the Hesperides were not oranges but probably golden nuggets. Captain Rolleston (Globe, Feb. 5, '84, on "Morocco-Lixus") identifies the Garden with the mouth of the Lixus River while M. Antichan would transfer it to the hideous and unwholesome Bissagos Archipelago.

[FN#405] Arab. "Ikyán," the living gold which is supposed to grow in the ground.

[FN#406] For the Kubbad or Captain Shaddock's fruit see vol. ii. 310, where it is misprinted Kubád.

[FN#407] Full or Fill in Bresl. Edit. = Arabian jessamine or cork-tree ({phellón}. The Bul. and Mac. Edits. read "filfil" = pepper or palm-fibre.

[FN#408] Arab. "Sumbul al-'Anbari"; the former word having been introduced into England by patent medicines. "Sumbul" in Arab. and Pers. means the hyacinth, the spikenard or the Sign Virgo.

[FN#409] Arab. "Lisán al-Hamal" lit. = Lamb's tongue.

[FN#410] See in Bresl. Edit. X, 221. Taif, a well-known town in the mountain region East of Meccah, and not in the Holy Land, was once famous for scented goat's leather. It is considered to be a "fragment of Syria" (Pilgrimage ii. 207) and derives its name = the circumambulator from its having circuited pilgrim-like round the Ka'abah (Ibid.).

[FN#411] Arab. "Mikhaddah" = cheek-pillow: Ital. guanciale. In Bresl. Edit. Mudawwarah (a round cushion) Sinjabiyah (of Ermine). For "Mudawwarah" see vol. iv. 135.

[FN#412] "Coffee" is here evidently an anachronism and was probably inserted by the copyist. See vol. v. 169, for its first metnion. But "Kahwah" may have preserved its original meaning = strong old wine (vol. ii. 261); and the amount of wine-drinking and drunkenness proves that the coffee movement had not set in.

[FN#413] i.e. they are welcome. In Marocco "Lá baas" means, "I am pretty well" (in health).

[FN#414] The Rose (Ward) in Arab. is masculine, sounding to us most uncouth. But there is a fem. form Wardah = a single rose.

[FN#415] Arab. "Akmám," pl. of Kumm, a sleeve, a petal. See vol. iv. 107 and supra p. 267. The Moslem woman will show any part of her person rather than her face, instinctively knowing that the latter may be recognised whereas the former cannot. The traveller in the outer East will see ludicrous situations in which the modest one runs away with hind parts bare and head and face carefully covered.

[FN#416] Arab. "Ikyán" which Mr. Payne translates "vegetable gold" very picturesquely but not quite preserving the idea. See supra p. 272.

[FN#417] It is the custom for fast youths, in Egypt, Syria, and elsewhere to stick small gold pieces, mere spangles of metal on the brows, cheeks and lips of the singing and dancing girls and the perspiration and mask of cosmetics make them adhere for a time till fresh movement shakes them off.

[FN#418] See the same idea in vol. i. 132, and 349.

[FN#419] "They will ask thee concerning wine and casting of lots; say: 'In both are great sin and great advantages to mankind; but the sin of them both is greater than their advantage.'" See Koran ii. 216. Mohammed seems to have made up his mind about drinking by slow degrees; and the Koranic law is by no means so strict as the Mullahs have made it. The prohibitions, revealed at widely different periods and varying in import and distinction, have been discussed by Al-Bayzáwi in his commentary on the above chapter. He says that the first revelation was in chapt. xvi. 69 but, as the passage was disregarded, Omar and others consulted the Apostle who replied to them in chapt. ii. 216. Then, as this also was unnoticed, came the final decision in chapt. v. 92, making wine and lots the work of Satan. Yet excuses are never wanting to the Moslem, he can drink Champagne and Cognac, both unknown in Mohammed's day and he can use wine and spirits medicinally, like sundry of ourselves, who turn up the nose of contempt at the idea of drinking for pleasure.

[FN#420] i.e. a fair-faced cup-bearer. The lines have occurred before: so I quote Mr. Payne.

[FN#421] It is the custom of the Arabs to call their cattle to water by whistling; not to whistle to them, as Europeans do, whilst making water.

