[FN#60] The visits are in dreamland. The ringdove thanks the Lord for her (his?) suffering in the holy martyrdom of love.

[FN#61] Arab. "Hazar;" I have explained it as meaning "(the bird of) a thousand (songs)."

[FN#62] The "Bulbul" had his day with us but he departed with Tommy Moore. We usually English the word by "nightingale;" but it is a kind of shrike or butcher-bird (Lanius Boulboul. Lath.).

[FN#63] The "Hamam" is a lieu commun in Arabic poetry. I have noticed the world-wide reverence for the pigeon and the incarnation of the Third Person of the Hindu Triad (Shiva), as Kapoteshwara (Kapota-ishwara)"=pigeon or dove-god (Pilgrimage iii. 218).

[FN#64] Arab. "Hamam al-Ayk." Mr. Payne's rendering is so happy that we must either take it from him or do worse.

[FN#65] All primitive peoples translate the songs of birds with human language; but, as I have noticed, the versions differ widely. The pigeon cries, "Allah! Allah!" the dove "Karim, Tawwa" (Bountiful, Pardoner!) the Kata or sand-grouse "Man sakat salam" (who is silent is safe) yet always betrays itself by its lay of "Kat-ta" and lastly the cock "Uzkuru 'llah ya ghafilun" (Remember, or take the name of Allah, ye careless!).

[FN#66] "Nay," the Dervish's reed pipe, symbol of the sighing absent lover (i.e. the soul parted from the Creator) so famed by the Mullah-i-Rum and Sir William Jones.

[FN#67] Ba'albak=Ba'al (the God)-city (bek in Coptic and ancient Egyptian.) Such, at least, is the popular derivation which awaits a better. No cloth has been made there since the Kurd tribe of gallant robbers known as the "Harfush" (or blackguards) lorded it over old "Heliopolis."

[FN#68] Thinking her to be a Jinn or Ghul in the shape of a fair woman. This Arab is a strange contrast to the English fisherman, and yet he is drawn with truth.

[FN#69] Arab. "Habbaza!" (good this!) or "Habba" (how good!): so "Habba bihi," how dear he is to me.

[FN#70] Arab. "Zind," and "Zindah" the names of the two sticks, upper and lower, hard and soft, by which fire was kindled before flint and steel were known. We find it in Al-Hariri (Ass. of Banu Haram) "no one sought ire from my fire-stick (i.e. from me as a fire-stick) and failed." See Night dccciii.

[FN#71] Arab. "Nazih" i.e. travelled far and wide.

[FN#72] "Rajab," lit.="worshipping:" it is the seventh lunar month and still called "Shahr-i-Khuda" (God's month) by the Persians because in pre-Islamitic times it formed with Muharram (or in its stead Safar), Zu 'l-ka'adah and Zu-'l-Hijjah (Nos. 1 or 2; 7,11 and 12) the yearly peace, during which a man might not kill his father's murderer. The idea must have taken deep root, as Arab history records only six "impious (or sacrilegious) wars," waged despite the law. Europeans compare it with the Treuga Dei (truce of God) a seven-years peace established about A.D. 1032, by a Bishop of Aquitaine; and followed in A.D. 1245 by the Pax Regis (Royal Peace) under Louis VIII. of France. This compelled the relations of a murdered man to keep the peace for forty days after the offence was committed.

[FN#73] His Majesty wrote sad doggrel. He is better at finessing, and his message was a trick because Rose-in-Hood had told him that at home there were special obstacles to the marriage.

[FN#74] Arab. "Majzub"=drawn, attracted (literally); the popular term for one absorbed in the contemplation of the Deity. During this process the soul is supposed to quit the body leaving the latter irresponsible for its actions. I remember a scandal being caused in a village near Tunis by one of these men who suddenly started up from his seat in a dusty corner and, in presence of a small crowd of people, had connection with a she-donkey. The supporters of the holy man declared that the deed was proof positive of his exceptional holiness; but there were lewd fellows, Moslems Voltaireans, who had their doubts and held that the reverend man had so acted "for the gallery." A similar story is told with due reserve by the late Abbe Hamilton in his book on the Cyrenaic. There are three grand divisions of the Sufis; (1) Mukiman, the stationaries; (2) Salikan, the travellers, or progressives, and (3) Wasilan, those who reach the desired end. And No. 2 has two classes: the Salik-i-majzub, one progressing in Divine Love; and the other, who has made greater progress, is the Majzub-i-Salik (Dabistan iii. 251).

[FN#75] Arab. "Sundus," a kind of brocade (low Lat. brocare to figure cloth), silk worked in high relief with gold and silver. The idea is figurative meaning it was hung outside and inside with fine stuff, like the Ka'abah, the "Bride of Meccah." The "lords" means simply the lost girl.

[FN#76] Arab. "Ayn" lit. eye, also a fount, "the eye of the landscape" (a noble simile); and here a helper, guard, assistant.

[FN#77] "Lord" for lady, i.e. she.

[FN#78] Arab. "Fi'l-khawafik"=in the four quarters or among the flappers (standards) or amid palpitations of heart. The bride alludes to a festal reception in a town, with burning incense, drums, flags, etc., etc.

[FN#79] In Egypt the shorter "honey-moon" lasts a week; and on the seventh day (pop. called Al-Subu'a) bride and bridegroom receive visits with all ceremony, of course in separate apartments. The seventh day (like the fortieth, the end of six months and the anniversary) is kept for births and deaths with Khatmahs (perlections) of the Koran "Saylah" family gatherings and so forth. The fortieth day ends the real honey-moon. See Night dccxcii.

[FN#80] I have noted the popular practice, amongst men as well as women, of hiring the Hammam for private parties and picnicking in it during the greater part of the day. In this tale the bath would belong to the public and it was a mere freak of the bride to bathe with her bridegroom. "Respectable" people do not.

[FN#81] She speaks in the last line as the barber or the bathman.

[FN#82] Here the "Ana" begin; and they mostly date themselves. Of the following forty-nine, Lane (vol. Ii. P. 578 et seq.) gives only twenty-two and transforms them to notes in chapt. xviii. He could hardly translate several of them in a work intended to be popular. Abu Nows is a person carefully to be avoided; and all but anthropological students are advised to "skip" over anecdotes in which his name and abominations occur.

[FN#83] Arab. "Ghilmn," the counter part, I have said, of the so-called "Houris."

[FN#84] Mosul boasts of never having been polluted with idolatrous worship, an exemption which it owes to being a comparatively modern place.

[FN#85] The Aleppines were once noted for debauchery; and the saying is still "Halabi Shelebi" (for Chelebi)=the Aleppine is a fellow fine.

[FN#86] Mr. Payne omits the last line. It refers to what Persian boys call, in half-Turkish phrase, "Alish Takish," each acting woman after he has acted man. The best wine is still made in monasteries and the co-called Sinai convent is world-famous for its "Rki" distilled from raisins.

[FN#87] i.e. what a difference there is between them!

[FN#88] Arab. "Salli ala 'l-Nabi," a common phrase; meaning not only praise hm to avert the evil eye; but also used when one would impose silence upon a babbler. The latter will shuffle off by ejaculating "Al" and continue his chatter. (Pilgrimage ii.279.)

