Chapter XVIII: Part 18

[FN#94] The Bresl. Edit. (viii. 48) instead of the Gate (Báb) gives a Bádhanj=a Ventilator; for which latter rendering see vol. i. 257. The spider's web is Koranic (lxxxi. 40) "Verily frailest of all houses is the house of the spider."

[FN#95] Prob. from the Persian Wird=a pupil, a disciple.

[FN#96] And yet, as the next page shows the youth's education was complete in his twelfth year. But as all three texts agree, I do not venture upon changing the number to six or seven, the age at which royal education outside the Harem usually begins.

[FN#97] i.e. One for each day in the Moslem year. For these object-lessons, somewhat in Kinder-garten style, see the Book of Sindibad or The Malice of Women (vol. vi. 126).

[FN#98] Arab. "Jahábizah" plur. of "Jahbiz"=acute, intelligent (from the Pers. Kahbad or Kihbad?)

[FN#99] Arab. "Nimr" in the Bresl. Edit. viii. 58. The Mac. Edit. suggests that the leopard is the lion's Wazir.

[FN#100] Arab "Kaun" lit. =Being, existence. Trébutien (iii. 20) has it "Qu'est-ce que l' être (God), l'existence (Creation), l'être dans l'existence (the world), et la durée de l'être dans l'existence (the other world).

[FN#101] i.e for the purpose of requital. All the above is orthodox Moslem doctrine, which utterly ignores the dictum "ex nihilo nihil fit;" and which would look upon Creation by Law (Darwinism) as opposed to Creation by miracle (e.g. the Mosaic cosmogony) as rank blasphemy. On the other hand the Eternity of Matter and its transcendental essence are tenets held by a host of Gnostics, philosophers and Eastern Agnostics.

[FN#102] This is a Moslem lieu commun; usually man is likened to one suspended in a bottomless well by a thin rope at which a rodent is continually gnawing and who amuses himself in licking a few drops of honey left by bees on the revetement.

[FN#103] A curious pendant to the Scriptural parable of the Unjust Steward.

[FN#104] Arab. "Rúh" Heb. Ruach: lit. breath (spiritus) which in the animal kingdom is the surest sign of life. See vol. v. 29. Nothing can be more rigidly materialistic than the called Mosaic law.

[FN#105] Arab. "Al-Amr" which may also mean the business, the matter, the affair.

[FN#106] Arab. "Ukáb al-kásir." lit. =the breaker eagle.

[FN#107] Arab "Lijám shadíd:" the ring-bit of the Arabs is perhaps the severest form known: it is required by the Eastern practice of pulling up the horse when going at full speed and it is too well known to require description. As a rule the Arab rides with a "lady's hand" and the barbarous habit of "hanging on by the curb" is unknown to him. I never pass by Rotten Row or see a regiment of English Cavalry without wishing to leave riders nothing but their snaffles.

[FN#108] We find this orderly distribution of time (which no one adopts) in many tongues and many forms. In the Life of Sir W. Jones (vol. i. p. 193, Poetical Works etc.) the following occurs, "written in India on a small piece of paper";--

Sir Edward Coke
"Six hours to sleep, in law's grave study six!
Four spend in prayer,--the rest on Heaven fix!"
Rather:
"Seven hours to law, to soothing slumber seven;
Ten to the world allot, and all to Heaven!"

But this is not practical. I must prefer the Chartist distribution:

Six hours sleep and six hours play:
Six hours work and six shillings a day.

Mr Froude (Oceana) speaks of New Zealanders having attained that ideal of operative felicity:--

Eight to work, eight to play;
Eight to sleep and eight shillings a day.

[FN#109] Arab. "Bahímah," mostly=black cattle: see vol. iv. 54.

[FN#110] As a rule when the felidæ wag their tails, it is a sign of coming anger, the reverse with the canidæ.

[FN#111] In India it is popularly said that the Rajah can do anything with the Ryots provided he respects their women and their religion--not their property.

[FN#112] Arab. "Sunan" for which see vol. v. 36, 167. Here it is=Rasm or usage, equivalent to our precedents, and held valid, especially when dating from olden time, in all matters which are not expressly provided for by Koranic command. For instance a Hindí Moslem (who doubtless borrowed the customs from Hindús) will refuse to eat with the Kafir, and when the latter objects that there is no such prohibition in the Koran will reply, "No: but it is our Rasm." As a rule the Anglo-Indian is very ignorant on this essential point.

[FN#113] Lit. "lowering the wings," see supra p. 33.

[FN#114] .i.e. friends and acquaintances.

[FN#115] Arab. "Hamídah"=praiseworthy or satisfactory.

[FN#116] Not only alluding to the sperm of man and beast, but also to the "Neptunist" doctrine held by the ancient Greeks and Hindus and developed in Europe during the last century.

[FN#117] Arab. "Taksím" dividing into parts, analysis.

[FN#118] this is the usual illogical contention of all religions. It is not the question whether an Almighty Being can do a given thing: the question is whether He has or has not done it.

[FN#119] Upon the old simile of the potter I shall have something to say in a coming volume.

[FN#120] A fine specimen of a peculiarity in the undeveloped mind of man, the universal confusion between things objective as a dead body and states of things as death. We begin by giving a name, for facility of intercourse, to phases, phenomena and conditions of matter; and, having created the word we proceed to supply it with a fanciful entity, e.g. "The Mind (a useful term to express the aggregate action of the brain, nervous system etc.) of man is immortal." The next step is personification as Time with his forelock, Death with his skull and Night (the absence of light) with her starry mantle. For poetry this abuse of language is a sine qua non, but it is deadly foe to all true philosophy.

[FN#121] Christians would naturally understand this "One Word" to be the {lógos} of the Platonists, adopted by St. John (comparatively a late writer) and by the Alexandrian school, Jewish (as Philo Judæus) and Christian. But here the tale-teller alludes to the Divine Word "Kun" (be!) whereby the worlds came into existence.

[FN#122] Arab. "Ya bunayyí" a dim. form lit. "O my little son !" an affectionate address frequent in Russian, whose "little father" (under "Bog") is his Czar.

[FN#123] Thus in two texts. Mr. Payne has, "Verily God the Most High created man after His own image, and likened him to Himself, all of Him truth, without falsehood; then He gave him dominion over himself and ordered him and forbade him, and it was man who transgressed His commandment and erred in his obedience and brought falsehood upon himself of his own will." Here he borrows from the Bresl. Edit. viii. 84 (five first lines). But the doctrine is rather Jewish and Christian than Moslem: Al-Mas'údi (ii. 389) introduces a Copt in the presence of Ibn Tutún saying, "Prince, these people (designing a Jew) pretend that Allah Almighty created Adam (i.e. mankind) after His own image" ('Alá Súrati-h).