[FN#422] i.e. bewitching. See vol. i. 85. These incompatible metaphors are brought together by the Saj'a (prose rhyme) in--"iyah."

[FN#423] Mesopotamian Christians, who still turn towards Jerusalem, face the West, instead of the East, as with Europeans: here the monk is so dazed that he does not know what to do.

[FN#424] Arab. "Bayt Sha'ar" = a house of hair (tent) or a couplet of verse. Watad (a tentpeg) also is prosodical, a foot when the two first letters are "moved" (vowelled) and the last is jazmated (quiescent), e.g. Lakad. It is termed Majmú'a (united), as opposed to "Mafrúk" (separated), e.g. Kabla, when the "moved" consonants are disjoined by a quiescent.

[FN#425] Lit. standing on their heads, which sounds ludicrous enough in English, not in Arabic.

[FN#426] These lines are in vol. iii. 251. I quote Mr. Payne who notes "The bodies of Eastern women of the higher classes by dint of continual maceration, Esther-fashion, in aromatic oils and essences, would naturally become impregnated with the sweet scents of the cosmetics used."

[FN#427] These lines occur in vol. i. 218: I quote Torrens for variety.

[FN#428] So we speak of a "female screw." The allusion is to the dove-tailing of the pieces. This personification of the lute has occurred before: but I solicit the reader's attention to it; it has a fulness of Oriental flavour all its own.

[FN#429] I again solicit the reader's attention to the simplicity, the pathos and the beauty of this personification of the lute.

[FN#430] "They" for she.

[FN#431] The Arabs very justly make the "'Andalib" = nightingale, masculine.

[FN#432] Anwár = lights or flowers: See Night dccclxv. supra p. 270.

[FN#433] These couplets have occurred in vol. i. 168; so I quote Mr. Payne.

[FN#434] i.e. You may have his soul but leave me his body: company with him in the next world and let me have him in this.

[FN#435] Alluding to the Koranic (cxiii. 1.), "I take refuge with the Lord of the Daybreak from the mischief of that which He hath created, etc." This is shown by the first line wherein occurs the Koranic word "Ghásik" (cxiii. 3) which may mean the first darkness when it overspreadeth or the moon when it is eclipsed.

[FN#436] "Malak" = level ground; also tract on the Nile sea. Lane M.E. ii. 417, and Bruckhardt Nubia 482.

[FN#437] This sentiment has often been repeated.

[FN#438] The owl comes in because "Búm" (pron. boom) rhymes with Kayyúm = the Eternal.

[FN#439] For an incident like this see my Pilgrimmage (vol. i. 176). How true to nature the whole scene is; the fond mother excusing her boy and the practical father putting the excuse aside. European paternity, however, would probably exclaim, "The beast's in liquor!"

[FN#440] In ancient times this seems to have been the universal and perhaps instinctive treatment of the hand that struck a father. By Nur al-Din's flight the divorce-oath became technically null and void for Taj al-Din had sworn to mutilate his son next morning.

[FN#441] So Roderic Random and his companions "sewed their money between the lining and the waistband of their breeches, except some loose silver for immediate expense on the road." For a description of these purses see Pilgrimage i. 37.

[FN#442] Arab. Rashid (our Rosetta), a corruption of the Coptic Trashit; ever famous for the Stone.

[FN#443] For a parallel passage in praise of Alexandria see vol. i. 290, etc. The editor or scribe was evidently an Egyptian.

[FN#444] Arab. "Saghr" (Thagr), the opening of the lips showing the teeth. See vol. i. p. 156.

[FN#445] Iskandariyah, the city of Iskandar or Alexander the Great, whose "Soma" was attractive to the Greeks as the corpse of the Prophet Daniel afterwards was to the Moslems. The choice of site, then occupied only by the pauper village of Rhacotis, is one proof of many that the Macedonian conqueror had the inspiration of genius.

[FN#446] i.e. paid them down. See vol. i. 281; vol. ii. 145.

[FN#447] Arab. "Baltiyah," Sonnini's "Bolti" and Nébuleux (because it is dozid-coloured when fried), the Labrus Niloticus from its labra or large fleshy lips. It lives on the "leaves of Paradise" hence the flesh is delicate and savoury and it is caught with the épervier or sweep-net in the Nile, canals and pools.