[FN#89] Arab. "Sukt" (plur. of Ski, cupbearer, our old "skinker"): the pure gold (tibr) is the amber-coloured wine, like the Vino d'oro of the Libanus.

[FN#90] That is, fair, white and read: Turkish slaves then abounded at Baghdad.

[FN#91] A Wady near Meccah where one of Mohammed's battles was fought. The line means his waist is a thread connected broad breast and large hind quarters.

[FN#92] Arab. "Zaur" which may mean crooked, alluding to the well-known rib.

[FN#93] A pun. Bakr was the name of the eponymus chief and it also means virgin, as in Abu Bakr.

[FN#94] Arab. "Jmi'ayn"=two cathedrals, any large (and consequently vicious) city.

[FN#95] Arab. "Alm," before noticed: I cannot translate "damask-lipped" to suit European taste.

[FN#96] Sherbet flavoured with musk or apple to cool the mouth of "hot coppers."

[FN#97] Arab. "In'sh" lit. raising from his bier. The whole tone is rollicking and slangy.

[FN#98] i.e. In spite of himself: the phrase often occurs.

[FN#99] Europeans usually write "Beni" for "Banu;" the oblique for the nominative. I prefer "Odhrah" or "Ozrah" to Udhrah; because the Ayn before the Zl takes in pronunciation the more open sound.

[FN#100] Possibly meaning that they were shrouded together; this would be opposed to Moslem sense of decorum in modern days, but the ancient were not so squeamish. See Night cccxi.

[FN#101] This phase of passion in the "varium et mutabile" is often treated of by Oriental storytellers, and not unoften seen in real Eastern life.

[FN#102] As has been said, "Shib" (preceding the name not following it as in India) is a Wazirial title in medival Islam.

[FN#103] This parapet was rendered obligatory by Moses (Deut. xxii. 8) on account of the danger of leaving a flat roof without garde-fou. Eastern Christians neglect the precaution and often lose their children by the neglect.

[FN#104] Arab. "Lauh." A bit of thin board washed white used for lessons as slates are amongst us, and as easily cleaned because the inks contain no minerals. It is a long parallelogram with triangular ears at the short sides; and the shape must date from ages immemorial as it is found, throughout Syria and its adjoinings, in the oldest rock inscriptions to which the form serves as a frame. Hence the "abacus" or counting table derived from the Gr. , a slab (or in Phenician "sand"), dust or sand in old days having been strewed on a table or tablet for school- boys' writings and mathematical diagrams.

[FN#105] A pre-Islamic bard and friend to Tarafah the poet of the Suspended or "Prize Poem." The tale is familiar to all the Moslem East. Tarafah's Laura was one Khaul.

[FN#106] King of Hirah in Chalda, a drunken and bloodthirsty tyrant. When offended by the lampoons of the two poets he sent them with litter Bellerophonti to the Governor of Al-Bahrayn. Al-Mutalammis "smelt a rat" and destroyed his charged, but Tarafah was mutilated and buried alive, the victim of a trick which is old as (and older than) good King David and Uriah. Of course neither poet could read.

[FN#107] On this occasion, and in presence of the women only, the groom first sees or is supposed to see the face of his wife. It is, I have said, the fashion for both to be greatly overcome and to appear as if about to faint: the groom looks especially ridiculous when so attitudinising.

[FN#108] This leisurely operation of the "deed of kind" was sure to be noticed; but we do not find in The Nights any allusion to that systematic prolongatio veneris which is so much cultivated by Moslems under the name Imsk = retention, withholding i.e. the semen. Yet Eastern books on domestic medicine consist mostly of two parts; the first of general prescriptions and the second of aphrodisiacs especially those qui prolongent le plaisir as did the Gaul by thinking of sa pauvre mre. The Ananga-Ranga, by the Reverend Koka Pandit before quoted, gives a host of recipes which are used, either externally or internally, to hasten the paroxysm of the woman and delay the orgasm of the man (p. 27). Some of these are curious in the extreme. I heard of a Hindi who made a candle of frogs' fat and fibre warranted to retain the seed till it burned out; it failed notably because, relying upon it, he worked too vigorously. The essence of the "retaining art" is to avoid over-tension of the muscles and to pre-occupy the brain: hence in coition Hindus will drink sherbet, chew betel-nut and even smoke. Europeans ignoring the science and practice, are contemptuously compared with village-cocks by Hindu women who cannot be satisfied, such is their natural coldness, increased doubtless by vegetable diet and unuse of stimulants, with less than twenty minutes. Hence too while thousands of Europeans have cohabited for years with and have had families by "native women," they are never loved by them:—at least I never heard of a case.

[FN#109] Abu 'l Abbas al-Rakshi, a poet of the time. The saying became proverbial (Burckhardt's A. Proverbs No. 561) and there are variants, e.g. The night's promise is spread with butter that melteth when day ariseth.

[FN#110] Koran xxvi. 5,6 or "And those who err (Arab. Al- ghwn) follow the footsteps of the poets," etc.

[FN#111] Half-brother of Abdullah bin al-Zubayr, the celebrated pretender.

[FN#112] Grand-daughter of the Caliph Abu Bakr and the most beautiful woman of her day.

[FN#113] The Calc. Edit. by mistake reads "Izzah." Torrens (notes i.-xi.) remarks "The word Ghoonj is applied to this sort of blandishment (i.e. an affected gait), and says Burckhardt (Prov. No. 685), "The women of Cairo flatter themselves that their Ghoonj is superior to that of all other females in the Levant." But Torrens did not understand and Burckhardt would not explain "Ghunj" except by "assumed airs" (see No. 714). It here means the art of moving in coition, which is especially affected, even by modest women, throughout the East and they have many books teaching the genial art. In China there are professors, mostly old women, who instruct young girls in this branch of the gymnastic.

[FN#114] When reciting the Ftihah (opening Koranic chapter), the hands are held in this position as if to receive a blessing falling from Heaven; after which both palms are passed down the face to distribute it over the eyes and other organs of sense.

[FN#115] The word used is "biz'at" = capital or a share in a mercantile business.

[FN#116] This and the following names are those of noted traditionists of the eighth century, who derive back to Abdallah bin Mas'd, a "Companion of the Apostle." The text shows the recognised formula of ascription for quoting a "Hads" = saying of Mohammed; and sometimes it has to pass through half a dozen mouths.

[FN#117] Traditionists of the seventh and eighth centuries who refer back to the "Father of the Kitten" (Abu Horayrah), an uncle of the Apostle.

[FN#118] Eastern story-books abound in these instances. Pilpay says in "Kalilah was Dimnah," "I am the slave of what I have spoken and the lord of what I keep hidden." Sa'adi follows suit, "When thou speakest not a word, thou hast thy hand upon it; when it is once spoken it hath laid its hand on thee." Caxton, in the "Dyctes, or Sayings of Philosophers" (printed in 1477) uses almost the same words.

[FN#119] i.e. for her husband's and her sin in using a man like a beast.

[FN#120] See the Second Lady's story (tantt Kadi, tantt bandit), pp. 20-26 by my friend Yacoub Artin Pasha in the Bulletin before quoted, series ii. No. 4 of 1883. The sharpers' trick is common in Eastern folk-lore, and the idea that underlies is always metempsychosis or metamorphosis. So, in the Kalilah wa Dimnah (new Syriac), the three rogues persuade the ascetic that he is leading a dog not a sheep.