[FN#124] Arab. "Istitá'ah"=ableness e.g. "Al hajj 'inda 'l-Istitá'ah"=Pilgrimage when a man is able thereto (by easy circumstances).

[FN#125] Arab. "Al-Kasab," which phrenologists would translate "acquisitiveness," The author is here attempting to reconcile man's moral responsibility, that is Freewill, with Fate by which all human actions are directed and controlled. I cannot see that he fails to "apprehend the knotty point of doctrine involved"; but I find his inability to make two contraries agree as pronounced as that of all others, Moslems and Christians, that preceded him in the same path.

[FN#126] The order should be, "men, angels and Jinn," for which see vol. i. p. 10. But "angels" here takes precedence because Iblis was one of them.

[FN#127] Arab. "Wartah"=precipice, quagmire, quicksand and hence sundry secondary and metaphorical significations, under which, as in the "Semitic" (Arabic) tongues generally, the prosaical and material sense of the word is clearly evident. I noted this in Pilgrimage iii. 66 and was soundly abused for so saying by a host of Sciolists.

[FN#128] i.e. Allowing the Devil to go about the world and seduce mankind until Doomsday when "auld Sootie's" occupation will be gone. Surely "Providence" might have managed better.

[FN#129] i.e. to those who deserve His love.

[FN#130] Here "Istitá'ah" would mean capability of action, i.e. freewill, which is a mere word like "free-trade."

[FN#131] Arab. "Bi al-taubah" which may also mean "for (on account of his) penitence." The reader will note how the learned Shimas "dodges" the real question. He is asked why the "Omnipotent, Omniscient did not prevent (i.e. why He created) sin?" He answers that He kindly permitted (i.e. created and sanctioned) it that man might repent. Proh pudor! If any one thus reasoned of mundane matters he would be looked upon as the merest fool.

[FN#132] Arab. "Mahall al-Zauk," lit.=seat of taste.

[FN#133] Mr. Payne translates "it" i.e. the Truth; but the formula following the word shows that Allah is meant.

[FN#134] Moslems, who do their best to countermine the ascetic idea inherent in Christianity, are not ashamed of the sensual appetite; but rather the reverse. I have heard in Persia of a Religious, highly esteemed for learning and saintly life who, when lodged by a disciple at Shiraz, came out of his sleeping room and aroused his host with the words "Shahwat dáram!" equivalent to our "I want a woman." He was at once married to one of the slave-girls and able to gratify the demands of the flesh.

[FN#135] Koran iv. 81, "Whatever good betideth thee is from God, and whatever betideth thee of evil is from thyself": rank Manichæism is pronounced as any in Christendom.

[FN#136] Arab. "Zukhruf" which Mr. Payne picturesquely renders "painted gawds."

[FN#137] It is the innate craving in the "Aryan" (Iranian, not the Turanian) mind, this longing to know what follows Death, or if nothing follow it, which accounts for the marvellous diffusion of the so-called Spiritualism which is only Swedenborgianism systematised and carried out into action, amongst nervous and impressionable races like the Anglo-American. In England it is the reverse; the obtuse sensitiveness of a people bred on beef and beer has made the "Religion of the Nineteenth Century" a manner of harmless magic, whose miracles are table-turning and ghost seeing whilst the prodigious rascality of its prophets (the so-called Mediums) has brought it into universal disrepute. It has been said that Catholicism must be true to co-exist with the priest and it is the same with Spiritualism proper, by which I understand the belief in a life beyond the grave, a mere continuation of this life; it flourishes (despite the Medium) chiefly because it has laid before man the only possible and intelligible idea of a future state.

[FN#138] See vol. vi. p. 7. The only lie which degrades a man in his own estimation and in that of others, is that told for fear of telling the truth. Au reste, human society and civilised intercourse are built upon a system of conventional lying, and many droll stories illustrate the consequences of disregarding the dictum, la verité n'est pas toujours bonne à dire.

[FN#139] Arab. "Walí'ahd" which may mean heir-presumptive (whose heirship is contingent) or heir-apparent.

[FN#140] Arab. "Yá abati"= O my papa (which here would sound absurd).

[FN#141] All the texts give a decalogue; but Mr. Payne has reduced it to a heptalogue.

[FN#142] The Arabs who had a variety of anæsthetics never seem to have studied the subject of "euthanasia." They preferred seeing a man expire in horrible agonies to relieving him by means of soporifics and other drugs: so I have heard Christians exult in saying that the sufferer "kept his senses to the last." Of course superstition is at the bottom of this barbarity; the same which a generation ago made the silly accoucheur refuse to give ether because of the divine (?) saying "In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children." (Gen iii. 16.) In the Bosnia-Herzegovina campaign many of the Austrian officers carried with them doses of poison to be used in case of being taken prisoners by the ferocious savages against whom they were fighting. As many anecdotes about "Easing off the poor dear" testify, the Euthanasia-system is by no means unknown to the lower classes in England. I shall have more to say on this subject.

[FN#143] See vol. iii. p. 253 for the consequences of royal seclusion of which Europe in the present day can contribute examples. The lesson which it teaches simply is that the world can get on very well without royalties.

[FN#144] The grim Arab humour in the text is the sudden change for the worse of the good young man. Easterns do not believe in the Western saw, "Nemo repente fuit turpissimus." The spirited conduct of the subjects finds many parallels in European history, especially in Portugal: see my Life of Camoens p. 234.

[FN#145] Arab. "Muhárabah" lit.=doing battle; but is sometimes used in the sense of gain-saying or disobeying.

[FN#146] Arab. "Duwámah" (from "duwám"=vertigo, giddiness) also applied to a boy's whip-top.

[FN#147] Arab. "Khayr o (wa) Áfiyah," a popular phrase much used in salutations, &c.

[FN#148] Another instance, and true to life, of the democracy of despotism in which the express and combined will of the people is the only absolute law. Hence Russian autocracy is forced into repeated wars for the possession of Constantinople which, in the present condition of the Empire, would be an unmitigated evil to her and would be only too glad to see a Principality of Byzantium placed under the united protection of the European Powers. I have treated of this in my paper on the "Partition of Turkey," which first appeared, headed the "Future of Turkey," in the Daily Telegraph, of March 7, 1880, and subsequently by its own name in the Manchester Examiner, January 3, 1881. The main reason why the project is not carried out appears to be that the "politicals" would thereby find their occupation gone and they naturally object to losing so fine a field of action. So Turkey still plays the rôle of the pretty young lady being courted by a rabble of valets.