[FN#448] Arab. "Liyyah," not a delicate comparison, but exceedingly apt besides rhyming to "Baltiyah." The cauda of the "five-quarter sheep, whose tails are so broad and thick that there is as much flesh upon them as upon a quarter of their body," must not be confounded with the lank appendage of our English muttons. See i. 25, Dr. Burnell's Linschoten (Hakluyt Soc. 1885).

[FN#449] A variant occurs in vol. iv. 191.

[FN#450] Arab. "Tars Daylami," a small shield of bright metal.

[FN#451] Arab. "Kaukab al-durri," see Pilgrimage ii. 82.

[FN#452] Arab. "Kusúf" applied to the moon; Khusúf being the solar eclipse.

[FN#453] May Abú Lahab's hands perish. . . and his wife be a bearer of faggots!" Koran cxi. 1 & 4. The allusion is neat.

[FN#454] Alluding to the Angels who shoot down the Jinn. See vol. i. 224. The index misprints "Shibáh."

[FN#455] For a similar scene see Ali Shar and Zumurrud, vol. iv. 187.

[FN#456] i.e. of the girl whom as the sequel shows, her owner had promised not to sell without her consent. This was and is a common practice. See vol. iv. 192.

[FN#457] These lines have occurred in vol. iii. p. 303. I quote Mr. Payne.

[FN#458] Alluding to the erectio et distensio penis which comes on before dawn in tropical lands and which does not denote any desire for women. Some Anglo-Indians term the symptom signum salutis, others a urine-proud pizzle.

[FN#459] Arab. "Mohtasib," in the Maghrib "Mohtab," the officer charged with inspecting weights and measures and with punishing fraud in various ways such as nailing the cheat's ears to his shop's shutter, etc.

[FN#460] Every where in the Moslem East the slave holds himself superior to the menial freeman, a fact which I would impress upon the several Anti-slavery Societies, honest men whose zeal mostly exceeds their knowledge, and whose energy their discretion.

[FN#461] These lines, extended to three couplets, occur in vol. iv. 193. I quote Mr. Payne.

[FN#462] "At this examination (on Judgment Day) Mohammedans also believe that each person will have the book, wherein all the actions of his life are written, delivered to him; which books the righteous will receive in their right hand, and read with great pleasure and satisfaction; but the ungodly will be obliged to take them, against their wills, in their left (Koran xvii. xviii. lxix, and lxxxiv.), which will be bound behind their backs, their right hand being tied to their necks." Sale, Preliminary Discourse; Sect. iv.

[FN#463] "Whiteness" (bayáz) also meaning lustre, honour.

[FN#464] This again occurs in vol. iv. 194. So I quote Mr. Payne.

[FN#465] Her impudence is intended to be that of a captive Princess.

[FN#466] i.e. bent groundwards.

[FN#467] See vol. iv. 192. In Marocco Za'ar is applied to a man with fair skin, red hair and blue eyes (Gothic blood?) and the term is not complimentary as "Sultan Yazid Za'ar."

[FN#468] The lines have occurred before (vol. iv. 194). I quote Mr. Lane ii. 440. Both he and Mr. Payne have missed the point in "ba'zu layáli" a certain night when his mistress had left him so lonely.

[FN#469] Arab. "Raat-hu." This apparently harmless word suggests one similar in sound and meaning which gave some trouble in its day. Says Mohammed in the Koran (ii. 98) "O ye who believe! say not (to the Apostle) Rá'iná (look at us) but Unzurná (regard us)." "Rá'iná" as pronounced in Hebrew means "our bad one."

[FN#470] By reason of its leanness.

[FN#471] In the Mac. Edit. "Fifty." For a scene which illustrates this mercantile transaction see my Pilgrimage i. 88, and its deduction. "How often is it our fate, in the West as in the East, to see in bright eyes and to hear from rosy lips an implied, if not an expressed 'Why don't you buy me?' or, worse still, 'Why can't you buy me?'"

[FN#472] See vol. ii. 165 dragging or trailing the skirts = walking without the usual strut or swagger: here it means assuming the humble manners of a slave in presence of the master.