[FN#121] This is the popular prejudice and it has doubtless saved many a reputation. The bat is known to Moslems as the Bird of Jesus, a legend derived by the Koran from the Gospel of Infancy (1 chapt. xv. Hone's Apocryphal New Testament), in which the boy Jesus amuses herself with making birds of clay and commanding them to fly when (according to the Moslems) they became bats. These Apocryphal Gospels must be carefully read, if the student would understand a number of Moslem allusions to the Injl which no Evangel contains.

[FN#122] Because it quibbled away out of every question, a truly diplomatic art.

[FN#123] This Caliph, the orthodox Abbaside of Egypt (A.D. 1261) must not be confounded with the Druze-god, the heretical Fatimite (A.D. 996-1021). D'Herbelot (Hakem") gives details. Mr. S.L. Poole (The Academy, April 26, '79) is very severe on the slip of Mr. Payne.

[FN#124] The beautiful name is Persian "Anshn-rawn" = Sweet of Soul; and the glorious title of this contemporary of Mohammed is "Al-Malik al-Adil" = the Just King. Kisra, the Chosro per excellentiam, is also applied to the godly Guebre of whom every Eastern dictionary gives details.

[FN#125] "Sultan" is here an anachronism: I have noted that the title was first assumed independently by Mohammed of Ghazni after it had been conferred by the Caliph upon his father the Amir Al- Umar (Mayor of the Palace), Sabuktagin A.D. 974.

[FN#126] The "Sakk" or water-carrier race is peculiar in Egypt and famed for trickery and intrigue. Opportunity here as elsewhere makes the thief.

[FN#127] A famous saying of Mohammed is recorded when an indiscretion of his young wife Ayishah was reported to him, "There be no adultress without an adulterer (of a husband)." Fatimah the Apostle's daughter is supposed to have remained a virgin after bearing many children: this coarse symbolism of purity was known to the classics (Pausanias), who made Juno recover her virginity by bathing in a certain river every year. In the last phrase, "Al-Salaf" (ancestry) refers to Mohammed and his family.

[FN#128] Khusrau Parwiz, grandson of Anushirwan, the Guebre King who tore his kingdom by tearing Mohammed's letter married the beautiful Maria or Irene (in Persian "Shrn = the sweet) daughter of the Greek Emperor Maurice: their loves were sung by a host of poets; and likewise the passion of the sculptor Farhd for the same Shirin. Mr. Lyall writes "Parwz" and holds "Parwz" a modern form.

[FN#129] he could afford it according to historians. His throne was supported by 40,000 silver pillars; and 1,000 globes, hung in the dome, formed an orrery, showing the motion of the heavenly bodies; 30,000 pieces of embroidered tapestry overhung the walls below were vaults full of silver, gold and gems.

[FN#130] Arab. "Khuns," meaning also a catamite as I have explained. Lane (ii. 586) has it; "This fish is of a mixed kind." (!).

[FN#131] So the model lovers became the ordinary married couple.

[FN#132] Arab. "Jamm." Heb. "Yamm." Al-Harri (Ass. Of Sinjar and Swah) uses the rare form Yam for sea or ocean.

[FN#133] Al-Hadi, immediate predecessor of Harun al-Rashid, called "Al-Atbik": his upper lip was contracted and his father placed a slave over him when in childhood, with orders to say, "Musa! atbik!" (draw thy lips together) when he opened his mouth.

[FN#134] Immediate successor of Harun al-Rashid. Al-Amin is an imposing physical figure, fair, tall, handsome and of immense strength; according to Al-Mas'di, he killed a lion with his own hands; but his mind and judgement were weak. He was fond of fishing; and his reply to the courtier bringing important news, "Confound thee! leave me! for Kausar (an eunuch whom he loved) hath caught two fish and I none," reminds one of royal frivolity in France.

[FN#135] Afterwards governor in Khorasan under Al-Maamun.

[FN#136] Intendant of the palace under Harun al-Rashid.

[FN#137] Moslem women have this advantage over their Western sisterhood: they can always leave the house of father or husband and, without asking permission, pay a week or ten days' visit to their friends. But they are not expected to meet their lovers.

[FN#138] The tale of "Susannah and the Elders" in Moslem form. Dniyl is the Arab Daniel, supposed to have been buried at Alexandria. (Pilgrimage, i. 16.)

[FN#139] According to Moslem law, laid down by Mohammed on a delicate occasion and evidently for a purpose, four credible witnesses are required to prove fornication, adultery, sodomy and so forth; and they must swear that actually saw rem in re, the "Kohl-needle in the Kohl-tui," as the Arabs have it. This practically prevents conviction and the sabre cuts the Gordian knot.

[FN#140] Who, in such case, would represent our equerry.

[FN#141] The Badawi not only always tells the truth, a perfect contrast with the townsfolk; he is blunt in speech addressing his Sultan "O Sa'd!" and he has a hard rough humour which we may fairly describe as "wut." When you chaff him look out for falls.

[FN#142] The answer is as old as the hills, teste the tale of what happened when Amasis (who on horseback) raised his leg, "broke wind and bad the messenger carry it back to Apries." Herod. Ii. 162. But for the full significance of the Badawi's most insulting reply see the Tale of Abu Hasan in Night ccccxi.

[FN#143] Arab. "Y ski" al-Dakan" meaning long bearded (foolish) as well as frosty bearded.

[FN#144] P. N. of the tribe, often mentioned in The Nights.

[FN#145] Adnan, which whom Arab genealogy begins, is generally supposed to be the eighth (Al-Tabari says the fortieth) descendant from Ishmael and nine generations are placed between him and Fahr (Fihr) Kuraysh. The Prophet cut all disputes short by saying, "Beyond Adnan none save Allah wotteth and the genealogists lie." (Pilgrimage ii. 344) M.C. de Perceval dates Adnan about B.C. 130.

[FN#146] Koran xxxiii., 38.

[FN#147] Arab. "Arab al-Arab," as before noticed (vol. i. 12) the pure and genuine blood as opposed to the "Musta'aribah," the "Muta'arribah," the "Mosarabians" and other Araboids; the first springing from Khatan (Yaktan?) and the others from Adnan. And note that "Arabi" = a man of pure Arab race, either of the Desert or of the city, while A'arbi applies only to the Desert man, the Badawi.

[FN#148] Koran xxxviii. 2, speaking of the Unbelievers (i.e. non-Moslems) who are full of pride and contention.

[FN#149] One of the Ashb, or Companions of the Apostle, that is them who knew him personally. (Pilgrimage ii. 80, etc.) The Ashb al-Suffah (Companions of the bench or sofa) were certain houseless Believers lodged by the Prophet. (Pilgrimage ii. 143).

[FN#150] Hence Omar is entitled "Al-Adil = the Just." Readers will remember that by Moslem law and usage murder and homicide are offences to be punished by the family, not by society or its delegates. This system reappears in civilisation under the denomination of "Lynch Law," a process infinitely distasteful to lawyers (whom it abolishes) and most valuable when administered with due discretion.