[FN#149] Good Moslems are bound to abate such scandals; and in a case of the kind even neighbours are expected to complain before the Chief of Police. This practice forms "Vigilance Committees" all over the Mahommedan East: and we may take a leaf out of their books if dynamite-outrages continue.

[FN#150] But a Hadis, attributed to Mohammed, says, "The Prince of a people is their servant." See Matth. xx. 26-27.

[FN#151] Easterns are well aware of the value of this drug which has become the base of so many of our modern medicines.

[FN#152] The strangest poison is mentioned by Sonnini who, as a rule, is a trustworthy writer. Noticing the malignity of Egyptian women he declares (p. 628, English trans.) that they prepare a draught containing a quant. suff. of menstruous discharge at certain phases of the moon, which produces symptoms of scurvy; the gums decay, the teeth, beard and hair fall off, the body dries, the limbs lose strength and death follows within a year. He also asserts that no counterpoison is known and if this be true he confers a boon upon the Locustæ and Brinvilliers of modern Europe. In Morocco "Ta'am" is the vulgar name for a mixture of dead men's bones, eyes, hair and similar ingredients made by old wives and supposed to cause a wasting disease for which the pharmacopœia has no cure. Dogs are killed by needles cunningly inserted into meat-balls; and this process is known throughout the Moslem world.

[FN#153] Which contained the Palace.

[FN#154] Arab. "Lá baas." See Night vol. iv. 164.

[FN#155] For Ta'lab (Sa'lab) see supra, p. 48. In Morocco it is undoubtedly the red or common fox which, however, is not gregarious as in the text.

[FN#156] See vol. iii. 146.

[FN#157] Arab. "Muunah" which in Morocco applies to the provisions furnished gratis by the unfortunate village-people to travellers who have a passport from the Sultan: its root is Maun =supplying necessaries. "The name is supposed to have its origin in that of Manna, the miraculous provision bestowed by the bounty of Heaven on the Israelites while wandering in the deserts of Arabia." Such is the marvellous information we find in p. 40, "Morocco and the Moors" by John Drummond Hay (Murray, 1861).

[FN#158] i.e. He resolved to do them justice and win a reward from Heaven.

[FN#159] Arab. ''Luss" = thief, robber, rogue, rascal, the Persian "Luti" of popular usage. This is one of the many ''Simpleton stories" in which Eastern folk-lore abounds. I hear that Mr. Clouston is preparing a collection, and look forward to it with interest.

[FN#160] Arab. "Tibn" for which see vol. i 16.

[FN#161] A fanciful origin of "Díván" (here an audience-chamber) which may mean demons (plural of Dív) is attributed to a King of Persia. He gave a series of difficult documents and accounts to his scribes and surprised at the quickness and cleverness with which they were ordered exclaimed, "These men be Divs!" Hence a host of secondary meanings as a book of Odes with distichs rhymed in alphabetical order and so forth.

[FN#162] In both cases the word "Jabábirah" is used, the plur. of Jabbár, the potent, especially applied to the Kings of the Canaanites and giants like the mythical Og of Bashan. So the Heb. Jabbúrah is a title of the Queens of Judah.

[FN#163] Arab. "Kitáb al-Kazá"= the Book of Judgments, such as the Kazi would use when deciding cases in dispute, by legal precedents and the Rasm or custom of the country.

[FN#164] i.e. sit before the King as referee, etc.

[FN#165] This massacre of refractory chiefs is one of the grand moyens of Eastern state-craft, and it is almost always successful because circumstances require it; popular opinion approves of it and it is planned and carried out with discretion and secrecy. The two familiar instances in our century are the massacre of the Mamelukes by Mohammed Ali Pasha the Great and of the turbulent chiefs of the Omani Arabs by our ancient ally Sayyid Sa'íd, miscalled the "Imám of Maskat."

[FN#166] The metaphor (Sabaka) is from horse-racing, the Arabs being, I have said, a horsey people.

[FN#167] Arab. "Kurdús" = A body of horse.

[FN#168] Arab. "Ibn 'Irs." See vol. iii. 147.

[FN#169] Arab. "Al Hind-al-Aksá." The Sanskrit Sindhu (lands on the Indus River) became in Zend "Hendu" and hence in Arabic Sind and Hind, which latter I wish we had preserved instead of the classical "India" or the poetical "Ind."

[FN#170] i.e. by geomancy: see vol. iii. 269 for a note on Al-Raml. The passage is not in the Mac. Edit.

[FN#171] This address gave the boy Wazirial rank. In many parts of Europe, England included, if the Sovereign address a subject with a title not belonging to him, it is a disputed point if the latter can or cannot claim it.

[FN#172] Koran, chapter of Joseph xii. 28, spoken by Potiphar after Joseph's innocence had been proved by a witness in Potiphar's house or according to the Talmud (Sepher Hádjascher) by an infant in the cradle. The texts should have printed this as a quotation (with vowel points).

[FN#173] Arab. "Al-'Azíz," alluding to Joseph the Patriarch entitled in Egypt "Azíz al-Misr"= Magnifico of Misraim (Koran xii. 54). It is generally believed that Ismail Pasha, whose unwise deposition has caused the English Government such a host of troubles and load of obloquy, aspired to be named "'Azíz" by the Porte; but was compelled to be satisfied with Khadív (vulg. written Khedive, and pronounced even "Kédivé"), a Persian title, which simply means prince or Rajah, as Khadív-i-Hind.

[FN#174] i.e. The Throne room.

[FN#175] For the "Dawát" or wooden inkcase containing reeds see vol. v. 239 and viii. 178. I may remark that its origin is the Egyptian "Pes," of which there is a specimen in the British Museum inscribed, "Amásis the good god and Lord of the two Lands."

[FN#176] i.e. I am governed by the fear of Allah in my dealings to thee and thy subjects.

[FN#177] Arabic has no single word for million although the Maroccans have adopted "Milyún" from the Spaniards (see p. 100 of the Rudimentos del Árabe vulgar que se habla en el imperio de Marruccos por El P. Fr. Josè de Lerchundi, Madrid 1872): This lack of the higher numerals, the reverse of the Hindu languages, makes Arabic "arithmology" very primitive and almost as cumbrous as the Chinese.

[FN#178] i.e. I am thy slave to slay or to pardon.