[FN#473] This is the Moslem form of "boycotting": so amongst early Christians they refused to give one another God-speed. Amongst Hindús it takes the form of refusing "Hukkah (pipe) and water" which practically makes a man an outcast. In the text the old man expresses the popular contempt for those who borrow and who do not repay. He had evidently not read the essay of Elia on the professional borrower.

[FN#474] See note p. 273.

[FN#475] i.e. the best kind of camels.

[FN#476] This first verse has occurred three times.

[FN#477] Arab. "Surayyá" in Dictionaries a dim. of Sarwá = moderately rich. It may either denote abundance of rain or a number of stars forming a constellation. Hence in Job (xxxviii. 31) it is called a heap (kímah).

[FN#478] Pleiads in Gr. the Stars whereby men sail.

[FN#479] This is the Eastern idea of the consequence of satisfactory coition which is supposed to be the very seal of love. Westerns have run to the other extreme.

[FN#480] "Al-Ríf" simply means lowland: hence there is a Ríf in the Nile-delta. The word in Europe is applied chiefly to the Maroccan coast opposite Gibraltar (not, as is usually supposed the North-Western seaboard) where the Berber-Shilhá race, so famous as the "Rif pirates" still closes the country to travellers.

[FN#481] i.e. Upper Egypt.

[FN#482] These local excellencies of coition are described jocosely rather than anthropologically.

[FN#483] See vol. i. 223: I take from Torrens, p. 223.

[FN#484] For the complete ablution obligatory after copulation before prayers can be said. See vol. v. 199.

[FN#485] Arab. "Zunnár," the Greek {zoonárion}, for which, see vol. ii. 215.

[FN#486] Miriam (Arabic Maryam), is a Christian name, in Moslem lands. Abú Maryam "Mary's father" (says Motarrazi on Al-Hariri, Ass. of Alexandria) is a term of contempt, for men are called after sons (e.g. Abu Zayd), not after daughters. In more modern authors Abu Maryam is the name of ushers and lesser officials in the Kazi's court.

[FN#487] This formality, so contrary to our Western familiarity after possession, is an especial sign of good breeding amongst Arabs and indeed all Eastern nations. It reminds us of the "grand manner" in Europe two hundred years ago, not a trace of which now remains.

[FN#488] These lines are in Night i. ordered somewhat differently: so I quote Torrens (p. 14).

[FN#489] i.e. to the return Salám--"And with thee be peace and the mercy of Allah and His blessings!" See vol. ii. 146. The enslaved Princess had recognised her father's Wazir and knew that he could have but one object, which being a man of wit and her lord a "raw laddie," he was sure to win.

[FN#490] It is quite in Moslem manners for the bystanders to force the sale seeing a silly lad reject a most advantageous offer for sentimental reasons. And the owner of the article would be bound by their consent.

[FN#491] Arab. "Wa'llahi." "Bi" is the original particle of swearing, a Harf al-jarr (governing the genitive as Bi'lláhi) and suggesting the idea of adhesion: "Wa" (noting union) is its substitute in oath-formulæ and "Ta" takes the place of Wa as Ta'lláhi. The three-fold forms are combined in a great "swear."

[FN#492] i.e. of divorcing their own wives.

[FN#493] These lines have occurred before: I quote Mr. Payne.

[FN#494] These lines are in Night xxvi., vol. i. 275: I quote Torrens (p. 277), with a correction for "when ere."

[FN#495] This should be "draws his senses from him as one pulls hair out of pate."

[FN#496] Rághib and Záhid: see vol. v. 141.

[FN#497] Carolus Magnus then held court in Paris; but the text evidently alludes to one of the port-cities of Provence as Marseille which we English will miscall Marseilles.

[FN#498] Here the writer, not the young wife, speaks; but as a tale-teller he says "hearer" not "reader."

[FN#499] Kayrawán, the Arab. form of the Greek Cyrene which has lately been opened to travellers and has now lost the mystery which enshrouded it. In Hafiz and the Persian poets it is the embodiment of remoteness and secrecy; as we till the last quarter century spoke of the "deserts of Central Africa."