[FN#151] Lane translates (ii. 592) "from a desire of seeing the face of God;" but the general belief of Al-Islam is that the essence of Allah's corporeal form is different from man's. The orthodox expect to "see their Lord on Doom-day as they see the full moon" (a tradition). But the Mu'atazilites deny with the existence of matter the corporiety of Alah and hold that he will be seen only with the spiritual eyes, i.e. of reason.

[FN#152] See Gesta Romanorum, Tale cviii., "of Constancy in adhering to Promises," founded on Damon and Pythias or, perhaps, upon the Arabic.

[FN#153] Arab. "Al-Ahrm," a word of unknown provenance. It has been suggested that the singular form (Haram), preceded by the Coptic article "pi" (= the) suggested to the Greeks "Pyramis." But this word is still sub judice and every Egyptologist seems to propose his own derivation. Brugsch (Egypt i. 72) makes it Greek, the Egyptian being "Abumir," while "pir- am-us" = the edge of the pyramid, the corners running from base to apex. The Egyptologist proves also what the Ancients either ignored or forgot to mention, that each pyramid had its own name.

[FN#154] Arab. "Ahkm," in this matter supporting the "Pyramidologists."

[FN#155] All imaginative.

[FN#156] It has always been my opinion founded upon considerations too long to detail, that the larger Pyramids contain many unopened chambers. Dr. Grant Bey of Cairo proposed boring through the blocks as Artesian wells are driven. I cannot divine why Lane (ii, 592) chose to omit this tale, which is founded on historic facts and interests us by suggesting a comparison between Medival Moslem superstitions and those of our xixth Century, which to our descendants will appear as wild, if not as picturesque, as those of The Nights. The "inspired British inch" and the building by Melchisedek (the Shaykh of some petty Syrian village) will compare not unaptly with the enchanted swords, flexible glass and guardian spirits. But the Pyramidennarren is a race which will not speedily die out: it is based on Nature, the Pyramids themselves.

[FN#157] Arab. "Rizm"; hence, through the Italian Risma our ream (= 20 quires of paper, etc.), which our dictionaries derive from (!). See "frail" in Night dcccxxxviii.

[FN#158] Arab. "Tarkah" = the path trodden by ascetics and mystics in order to attain true knowledge (Ma'rifat in Pers. Dnish). These are extensive subjects: for the present I must refer readers to the Dabistan, iii. 35 and iii. 29, 36-7.

[FN#159] Alluding to the Fishr or "Squeeze of the tomb." This is the Jewish Hibbut hakkeber which all must endure, save those who lived in the Holy Land or died on the Sabbath-eve (Friday night). Then comes the questioning by the Angels Munkar and Nakir (vulgarly called Nkir and Nakr) for which see Lane (M.E. chapt. xviii.). In Egypt a "Mulakkin" (intelligencer) is hired to prompt and instruct the dead. Moslems are beginning to question these facts of their faith: a Persian acquaintance of mine filled his dead father's mouth with flour and finding it in loco on opening the grave, publicly derided the belief. But the Mullahs had him on the hip, after the fashion of reverends, declaring that the answers were made through the whole body, not only by the mouth. At last the Voltairean had to quit Shiraz.

[FN#160] Arab. "Wal" = a saint, Santon (Ital. Form) also a slave. See in Richardson (Dissert. iii.), an illustration of the difference between Wali and Wli as exemplified by the Caliph al- Kdir and Mahmd of Ghazni.

[FN#161] Arab. "Tn" = the tenacious clay puddled with chaff which serves as mortar for walls built of Adobe or sun dried brick. I made a mistake in my Pilgrimage (i.10) translating Ras al-Tn the old Pharos of Alexandria, by "Headland of Figs." It is Headland of Clay, so called from the argile there found and which supported an old pottery.

[FN#162] The danik (Pers. Dang) is the sixth of a dirham. Mr. S. L. Poole (The Acad. April 26, '79) prefers his uncle's translation "a sixth" (what of?) to Mr. Payne's "farthing." The latter at any rate is intelligible. [FN#163] The devotee was "Sim al-dahr" i.e. he never ate nor drank from daylight to dark throughout the year.

[FN#164] The ablution of a common man differs from that of an educated Moslem as much as the eating of a clown and a gentleman. Moreover there are important technical differences between the Wuzu of the Sunni and the Shi'ah.

[FN#165] i.e., by honouring his father.

[FN#166] This young saint was as selfish and unnatural a sinner as Saint Alexius of the Gesta Romanorum (Tale xv.), to whom my friend, the late Thomas Wright, administered just and due punishment.

[FN#167] The verses are affecting enough, though by no means high poetry.

[FN#168] The good young man cut his father for two reasons: secular power (an abomination to good Moslems) and defective title to the Caliphate. The latter is a trouble to Turkey in the present day and with time will prove worse.

[FN#169] Umm Amr (written Amr and pronounced Amr') a matronymic, "mother of Amru." This story and its terminal verse is a regular Joe Miller.

[FN#170] Abuse and derision of schoolmaster are staple subjects in the East as in the West, (Quem Dii oderunt pdagogum fecerunt). Anglo-Indians will remember:

"Miyn-ji ti-ti! Bachche-k gnd men anguli k thi!" ("Schoolmaster hum! Who fumbled and fingered the little boy's bum?")

[FN#171] Arab. "Mujawirin" = the lower servants, sweepers, etc. See Pilgrimage ii. 161, where it is also applied to certain "settlers" at Al-Medinah. Burckhardt (No. 480) notices another meaning "foreigners who attend mosque-lectures" and quotes the saying, "A. pilgrimaged:" quoth B. "yes! and for his villanies resideth (Mujwir) at Meccah."

[FN#172] The custom (growing obsolete in Egypt) is preserved in Afghanistan where the learned wear turbans equal to the canoe- hats of the Spanish cardinals.

[FN#173] Arab. "Makmarah," a metal cover for the usual brasier or pan of charcoal which acts as a fire-place. Lane (ii. 600) does not translate the word and seems to think it means a belt or girdle, thus blunting the point of the dominie's excuse.

[FN#174] This story, a very old Joe Miller, was told to Lane as something new and he introduced it into his Modern Egyptians, end of chapt. ii.

[FN#175] This tale is a mere abbreviation of "The King and his Wazir's Wife," in the Book of Sindibad or the Malice of Women, Night dcxxviii., {which see for annotations}.

[FN#176] The older "Roe" which may be written "Rukh" or "Rukhkh." Colonel Yule, the learned translator of Marco Polo, has shown that "Roc's" feathers were not uncommon curiosities in medival ages; and holds that they were mostly fronds of the palm Raphia vinifera, which has the largest leaf in the vegetable kingdom and which the Moslems of Zanzibar call "Satan's date-tree." I need hardly quote "Frate Cipolla and the Angel Gabriel's Feather." (Decameron vi. 10.)

[FN#177] The tale is told in a bald, disjointed style and will be repeated in Sindbad the Seaman where I shall again notice the "Roc." See Night dxxxvii., etc.

[FN#178] Hrah in Mesopotamia was a Christian city and principality subject to the Persian Monarchs; and a rival to the Roman kingdom of Ghassn. It has a long history, for which see D'Herbelot.

[FN#179] A pre-Islamite poet.

[FN#180] Arab. "Bik'a," alluding to the pilgrimages made to monasteries and here equivalent to, "Address ye to the road," etc.