[FN#179] Arab. "Matta'aka 'llah"=Allah permit thee to enjoy, from the root mata', whence cometh the Maroccan Matá'i=my, mine, which answers to Bitá'i in Egypt.

[FN#180] Arab. "Khitáb" = the exordium of a letter preceding its business-matter and in which the writer displays all his art. It ends with "Ammá ba'd," lit.=but after, equivalent to our "To proceed." This "Khitáb" is mostly skipped over by modern statesmen who will say, "Now after the nonsense let us come to the sense"; but their secretaries carefully weigh every word of it, and strongly resent all shortcomings.

[FN#181] Strongly suggesting that the King had forgotten how to read and write. So not a few of the Amirs of Sind were analphabetic and seemed rather proud of it: "a Baloch cannot write, but he always carries a signet-ring." I heard of an old English lady of the past generation in Northern Africa who openly declared "A Warrington shall never learn to read or write."

[FN#182] Arab. "Ámin," of which the Heb. form is Amen from the root Amn=stability, constancy. In both tongues it is a particle of affirmation or consent=it is true! So be it! The Hebrew has also "Amanah"=verily, truly.

[FN#183] To us this seems a case of "hard lines" for the unhappy women; but Easterns then believed and still believe in the divinity which doth hedge in a King, in his reigning by the "grace of God," and in his being the Viceregent of Allah upon earth; briefly in the old faith of loyalty which great and successful republics are fast making obsolete in the West and nowhere faster than in England.

[FN#184] Abú Sír is a manifest corruption of the old Egyptian Pousiri, the Busiris of our classics, and it gives a name to sundry villages in modern Egypt where it is usually pronounced "Búsír". Abú Kír lit. = the Father of Pitch, is also corrupted to Abou Kir (Bay); and the townlet now marks the site of jolly old Canopus, the Chosen Land of Egyptian debauchery.

[FN#185] It is interesting to note the superior gusto with which the Eastern, as well as the Western tale-teller describes his scoundrels and villains whilst his good men and women are mostly colourless and unpicturesque. So Satan is the true hero of Paradise-Lost and by his side God and man are very ordinary; and Mephistopheles is much better society than Faust and Margaret.

[FN#186] Arab. "Dukhán," lit. = smoke, here tobacco for the Chibouk, "Timbák" or "Tumbák" being the stronger (Persian and other) variety which must be washed before smoking in the Shíshah or water-pipe. Tobacco is mentioned here only and is evidently inserted by some scribe: the "weed" was not introduced into the East before the end of the sixteenth century (about a hundred years after coffee), when it radically changed the manners of society.

[FN#187] Which meant that the serjeant, after the manner of such officials, would make him pay dearly before giving up the key. Hence a very severe punishment in the East is to "call in a policeman" who carefully fleeces all those who do not bribe him to leave them in freedom.

[FN#188] Arab. "Má Dáhiyatak?" lit. "What is thy misfortune?" The phrase is slighting if not insulting.

[FN#189] Amongst Moslems the plea of robbing to keep life and body together would be accepted by a good man like Abu Sir, who still consorted with a self-confessed thief.

[FN#190] To make their agreement religiously binding. See vol. iv. 36.

[FN#191] Arab. "Ghaliyún"; many of our names for craft seem connected with Arabic: I have already noted "Carrack" = harrák: to which add Uskuf in Marocco pronounced 'Skuff = skiff; Katírah = a cutter; Bárijah = a barge; etc. etc.

[FN#192] The patient is usually lathered in a big basin of tinned brass, "Mambrino's helmet" with a break in the rim to fit the throat; but the poorer classes carry only a small cup with water instead of soap and water ignoring the Italian proverb, "Barba ben saponata mezza fatta" = well lathered is half shaved. A napkin fringed at either end is usually thrown over the Figaro's shoulder and used to wipe the razor.

[FN#193] Arab. "Nusf." See vol. ii. 37.

[FN#194] Arab. "Batárikh" the roe (sperm or spawn) of the salted Fasíkh (fish) and the Búrí (mugil cephalus) a salt-water fish caught in the Nile and considered fair eating. Some write Butárghá from the old Egyptian town Burát, now a ruin between Tinnis and Damietta (Sonnini).

[FN#195] Arab. "Kaptán," see vol. iv. 85.

[FN#196] Arab. "Anyáb," plur. of Náb applied to the grinder teeth but mostly to the canines or eye teeth, tusks of animals, etc. (See vol. vii. p. 339) opp. to Saniyah, one of the four central incisors, a camel in the sixth year and horse, cow, sheep and goat in fourth year.

[FN#197] The coffee (see also vol. viii. 274) like the tobacco is probably due to the scribe; but the tale appears to be comparatively modern. In The Nights men eat, drink and wash their hands but do not smoke and sip coffee like the moderns. See my Terminal Essay §2.

[FN#198] Arab. "Mi'lakah" (Bresl. Edit. x, 456). The fork is modern even in the East and the Moors borrow their term for it from fourchette. But the spoon, which may have begun with a cockle-shell, dates from the remotest antiquity.

[FN#199] Arab. "Sufrah" properly the cloth or leather upon which food is placed. See vol. i. 178.

[FN#200] i.e. gaining much one day and little another.

[FN#201] Lit. "Rest thyself" i.e. by changing posture.

[FN#202] Arab. "Unnábi" = between dark yellow and red.

[FN#203] Arab. "Nílah" lit. = indigo, but here applied to all the materials for dyeing. The word is Sanskrit, and the growth probably came from India, although during the Crusaders' occupation of Jerusalem it was cultivated in the valley of the lower Jordan. I need hardly say that it has nothing to do with the word "Nile" whose origin is still sub judice. And yet I lately met a sciolist who pompously announced to me this philological absurdity as a discovery of his own.

[FN#204] Still a popular form of "bilking" in the Wakálahs or Caravanserais of Cairo: but as a rule the Bawwáb (porter or doorkeeper) keeps a sharp eye on those he suspects. The evil is increased when women are admitted into these places; so periodical orders for their exclusion are given to the police.

[FN#205] Natives of Egypt always hold this diaphoresis a sign that the disease has abated and they regard it rightly in the case of bilious remittents to which they are subject, especially after the hardships and sufferings of a sea-voyage with its alternations of fasting and over-eating.

[FN#206] Not simply, "such and such events happened to him" (Lane); but, "a curious chance befel him."

[FN#207] Arab. "Harámi," lit. = one who lives on unlawful gains; popularly a thief.

[FN#208] i.e. he turned on the water, hot and cold.