[FN#181] Whose by name was Abu Ali, a poet under the Abbasides (eighth and ninth centuries).

[FN#182] A well-known quarter of Baghdad, often mentioned in The Nights.

[FN#183] Another well-known poet of the time.

[FN#184] Arab. "Sardb": noticed before.

[FN#185] A gigantic idol in the Ka'abah, destroyed by Mohammed: it gave name to a tribe.

[FN#186] Arab. "Ya Kawwd:" hence the Port. and Span. Alcoviteiro.

[FN#187] Arab "Tufayli," a term before noticed; the class was as well-known in Baghdad and Cairo as in ancient Rome.

[FN#188] Arab. "Jauzar"=a bubalus (Antilope defessa), also called "Aye" from the large black eyes. This bovine antelope is again termed Bakar al-Wahsh (wild cattle) or "Bos Sylvestris" (incerti generic, Forsk.). But Janzar also signifies hart, so I render it by "Ariel" (the well-known antelope).

[FN#189] Arab. "Tarib" plur. of tarbah. The allusion is to the heart, and "the little him's a her."

[FN#190] A well-known poet of the ninth century (A.D.).

[FN#191] These easy deaths for love are a lieu common: See sundry of them in the Decameron (iv. 7, etc.); and, in the Heptameron (Nouv. Ixx.), the widow who lay down and died of love and sorrow that her passion had become known. For the fainting of lovers see Nouvelle xix.

[FN#192] This is a favourite Badawi dish, but too expensive unless some accident happen to the animal. Old camel is much like bull-beef, but the young meat is excellent, although not relished by Europeans because, like strange fish, it has no recognised flavour. I have noticed it in my "First Footsteps" (p. 68, etc.). There is an old idea in Europe that the maniacal vengeance of the Arab is increased by eating this flesh, the beast is certainly vindictive enough; but a furious and frantic vengefulness characterises the North American Indian who never saw a camel. Mercy and pardon belong to the elect, not to the miserables who make up " humanity."

[FN#193] i.e. of the Province Hazramaut, the Biblical Hazarmaveth (Gen. x. 26). The people are the Swill of Arabia and noted for thrift and hard bargains; hence the saying, If you meet a serpent and a Hazrami, slay the Hazrami. To prove how ubiquitous they are it is related that a man, flying from their society, reached the uttermost parts of China where he thought himself safe. But, as he was about to pass the night in some ruin, he heard a voice bard by him exclaim, "O Imd al-Din!" (the name of the patron-saint of Hazramaut). Thereupon he arose and fled and he is, they say, flying still.

[FN#194] Arab. "Fl" alluding to the Sortes Coranic and other silly practices known to the English servant-girs when curious about her future and her futur.

[FN#195] i.e., in Arab-land (where they eat dates) and Ajam, or lands non-Arab (where bread is the staff of life); that is, all the world over.

[FN#196] This story is curious and ethnologically valuable. The Badawi who eructates as a civility, has a mortal hatred to a crepitus ventris; and were a by-stander to laugh at its accidental occurrence, he would at once be cut down as a "pundonor." The same is the custom amongst the Highlanders of Afghanistan, and its artificial nature suggests direct derivation, for the two regions are separated by a host of tribes, Persians and Baloch, Sindis and Panjbis who utterly ignore the point of honour and behave like Europeans. The raids of the pre-Islamitic Arabs over the lands lying to the north-east of them are almost forgotten; still there are traces, and this may be one of them.

[FN#197] Arab. "Al-r." The Badawi saying is "Al-nr wa l l- r" (Hell-)fire, but not shame. The sentiment is noble. Hasan the Prophet's grandson, a poor creature demoralised by over- marrying, chose the converse, "Shame is better than Hell-fire." An old Arabic poem has,

"The Fire and not shame be the Lord of thee And e'en to The Fire from shame go flee."

Al-Hariri (Ass. of the Badawin) also has,

"For rather would I die my death than shame,— On bier be borne than bear a caitiff's name."

[FN#198] A grammarian and rhetorician of ninth century.

[FN#199] Once existing in Syrian Hamh (the Biblical Hamath); and so called because here died the Emperor Heraclius called by the Arabs "Hirakl."

[FN#200] Till lately it was the custom to confine madmen in Syrian monasteries, hoping a cure from the patron Saint, and a terrible time they had of it. Every guide book relates the healing process as formerly pursued at the Maronite Convent Koshaya not far from Bayrut. The idiot or maniac was thrust headlong by the monks into a dismal cavern with a heavy chain round his neck, and was tied up within a span of the wall to await the arrival of Saint Anthony who especially affects this holy place. In very few weeks the patient was effectually cured or killed by cold, solitude and starvation.

[FN#201] The Moslem Eve, much nearer the Hebrew "Hawah" = the "manifester," because (Gen. iii. 20) she was (to be) the mother of all that live ("Kull hayy").

[FN#202] The mad lover says "they" for "she," which would be too familiar in speaking to strangers.

[FN#203] i.e. falsely to report the death.

[FN#204] A famous grammarian, etc., of the tenth century.

[FN#205] The classical Amorium in Phrygia now Anatolia: Anbr is a town (before mentioned) on the Euphrates; by the rules of Arabic grammar the word is pronounced (though never written) Ambr.

[FN#206] "Art thou not the slave of the Messiah, the Rhib (monk)?" "No! I am the slave of Allah, the Rghib (desirous of mercy from the Almighty). " A fair specimen of the Saj'a or rhymed prose. Abdallah (properly "Abdu'llah:") is a kind of neutral name, neither Jewish, Moslem nor Christian; hence I adopted it, (Pilgrimage i. 20.)

[FN#207] Arab. "Hanut," prop. a tavern where liquors are sold, a term applied contemptuously to shops, inns, etc., kept by Christians.

[FN#208] Arab. "Shirk" = syntheism of the "Mushrik" (one who makes other gods partners with God), a word pronounced "Mushrit" by the Wahhabis and the Badawin.

[FN#209] Koran vii. 195. The passage declaims against the idols of the Arabs, sun, moon. stars, etc.

[FN#210] This minor miracle is commonly reported, and is not, I believe, unknown to modern "Spiritualism." The dead Wali or Waliyah (Saintess) often impels the bier-bearers to the spot where he would be buried: hence in Cairo the tombs scattered about the city. Lane notices it, Mod. E. chaps. xxviii.

[FN#211] Koran x. 36, speaking of being turned aside from the true worship.

[FN#212] One of the Wazirs of al-Maamun, Kurrat al-Ayn = "coolness (i.e. delight) of the eyes" Ali bin Hishm surnamed Abu'l-Hasan, was prefect of Baghdad under the same reign.

[FN#213] The Mac. Edit. (ii. 448) reads for Kawid (plur. of Kid = Governors, Span. Alcayde) "Fawid": hence Lane (ii. 606) translates " try thy heart."

[FN#214] The mats of Sind were famous even in my day, but under English rule native industries are killed out by Manchester and Birmingham.

[FN#215] Sajh was the name of a famous female impostor, a contemporary of "Musaylimah the Liar."

[FN#216] A poet of Mohammed's day.

[FN#217] A singer and composer of the first century (A. H.).

[FN#218] Arab = a roe, a doe; also the Yoni (of women, mares and bitches). It is the Heb. Tabitha and the Greek Dorcas.

[FN#219] Within the Hudd al-Harem (bounds of the Holy Places), at Al-Medinah as well as Meccah, all "Muharramt" (forbidden sins) are doubly unlawful, such as drinking spirits, immoral life, etc. The Imam Malik forbids slaying animals without, however, specifying any penalty. The felling of trees is a disputed point; and no man can be put to death except invaders, infidels and desecraters. (Pilgrimage ii. 167.)

[FN#220] A poet of the first century (A.H.).

[FN#221] In Arab. =a fawn beginning to walk, also the 28th lunar mansion or station, usually known as Batn al-Hut or Whale's belly. These mansions or houses, the constellations through which the moon passes in her course along her orbit, are much used in Moslem astrology and meteorology.

[FN#222] Arab. Kalla-m = it is seldom (rare) that etc. used in books.

[FN#223] Dishonoured by his love being made public. So Hafiz, Petrarch and Camoens.

[FN#224] Sixth Abbaside, A.D. 809-813.

[FN#225] Ala'llah, tenth Abbaside, A. H. 232-47 (847-61), grandson of Al-Rashid who succeeded Al-Wsik. He was a fanatic Sunni, much opposed to the Shi'ahs and he ordered the Christians to wear round their necks the Ghull (collar of wood, iron, or leather), to dress in yellow head-gear and girdles, use wooden stirrups and place figures of devils in front of their dwelling-houses. He also gave distinct dresses to their women and slaves. The Ghull, or collar, was also used for a punishment and vermin gathered under it when riveted round the neck: hence Golius calls it "pediculosum columbar."

[FN#226] Wazir of the above. killed by al-Muntasir Billah A. H. 247 (= 861).

[FN#227] Easterns during purgation are most careful and deride the want of precaution in Europeans. They do not leave the house till all is passed off, and avoid baths, wine and women which they afterwards resume with double zest. Here "breaking the seal" is taking the girl's maidenhead.

[FN#228] Johannes, a Greek favoured by Al-Mutawakkil and other Abbaside Caliphs.

[FN#229] Lady of Shaykhs, elders in the faith and men of learning

[FN#230] = A.D. 1166.

[FN#231] Koran iv. 38. I have before noted what the advantages are.

[FN#232] Koran ii. 282, "of those whom ye shall choose for witnesses."

[FN#233] Koran iv. 175, "Whereas if there be two sisters, they inherit only two-thirds between them."

[FN#234] The secondary meaning is "F'il" = the active sodomite and "Mafa'l" = the passive, a catamite: the former is not an insulting word, the latter is a most injurious expression. "Novimus et qui te!"

[FN#235] It is an unpleasant fact that almost all the poetry of Hfiz is addressed to youths, as we see by the occasional introduction of Arabic (e.g., Afka'llh). Persian has no genders properly so called, hence the effect is less striking. Sa'di, the "Persian Moralist" begins one of the tales, "A certain learned man fell in love with a beautiful son of a blacksmith," which Gladwin, translating for the general, necessarily changed to "daughter."

[FN#236] The famous author of the Anthology called Al-Hamsah.

[FN#237] i.e., teeth under the young mustachio.

[FN#238] The "Silk man" and the celebrated author of the Makmt, assemblies or seances translated (or attempted) into all the languages of Europe. We have two in English, the first by Theodore Preston, M.A. (London, Madden, 1850); but it contains only twenty of the fifty pieces. The second by the late Mr. Chenery (before alluded to) ends with the twenty-sixth assembly: one volume in fact, the other never having been finished. English readers, therefore, are driven to the grand edition of the Makmt in folio by Baron Silvestre de Sacy.

[FN#239] The sword of the eye has a Hamil (baldrick worn over right shoulder, Pilgrimage i. 352) to support the "Ghimd" (vulg. Ghamad) or scabbard (of wood or leather): and this baldrick is the young whisker.

[FN#240] The conceit of "Sulfat" (ptisane, grape juice allowed to drain on the slabs) and "Sawlif" (tresses, locks) has been explained. The newest wine is the most inebriating, a fact not much known in England, but familiar to the drinker of "Vino novo."

[FN#241] Koran xii. 51, this said by the nobleman's (Potiphar's) wife who adds, "I selected him to lie with me; and he (Joseph) is one of those who speak truth."

[FN#242] Here we have a specimen of the strained Saj'a or balanced prose: slave-girls (jawr) are massed with flowing tears (dam'u jri) on account of the Kfiyah or rhyme.

[FN#243] The detected sodomite is punished with death according to Moslem law, but again comes the difficulty of proof. At Shiraz I have heard of a pious Moslem publicly executing his son.

[FN#244] Koran xxvi. 165 et seq. The Lord speaks to the "people of Lot" (Sodomites). Mr. Payne renders "Min al-lamma," "from the four corners of the world."

[FN#245] Meaning before and behind, a Moslemah "Bet Balmanno."

[FN#246] Arab. " Lti," (plur. Lawt), much used in Persian as a buffoon, a debauchee, a rascal. The orig. sig. is "One of (the people of) Lot." The old English was Ingle or Yngle (a bardachio, a catamite, a boy kept for sodomy), which Minsheu says is, "Vox hispanica et significat Latin Inguen" (the groin). Our vulgar modern word like the Italian bugiardo is pop. derived from Fr. Bougre, alias Bulgarus, a Bulgarian, a heretic: hence Boulgrin (Rabelais i. chaps. ii.) is popularly applied to the Albigeois (Albigenses, whose persecution began shortly after A.D. 1200) and the Lutherans. I cannot but think that "bougre" took its especial modern signification after the French became acquainted with the Brazil, where the Huguenots (in A.D. 1555) were founding a Nouvelle France, alias Equinoctiale, alias Antarctique, and whence the savages were carried as curiosities to Paris. Their generic name was "Bugre" (properly a tribe in Southern Brazil, but applied to all the redskins) and they were all born Sodomites. More of this in the terminal Essay.

[FN#247] His paper is the whiteness of his skin. I have quoted the Persian saying of a young beard: "his cheeks don mourning for his beauty's death."

[FN#248] Arab. "Khabl," lit. the pus which flows from the bodies of the damned.

[FN#249] Most characteristic of Egypt is all this scene. Her reverence, it is true, sits behind a curtain; but her virtue uses language which would shame the lowest European prostitute; and which is filthy almost as Dean Swift's.

[FN#250] Arab. "Niyat:" the Moslem's idea of intentions quite runs with the Christian's. There must be a "Niyat" or purpose of prayer or the devotion is valueless. Lane tells a pleasant tale of a thief in the Mosque, saying "I purpose (before Prayer) to carry off this nice pair of new shoes!"

[FN#251] Arab. "Ya 'l-Ajz" (in Cairo "Agooz" pronounced "Ago-o- oz"): the address is now insulting and would elicit "The old woman in thine eye" (with fingers extended). In Egypt the polite address is "O lady (Sitt), O pilgrimess, O bride, and O daughter" (although she be the wrong side of fifty). In Arabia you may say "O woman (Imraah)" but in Egypt the reply would be "The woman shall see Allah cut out thy heart!" So in Southern Italy you address "bella f" (fair one) and cause a quarrel by "vecchiarella."