[FN#209] Men are often seen doing this in the Hammam. The idea is that the skin when free from sebaceous exudation sounds louder under the clapping. Easterns judge much by the state of the perspiration, especially in horse-training, which consists of hand-gallops for many successive miles. The sweat must not taste over salt and when held between thumb and forefinger and the two are drawn apart must not adhere in filaments.

[FN#210] Lit. "Aloes for making Nadd;" see vol. i. 310. "Eagle-wood" (the Malay Aigla and Agallochum the Sansk. Agura) gave rise to many corruptions as lignum aloes, the Portuguese Páo d' Aguila etc. "Calamba" or "Calambak" was the finest kind. See Colonel Yule in the "Voyage of Linschoten" (vol. i. 120 and 150). Edited for the Hakluyt Soc. (1885) by my learned and most amiable friend, the late Arthur Cooke Burnell.

[FN#211] The Hammam is one of those unpleasant things which are left "Alà júdi-k" = to thy generosity; and the higher the bather's rank the more he or she is expected to pay. See Pilgrimage i. 103. In 1853 I paid at Cairo 3 piastres and twenty paras, something more than sixpence, but now five shillings would be asked.

[FN#212] This is something like the mythical duchess in England who could not believe that the poor were starving when sponge-cakes were so cheap.

[FN#213] This magnificent "Bakhshish" must bring water into the mouths of all the bath-men in the coffee-house assembly.

[FN#214] i.e. the treasurer did not, as is the custom of such gentry, demand and receive a large "Bakhshish" on the occasion.

[FN#215] A fair specimen of clever Fellah chaff.

[FN#216] In the first room of the Hammam, called the Maslakh or stripping-place, the keeper sits by a large chest in which he deposits the purses and valuables of his customers and also makes it the caisse for the pay. Something of the kind is now done in the absurdly called "Turkish Baths" of London.

[FN#217] This is the rule in Egypt and Syria and a clout hung over the door shows that women are bathing. I have heard, but only heard, that in times and places when eunuchs went in with the women youths managed by long practice to retract the testicles so as to pass for castratos. It is hard to say what perseverance may not effect in this line; witness Orsini and his abnormal development of hearing, by exercising muscles which are usually left idle.

[FN#218] This reference to Allah shows that Abu Sir did not believe his dyer-friend.

[FN#219] Arab. "Dawá" (lit. remedy, medicine) the vulgar term: see vol. iv. 256: also called Rasmah, Núrah and many other names.

[FN#220] Arab. "Má Kahara-ní" = or none hath overcome me.

[FN#221] Bresl. Edit. "The King of Isbániya." For the "Ishbán" (Spaniards) an ancient people descended from Japhet son of Noah and who now are no more, see Al-Mas'udi (Fr. Transl. I. 361). The "Herodotus of the Arabs" recognises only the "Jalálikah" or Gallicians, thus bearing witness to the antiquity and importance of the Gallego race.

[FN#222] Arab. "Sha'r," properly, hair of body, pile, especially the pecten. See Burckhardt (Prov. No. 202), "grieving for lack of a cow she made a whip of her bush," said of those who console themselves by building Castles in Spain. The "parts below the waist" is the decent Turkish term for the privities.

[FN#223] The drowning is a martyr's death, the burning is a foretaste of Hell-fire.

[FN#224] Meaning that if the trick had been discovered the Captain would have taken the barber's place. We have seen (vol. i. 63) the Prime Minister superintending the royal kitchen and here the Admiral fishes for the King's table. It is even more naïve than the Court of Alcinöus.

[FN#225] Bresl. Edit. xi. 32: i.e. save me from disgrace.

[FN#226] Arab. "Khinsir" or "Khinsar," the little finger or the middle finger. In Arabic each has its own name or names which is also that of the corresponding toe, e.g. Ibhám (thumb); Sabbábah, Musabbah or Da'áah (fore-finger); Wastá (medius); Binsir (annularis ring-finger) and Khinsar (minimus). There are also names for the several spaces between the fingers. See the English Arabic Dictionary (London, Kegan Paul and Co., 1881) by the Revd. Dr. Badger, a work of immense labour and research but which I fear has been to the learned author a labour of love not of profit.

[FN#227] Meaning of course that the King signed towards the sack in which he supposed the victim to be, but the ring fell off before it could take effect. The Eastern story-teller often balances his multiplicity of words and needless details by a conciseness and an elliptical style which make his meaning a matter of divination.

[FN#228] See vol. v. 111.

[FN#229] This couplet was quoted to me by my friend the Rev. Dr. Badger when he heard that I was translating "The Nights": needless to say that it is utterly inappropriate.

[FN#230] For a similar figure see vol i. 25.

[FN#231] Arab. "Hanzal": see vol. v. 19.

[FN#232] The tale begins upon the model of "Júdar and his Brethren," vi. 213. Its hero's full name is Abdu'lláhi=Slave of Allah, which vulgar Egyptians pronounce Abdallah and purer speakers, Badawin and others, Abdullah: either form is therefore admissible. It is more common among Moslems but not unknown to Christians especially Syrians who borrow it from the Syriac Alloh. Mohammed is said to have said, "The names most approved by Allah are Abdu'llah, Abd al-Rahmán (Slave of the Compassionate) and such like" (Pilgrimage i. 20).

[FN#233] Arab. "Sírah" here probably used of the Nile-sprat (Clupea Sprattus Linn.) or Sardine of which Forsk says, "Sardinn in Al-Yaman is applied to a Red Sea fish of the same name." Hasselquist the Swede notes that Egyptians stuff the Sardine with marjoram and eat it fried even when half putrid.

[FN#234] i.e. by declaring in the Koran (lxvii. 14; lxxiv. 39; lxxviii. 69; lxxxviii. 17), that each creature hath its appointed term and lot; especially "Thinketh man that he shall be left uncared for?" (xl. 36).

[FN#235] Arab. "Nusf," see vol. ii. 37.

[FN#236] Arab. "Allah Karim" (which Turks pronounce Kyerím) a consecrated formula used especially when a man would show himself resigned to "small mercies." The fisherman's wife was evidently pious as she was poor; and the description of the pauper household is simple and effective.

[FN#237] This is repeated in the Mac. Edit. pp. 496-97; an instance amongst many of most careless editing.

[FN#238] Arab. "Alà mahlak" (vulg.), a popular phrase, often corresponding with our "Take it coolly."

[FN#239] For "He did not keep him waiting, as he did the rest of the folk." Lane prefers "nor neglected him as men generally would have done." But we are told supra that the baker "paid no heed to the folk by reason of the dense crowd."

[FN#240] Arab. "Ruh!" the most abrupt form, whose sound is coarse and offensive as the Turkish yell, "Gyel!"=come here.

[FN#241] Bresl. Edit. xi. 50-51.

[FN#242] Arab. "Ádami"=an Adamite, one descended from the mythical and typical Adam for whom see Philo Judæus. We are told in one place a few lines further on that the merman is of humankind; and in another that he is a kind of fish (Night dccccxlv). This belief in mermen, possible originating with the caricatures of the human face in the intelligent seal and stupid manatee, is universal. Al-Kazwini declares that a waterman with a tail was dried and exhibited, and that in Syria one of them was married to a woman and had by her a son "who understood the languages of both his parents." The fable was refined to perfect beauty by the Greeks: the mer-folk of the Arabs, Hindus and Northerners (Scandinavians, etc) are mere grotesques with green hair, etc. Art in its highest expression never left the shores of the Mediterranean, and there is no sign that it ever will.

[FN#243] Here Lane translates "Wajh" lit. "the desire of seeing the face of God," and explains in a note that a "Muslim holds this to be the greatest happiness that can be enjoyed in Paradise." But I have noted that the tenet of seeing the countenance of the Creator, except by the eyes of spirit, is a much disputed point amongst Moslems.

[FN#244] Artful enough is this contrast between the squalid condition of the starving fisherman and the gorgeous belongings of the Merman.

[FN#245] Lit. "Verily he laughed at me so that I set him free." This is a fair specimen of obscure conciseness.

[FN#246] Arab. "Mishannah," which Lane and Payne translate basket: I have always heard it used of an old gunny-bag or bag of plaited palm-leaves.

[FN#247] Arab. "Kaff Shurayk" applied to a single bun. The Shurayk is a bunn, an oblong cake about the size of a man's hand (hence the term "Kaff"=palm) with two long cuts and sundry oblique crosscuts, made of leavened dough, glazed with egg and Samn (clarified butter) and flavoured with spices (cinnamon, curcuma, artemisia and prunes mahalab) and with aromatic seeds, (Rihat al-'ajin) of which Lane (iii. 641) specifies aniseed, nigella, absinthium, (Artemisia arborescens) and Káfúrah (A. camphorata Monspeliensis) etc. The Shurayk is given to the poor when visiting the tombs and on certain fêtes.

[FN#248] "Mother of Prosperities."

[FN#249] Tribes of pre-historic Arabs who were sent to Hell for bad behaviour to Prophets Sálih and Húd. See vol. iii. 294.

[FN#250] "Too much for him to come by lawfully."

[FN#251] To protect it. The Arab. is "Jáh"=high station, dignity.

[FN#252] The European reader, especially feminine, will think this a hard fate for the pious first wife but the idea would not occur to the Moslem mind. After bearing ten children a woman becomes "Umm al-banáti w'al-banín"=a mother of daughters and sons, and should hold herself unfit for love-disport. The seven ages of womankind are thus described by the Arabs and I translate the lines after a well-known (Irish) model:--

From ten years to twenty--
Of beauty there's plenty.
From twenty to thirty--
Fat, fair and alert t'ye.
From thirty to forty--
Lads and lasses she bore t'ye.
From forty to fifty--
An old'un and shifty.
From fifty to sixty--
A sorrow that sticks t'ye.
From sixty to seventy--
A curse of God sent t'ye.

For these and other sentiments upon the subject of women and marriage see Pilgrimage ii. 285-87.

[FN#253] Abdullah, as has been said, means "servant or rather slave of Allah."

[FN#254] Again the "Come to my arms, my slight acquaintance," of the Anti-Jacobin.

[FN#255] Arab. "Nukl," e.g. the quatre mendiants as opposed to "Fákihah"=fresh fruit. The Persians, a people who delight in gross practical jokes, get the confectioner to coat with sugar the droppings of sheep and goats and hand them to the bulk of the party. This pleasant confection is called "Nukl-i-peshkil"-- dung-dragées.

[FN#256] The older name of Madínat al-Nabi, the city of the Prophet; vulg. called Al-Medinah per excellentiam. See vol. iv. 114. In the Mac. and Bul. texts we have "Tayyibah"=the goodly, one of the many titles of that Holy City: see Pilgrimage ii. 119.

[FN#257] Not "visiting the tomb of," etc. but visiting the Prophet himself, who is said to have declared that "Ziyárah" (visitation) of his tomb was in religion the equivalent of a personal call upon himself.

[FN#258] Arab. "Nafakah"; for its conditions see Pigrimage iii. 224. I have again and again insisted upon the Anglo-Indian Government enforcing the regulations of the Faith upon pauper Hindi pilgrims who go to the Moslem Holy Land as beggars and die of hunger in the streets. To an "Empire of Opinion" this is an unmitigated evil (Pilgrimage iii. 256); and now, after some thirty-four years, there are signs that the suggestions of common sense are to be adopted. England has heard of the extraordinary recklessness and inconsequence of the British-Indian "fellow- subject."

[FN#259] The Ka'abah of Meccah.

[FN#260] When Moslems apply "Nabí!" to Mohammed it is in the peculiar sense of "prophet" ({prophétes})=one who speaks before the people, not one who predicts, as such foresight was adjured by the Apostle. Dr. A. Neubauer (The Athenæum No. 3031) finds the root of "Nabí!" in the Assyrian Nabu and Heb. Noob (occurring in Exod. vii. 1. "Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet." i.e. orator, speaker before the people), and holds it to be a Canaanite term which supplanted "Roeh" (the Seer) e.g. 1 Samuel ix. 9. The learned Hebraist traces the cult of Nebo, a secondary deity in Assyria to Palestine and Phœnicia, Palmyra, Edessa (in the Nebok of Abgar) and Hierapolis in Syria or Mabug (Nabog?).

[FN#261] I cannot find "Dandán" even in Lib. Quintus de Aquaticis Animalibus of the learned Sam. Bochart's "Hierozoïcon" (London, 1663) and must conjecture that as "Dandán" in Persian means a tooth (vol. ii. 83) the writer applied it to a sun-fish or some such well-fanged monster of the deep.

[FN#262] A favourite proverb with the Fellah, when he alludes to the Pasha and to himself.

[FN#263] An euphemistic answer, unberufen as the Germans say.

[FN#264] It is a temptation to derive this word from bÂœuf à l'eau, but I fear that the theory will not hold water. The "buffaloes" of Alexandria laughted it to scorn.