[FN#252] Governor of Egypt, Khorasan, etc. under Al-Maamun.

[FN#253] i.e., a companion, a solacer: it is also a man's name (vol. i. xxiv.).

[FN#254] At Baghdad; evidently written by a Baghdad or Mosul man.

[FN#255] A blind traditionist of Bassorah (ninth century).

[FN#256] Arab. "Zaghab"=the chick's down; the warts on the cucumber which sometimes develop into projections.

[FN#257] The Persian saying is, A kiss without moustachio is bread without salt.

[FN#258] "And We will prove you with evil, and with good, for a trial of you; and unto Us shall ye return." (Koran xxi. 36.) The saying is always in the Moslem's mouth.

[FN#259] Arab. "Sunnat," lit.=a law, especially applied to the habit and practice of the Apostle in religious and semi-religious matters, completing the "Hadis," or his spoken words. Anything unknown is entitled "Bida'ah"=innovation. Hence the strict Moslem is a model Conservative whose exemplar of life dates from the seventh century. This fact may be casuistically explained away; but is not less an obstacle to all progress and it will be one of the principal dangers threatening Al-Islam. Only fair to say that an "innovation" introduced by a perfect follower of the Prophet is held equal theoretically to a Sunnat; but vulgarly it is said, "The rabble will not take gold which is not coined."

[FN#260] Arab. "Arsh"=the ninth Heaven, the Throne of the Deity, above the Seven Heavens of the planets and the Primum Mobile which, in the Ptolemaic system, sets them all in motion.

[FN#261] This description of a good Moslem's death is at once concise, pathetic and picturesque.

[FN#262] This is the first mention of coffee; apparently introduced by the scribe: the word rendered "coffee-makers" is "Kahwajiyah"; an Arab. plur. of a Turkish termination (-ji) to an Arab. word "Kahwah" (before noticed).

[FN#263] Picnics are still made to Rauzah (Rodah) island: I have enjoyed many a one, but the ground is all private property.

[FN#264] Arab. "Hosh," plur. Hshn, the low courts surrounded by mean lodgings which in "native" Cairo still contrast so strongly with the "gingerbread" of the new buildings.

[FN#265] This is the Moslem equivalent of "thank you." He looks upon the donor as the channel through which Allah sends him what he wants and prays for more to come. Thus "May your shadow never be less" means, May you increase in prosperity so that I may gain thereby! And if a beggar is disposed to be insolent (a very common case), he will tell you his mind pretty freely on the subject, and make it evident to you that all you have is also his and that La proprit (when not shared) est le vol.

[FN#266] I have noticed in my Pilgrimage (i. 51-53) the kindly care with which the stranger is treated by Moslems, a marvellous contrast to the ways of "civilization."

[FN#267] Arab. "Dimyat," vulg. pronounced "Dumyat."

[FN#268] Where the door-keepers sit and receive their friends.

[FN#269] This is a traveller's 'Kit' in the East.

[FN#270] Arab. "Takht-rawn," from Persian meaning "moveable throne."

[FN#271] The use of the expression proved the speaker to be a Moslem Jinn.

[FN#272] The "haunted" house proper, known to the vulgar and to spiritualists becomes, I have said, amongst Moslems a place tenanted by Jinns.

[FN#273] Needless to say there never was a Sultan or a King of Baghdad nor a Duke of Athens. This story would seem not to have been written by the author of "the Emir bin Tahir," etc. Night ccccxxiv.

[FN#274] Plur. of lim=one learned in the law, a D.D. Mohammed did his best to abolish the priest and his craft by making each Moslem paterfamilias a pontifex in his own household and he severely condemned monkery and celibacy. But human nature was too much for him: even before his death ascetic associations began to crop up. Presently the Olema in Al-Islam formed themselves into a kind of clergy; with the single but highly important difference that they must (or ought to) live by some honest secular calling and not by the "cure of souls"; hence Mahomet IV. of Turkey was solemnly deposed. So far and no farther Mohammed was successful and his success has secured for him the lively and lasting hatred of the ecclesiastical caste which he so honestly and wisely attempted to abate. Even to the present day missionaries have a good word for the Guebre and the Buddhist, the Brahmanist and the Confucian, but none for the Moslem: Dr. Livingstone, for one instance of many, evidently preferred the Fetichist, whom he could convert, to the Unitarian Faithful whom he could not.

[FN#275] i.e. they recited seven times (an unusual number), for greater solemnity, the opening Chapter of the Koran which does general duty on such occasions as making covenants and swearing fealty. This proclaiming a King by acclamation suggests the origin of the old and venerable Portuguese institution.

[FN#276] By affixing his own seal and that of the King. This in later times was supplanted by the "Tughr," the imperial cypher or counter-mark (much like a writing master's flourish), with which Europe has now been made familiar through the agency of Turkish tobacco.

[FN#277] Arab. "Wird"=the twenty-five last chapters of the Koran which are repeated, one or more at a time, after the end of the "Farz," or obligatory prayers and ad libitum with the Sunnat or customary, and the Nfilah or supererogatory.

[FN#278] The sensible creed of Al-Islam freely allows anthropophagy when it saves life; a contrast to the sentimentalism of the West which brings a "charge of cannibalism" against unfortunate expeditionists. I particularly allude to the scandalous pulings of the English Press over the gallant and unfortunate Greely voyage. (The Academy, Sept. 25, 1884.)

[FN#279] The story is mere sopic: the "Two dogs" contains it all. One of Mohammed's sensible sayings is recorded and deserves repetition:—"Empire endureth with infidelity (idolatry, etc.), but not with tyranny."

[FN#280] This couplet occurs in Night xxi. (vol. i. 207); so I give Torrens (p.207) by way of variety.

[FN#281] Lane (ii. 636) omits this tale, "as it would not only require a volume of commentary but be extremely tiresome to most readers." Quite true; but it is valuable to Oriental Students who are beginning their studies, as an excellent compendium of doctrine and practice according to the Shafi' School.

[FN#282] Pronounced Aboo 'l-Husn = Father of Beauty, a fancy name.

[FN#283] As in most hot climates so in Egypt the dead are buried at once despite the risk of vivisepulture. This seems an instinct with the Semitic (Arabian) race teste Abraham, as with the Gypsy. Hence the Moslems have invoked religious aid. The Mishkt al-Masbih (i. 387) makes Mohammed say, "When any one of you dieth you may not keep him in the house but bear him quickly to his grave"; and again, "Be quick in raising up the bier: for if the dead have been a good man, it is good to bear him gravewards without delay; and if bad, it is frowardness ye put from your necks."

[FN#284] This biting of the hand in Al-Harri expresses bitterness of repentance and he uses more than once the Koranic phrase (chapter vii., 148) "Sukita f aydhim," lit. where it (the biting) was fallen upon their hands; i.e. when it repented them; "sukita" being here not a passive verb as it appears, but an impersonal form uncommon in Arabic. The action is instinctive, a survival of the days when man was a snarling and snapping animal (physically) armed only with claws and teeth.

[FN#285] Arab. "'Alam," applied to many things, an "old man" of stones (Kkr), a signpost with a rag on the top, etc.