[FN#265] Here the writer's zoological knowledge is at fault. Animals, which never or very rarely see man, have no fear of him whatever. This is well-known to those who visit the Gull-fairs at Ascension Island, Santos and many other isolated rocks; the hen birds will peck at the intruder's ankles but they do not rise from off their eggs. For details concerning the "Gull-fair" of the Summer Islands consult p. 4 "The History of the Bermudas," edited by Sir J. H. Lefroy for the Hakluyt Society, 1882. I have seen birds on Fernando Po peak quietly await a second shot; and herds of antelopes, the most timed of animals, in the plains of Somali-land only stared but were not startled by the report of the gun. But Arabs are not the only moralists who write zoological nonsense: witness the notable verse,

"Birds in their little nests agree,"

when the feathered tribes are the most pugnacious of breathing beings.

[FN#266] Lane finds these details "silly and tiresome or otherwise objectionable," and omits them.

[FN#267] Meaning, "Thou hast as yet seen little or nothing." In most Eastern tongues a question often expresses an emphatic assertion. See vol. i. 37.

[FN#268] Easterns wear as a rule little clothing but it suffices for the essential purposes of decency and travellers will live amongst them for years without once seeing an accidental "exposure of the person." In some cases, as with the Nubian thong-apron, this demand of modesty requires not a little practice of the muscles; and we all know the difference in a Scotch kilt worn by a Highlander and a cockney sportsman.

[FN#269] Arab. "Shíraj"=oil extracted from rape seed but especially from sesame. The Persians pronounce it "Síraj" (apparently unaware that it is their own word "Shírah"=juice in Arabic garb) and have coined a participle "Musayrij" e.g., Bú-i- musayrij, taint of sesame-oil applied especially to the Jews who very wisely prefer, in Persia and elsewhere, oil which is wholesome to butter which is not. The Moslems, however, declare that its immoderate use in cooking taints the exudations of the skin.

[FN#270] Arab. "Nakkárún" probably congeners of the redoubtable "Dandán."

[FN#271] Bresl. Edit. xi. 78. The Mac. says "They are all fish" (Kullu-hum) and the Bul. "Their food (aklu-hum) is fish."

[FN#272] Arab. "Az'ar," usually=having thin hair. The general term for tailless is "abtar." See Koran cviii. 3, when it means childless.

[FN#273] A common formula of politeness.

[FN#274] Bresl. Edit. xi. 82; meaning, "You will probably keep it for yourself." Abdullah of the Sea is perfectly logical; but grief is not. We weep over the deaths of friends mostly for our own sake: theoretically we should rejoice that they are at rest; but practically we are afflicted by the thought that we shall never again see their pleasant faces.

[FN#275] i.e. about rejoicing over the newborns and mourning over the dead.

[FN#276] i.e. Ishak of Mosul, for whom see vol. iv. 119. The Bresl. Edit. has Fazíl for Fazl.

[FN#277] Abu Dalaf al-Ijili, a well-known soldier equally famed for liberality and culture.

[FN#278] Arab. "Takhmísh," alluding to the familiar practice of tearing face and hair in grief for a loss, a death, etc.

[FN#279] i.e. When he is in the very prime of life and able to administer fiers coups de canif.

"For ladies e'en of most uneasy virtue
Prefer a spouse whose age is short of thirty."
Don Juan 1. 62.

[FN#280] Arab. "Lázuward": see vol. iii. 33.

[FN#281] Arab. "Sidillah." The Bresl. Edit. (v. 99), has, "a couch of ivory and ebony, whereon was that which befitted it of mattresses and cushions * * * * and on it five damsels."

[FN#282] i.e. As she untunes the lute by "pinching" the strings over-excitedly with her right, her other hand retunes it by turning the pegs.

[FN#283] i.e. The slim cupbearer (Zephyr) and fair-faced girl (Moon) handed round the bubbling bowl (star).

[FN#284] Arab. "Al-Sath" whence the Span. Azotea. The lines that follow are from the Bresl. Edit. v. 110.

[FN#285] This "'Ar'ar" is probably the Callitris quadrivalvis whose resin ("Sandarac") is imported as varnish from African Mogador to England. Also called the Thuja, it is of cypress shape, slow growing and finely veined in the lower part of the base. Most travellers are agreed that it is the Citrus-tree of Roman Mauritania, concerning which Pliny (xiii. 29) gives curious details, a single table costing from a million sesterces (£900) to 1,400,000. For other details see p. 95, "Morocco and the Moors," by my late friend Dr. Leared (London: Sampson Low, 1876).

[FN#286] i.e. Kings might sigh for her in vain.

[FN#287] These lines are in vol. viii. 279. I quote Mr. Payne.

[FN#288] A most unsavoury comparison to a Persian who always connects camphor with the idea of a corpse.

[FN#289] Arab. "Ilà má sháa' lláh" i.e. as long as you like.

[FN#290] i.e. of gramarye.

[FN#291] Arab. "Ta'wíz"=the Arab Tilasm, our Talisman, a charm, an amulet; and in India mostly a magic square. The subject is complicated and occupies in Herklots some sixty pages, 222-284.

[FN#292] The Bul. and Mac. Edits. give the Princess's malady, in error, as Dáa al-Sudá' (megrims), instead of Dáa al-Sar' (epilepsy) as in the Bresl. Edit. The latter would mean that she is possessed by a demon, again the old Scriptural fancy (see vol. v. 28). The subject is highly fitted for romance but not for a "serious" book which ought to know better.

[FN#293] Arab. "Al-'Áriz"=the demon who possessed her.

[FN#294] i.e. He hath renounced his infamous traffic.

[FN#295] Alluding to the favourite Eastern saying, "The poor man hath no life."

[FN#296] In this and the following lines some change is necessary for the Bresl. and Mac. texts are very defective. The Arabic word here translated "recess" is "Aywán," prop. a hall, an open saloon.

[FN#297] i.e. by selling it for thirty thousand gold pieces, when he might have got a million for it.

[FN#298] The tale is not in the Bresl. Edit.

[FN#299] Al-Khasíb (= the fruitful) was the son of 'Abd al-Hamíd and intendant of the tribute of Egypt under Harun al-Rashid, but neither Lord nor Sultan. Lane (iii. 669) quotes three couplets in his honour by Abu Nowás from p. 119 of "Elmacini (Al-Makín) Historia Saracenica."

If our camel visit not the land of Al-Khasib, what man after Al-Khasib shall they visit? For generosity is not his neighbour; nor hath it sojourned near him; but generosity goeth wherever he goeth: He is a man who purchaseth praise with his wealth, and who knoweth that the periods of Fortune revolve.

[FN#300] The old story "Alà júdi-k"= upon thy generosity, which means at least ten times the price.

[FN#301]i.e. The distance is enormous.

[FN#302] A gazelle; but here the slave-girl's name.

[FN#303] See vol. ii. 104. Herklots (Pl. vii. fig. 2) illustrates the cloth used in playing the Indian game, Pachísí. The "board" is rather European than Oriental, but it has of late years spread far and wide, especially the backgammon board.

[FN#304] i.e. "Father of the Lion."

[FN#305] Or as we should say, "Thy blood will be on thine own head."

[FN#306] Called after the famous town in Persian Mesopotamia which however is spelt with the lesser aspirate. See p. 144. The Geographical works of Sádik-i-Ispaháni, London; Oriental Transl. Fund, 1882. Hamdan (with the greater aspirate) and Hamdun mean only the member masculine, which may be a delicate piece of chaff for the gallery

[FN#307] Arab. "Hulwán al-miftáh," for which see vol. vii. 212. Mr. Payne compares it with the French denier à Dieu, given to the concierge on like occasions.

[FN#308] Arab. 'Udm, a relish, the Scotch "kitchen," Lat. Opsonium, Ital. Companatico and our "by-meat." See vol. iv. 128.

[FN#309] Arab. "Kabasa" = he shampoo'd. See vol. ii. {23}.

[FN#310] Arab. "Nukl." See supra p. 177.

[FN#311] Arab. "Jannat al-Khuld" and "Firdaus," two of the Heavens repeatedly noticed.

[FN#312] The naïveté is purely Horatian, that is South European versus North European.

[FN#313] i.e. "Have some regard for thy life."

[FN#314] Arab. "Awák" plur. of Úkiyyah a word known throughout the Moslem East. As an ounce it weighs differently in every country and in Barbary (Mauritania) which we call Morocco, it is a nominal coin containing twelve Flús (fulús) now about = a penny. It is a direct descendant from the "Uk" or "Wuk" (ounce) of the hieroglyphs (See Sharpe's Egypt or any other Manual) and first appeared in Europe as the Greek {unkía}.

[FN#315] Arab. "Kárah" usually a large bag.

[FN#316] Arab. "Lúlúah," which may mean the Union-pearl; but here used in the sense of "wild cow," the bubalus antelope, alluding to the farouche nature of Miss Jamilah. We are also told infrà that the park was full of "Wuhúsh" = wild cattle.

[FN#317] Arab. "Sákiyah," the venerable old Persian wheel, for whose music see Pilgrimage ii. 198. But "Sakiyah" is also applied, as here, to the water-channel which turns the wheel.

[FN#318] Arab. "Kawádís," plur. of "Kádús," the pots round the rim of the Persian wheel: usually they are of coarse pottery.

[FN#319] In the text "Sákiyah" a manifest error for "Kubbah."

[FN#320] Easterns greatly respect a belle fourchette, especially when the eater is a lover.

[FN#321] Arab. "'Aríshah," a word of many meanings, tent, nest, vine-trellis, etc.

[FN#322] To spit or blow the nose in good society is "vulgar." Sneezing (Al-'Atsah) is a complicated affair. For Talmudic traditions of death by sneezing see Lane (M. E. chapt. viii). Amongst Hindus sneezing and yawning are caused by evil spirits whom they drive away by snapping thumb and forefinger as loudly as possible. The pagan Arabs held sneezing a bad omen, which often stopped their journeys. Moslems believe that when Allah placed the Soul (life ?) in Adam, the dry clay became flesh and bone and the First Man, waking to life, sneezed and ejaculated "Alhamdolillah;" whereto Gabriel replied, "Allah have mercy upon thee, O Adam!" Mohammed, who liked sneezing because accompanied by lightness of body and openness of pores, said of it, "If a man sneeze or eructate and say 'Alhamdolillah' he averts seventy diseases of which the least is leprosy" (Juzám); also, "If one of you sneeze, let him exclaim, 'Alhamdolillah,' and let those around salute him in return with, 'Allah have mercy upon thee!' and lastly let him say, 'Allah direct you and strengthen your condition."' Moderns prefer, "Allah avert what may joy thy foe!" = (our God bless you!) to which the answer is "Alhamdolillah!" Mohammed disliked yawning (Suabá or Thuabá), because not beneficial as a sneeze and said, "If one of you gape and cover not his mouth, a devil leaps into it. " This is still a popular superstition from Baghdad to Morocco.

[FN#323] A duenna, nursery governess, etc. See vol. i. 231.

[FN#324] For this belief see the tale called "The Night of Power," vol. vi. 180.

[FN#325] The Anglo-lndian "Kincob" (Kimkh'áb); brocade, silk flowered with gold or silver.

[FN#326] Lane finds a needless difficulty in this sentence, which is far-fetched only because Kuus (cups) requires Ruus (head-tops) by way of jingle. It means only "'Twas merry in hall when beards wag all."

[FN#327] The Mac. Edit. gives two couplets which have already occurred from the Bull Edit i. 540.

[FN#328] The lines are half of four couplets in vol. iv. 192; so I quote Lane.

[FN#329].i.e. none hath pleased me. I have quoted the popular saying, "The son of the quarter filleth not the eye." i.e. women prefer stranger faces.

[FN#330] Here after the favourite Oriental fashion, she tells the truth but so enigmatically that it is more deceptive than an untruth; a good Eastern quibble infinitely more dangerous than an honest downright lie. The consciousness that the falsehood is part fact applies a salve to conscience and supplies a force lacking in the mere fib. When an Egyptian lies to you look straight in his eyes and he will most often betray himself either by boggling or by a look of injured innocence.

[FN#331] Another true lie.

[FN#332] Arab. `'Yastaghíbúní," lit. = they deem my absence too long.

[FN#333] An euphemistic form of questioning after absence: "Is all right with thee?"

[FN#334] Arab. "Kallim al-Sultan!" the formula of summoning which has often occurred in The Nights.

[FN#335] Lane translates "Almost died," Payne "Well-nigh died;" but the text says "died." I would suggest to translators

"Be bould, be bould and every where be bould!"

[FN#336] He is the usual poltroon contrasted with the manly and masterful girl, a conjunction of the lioness and the lamb sometimes seen in real life.

[FN#337] That he might see Jamilah as Ibrahim had promised.

[FN#338] A popular saying, i.e., les absents ont toujours tort.

[FN#339] Who had a prior right to marry her, but not against her consent after she was of age.