[FN#286] The moon of Ramazan was noticed in Night ix. That of Sha'aban (eighth month) begins the fighting month after the conclusion of the Treuga Dei in Rajab. See Night ccclxxviii.

[FN#287] These lines have occurred in Night cccxix. I give Mr. Payne's version for variety.

[FN#288] i.e. in her prime, at fourteen to fifteen.

[FN#289] i.e. pale and yellow.

[FN#290] The word means the wood; but it alludes to a preparation made by levigating it on a stone called in India "Sandls." The gruel-like stuff is applied with the right hand to the right side of the neck, drawing the open fingers from behind forwards so as to leave four distinct streaks, then down to the left side, and so on to the other parts of the body.

[FN#291] Arab. "Haykal" which included the Porch, the Holy and the Holy of Holies. The word is used as in a wider sense by Josephus A. J. v. v. 3. In Moslem writings it is applied to a Christian Church generally, on account of its images.

[FN#292] These lines having occurred before, I here quote Mr. Payne.

[FN#293] Arab writers often mention the smile of beauty, but rarely, after European fashion, the laugh, which they look upon as undignified. A Moslem will say "Don't guffaw (Kahkahah) in that way; leave giggling and grinning to monkeys and Christians." The Spaniards, a grave people, remark that Christ never laughed. I would draw the reader's attention to a theory of mine that the open-hearted laugh has the sound of the vowels a and o; while e, i, and u belong to what may be roughly classed as the rogue order.

[FN#294] i.e. gaining the love of another, love.

[FN#295] i.e. the abrogated passages and those by which they are abrogated. This division is necessary for "inspired volumes," which always abound in contradictions. But the charge of "opportunism" brought against the Koran is truly absurd; as if "revelation" could possibly be aught save opportune.

[FN#296] Koran iv. 160, the chapter "Women."

[FN#297] She unveiled, being a slave-girl and for sale. If a free woman show her face to a Moslem, he breaks out into violent abuse, because the act is intended to let him know that he is looked upon as a small boy or an eunuch or a Chriastian—in fact not a man.

[FN#298] Ilah=Heb. El, a most difficult root, meaning strength, interposition, God (Numen) "the" (article) "don't" (do not), etc. etc.

[FN#299] As far as I know Christians are the only worshippers who kneel as if their lower legs were cut off and who "join hands" like the captive offering his wrists to be bound (dare manus). The posture, however, is not so ignoble as that of the Moslem "Sijdah" (prostration) which made certain North African tribes reject Al-Islam saying, "These men show their hind parts to heaven."

[FN#300] i.e. saying "I intend (purpose) to pray (for instance) the two-bow prayer (ruka'tayn) of the day-break," etc.

[FN#301] So called because it prohibits speaking with others till the prayer is ended.

[FN#302] Lit. "any thing opposite;" here used for the Ka'abah towards which men turn in prayer; as Guebres face the sun or fire and idolators their images. "Al-Kiblatayn" (= the two Kiblahs) means Meccah and Jerusalem, which was faced by Moslems as well as Jews and Christians till Mohammed changed the direction. For the occasion of the change see my Pilgrimage, ii. 320.

[FN#303] Which includes Tayammum or washing with sand. This is a very cleanly practice in a hot, dry land and was adopted long before Mohammed. Cedrenus tells of baptism with sand being administered to a dying traveller in the African desert.

[FN#304] The Koranic order for Wuz is concise and as usual obscure, giving rise to a host of disputes and casuistical questions. Its text runs (chapt. v.), "O true believers, when you prepare to pray, wash (Ghusl) your faces, and your hands unto the elbows; and rub (Mas-h) your hands and your feet unto the ankles; and if ye be unclean by having lain with a woman, wash (Ghusl) yourselves all over." The purifications and ceremonious ablutions of the Jews originated this command; and the early Christians did very unwisely in not making the bath obligatory. St. Paul (Heb. xi. 22) says, "Let us draw near with a true heart...having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with clean (or pure) water." But this did not suffice. Hence the Eastern Christian, in hot climates where cleanliness should rank before godliness, is distinguished by his dirt which as a holy or reverend man he makes still dirtier, and he offers an ugly comparison with the Moslem and especially the Hindu. The neglect of commands to wash and prohibitions to drink strong waters are the two grand physical objections of the Christian code of morality.

[FN#305] Arab. "Istinshk"=snuffing up water from the palm of the right hand so as to clean thoroughly the nostrils. This "function" is unreasonably neglected in Europe, to the detriment of the mucous membrane and the olfactory nerves.

[FN#306] So as to wash between them. The thick beard is combed out with the fingers.

[FN#307] Poor human nature! How sad to compare ita pretensions with its actualities.

[FN#308] Complete ablution is rendered necessary chiefly by the emission of semen either in copulation or in nocturnal pollution. The water must be pure and not less than a certain quantity, and it must touch every part of the skin beginning with the right half of the person and ending with the left. Hence a plunge-bath is generally preferred.

[FN#309] Arab. "Ta'mm," lit. crowning with turband, or tiara, here=covering, i.e. wetting.

[FN#310] This practice (saying "I purpose to defer the washing of the feet," etc.) is now somewhat obsolete.

[FN#311] Arabs have a prejudice against the hydropathic treatment of wounds, holding that water poisons them: and, as the native produce usually contains salt, soda and magnesia, they are justified by many cases. I once tried water-bandages in Arabia and failed dismally.

[FN#312] The sick man says his prayers lying in bed, etc., and as he best can.

[FN#313] i.e. saying, "And peace be on us and on the worshippers of Allah which be pious."

[FN#314] i.e. saying, " I seek refuge with Allah from Satan the Stoned."

[FN#315] Certain parts should be recited aloud (jahr) and others sotto voce (with mussitation=Khafi). No mistake must be made in this matter where a Moslem cannot err.

[FN#316] Hence an interest of two-and-a-half percent is not held to be "Rib" or unlawful gain of money by money, usury.

[FN#317] The meal must be finished before the faster can plainly distinguish the white thread from the black thread (Koran ii. 183); some understand this literally, others apply it to the dark and silvery streak of zodiacal light which appears over the Eastern horizon an hour or so before sunrise. The fast then begins and ends with the disappearance of the sun. I have noticed its pains and penalties in my Pilgrimage, i. 110, etc.

[FN#318] For the "Azn" or call to prayer see Lane, M. E., chapt. xviii. The chant, however, differs in every country, and a practical ear will know the land by its call.

[FN#319] Arab. "Hads" or saying of the Apostle.

[FN#320] "Al-I'itikaf" resembles the Christian "retreat;" but the worshipper generally retires to a mosque, especially in Meccah. The Apostle practised it on Jabal Hira and other places.

[FN#321] The word is the Heb. "Hagg" whose primary meaning is circularity of form or movement. Hence it applied to religious festivals in which dancing round the idol played a prime part; and Lucian of "saltation" says, dancing was from the beginning and coeval with the ancient god, Love. But man danced with joy before he worshipped, and, when he invented a systematic saltation, he made it represent two things, and only two things, love and war, in most primitive form, courtship and fighting.

[FN#322] Two adjoining ground-waves in Meccah. For these and for the places subsequently mentioned the curious will consult my Pilgrimage, iii. 226, etc.

[FN#323] The 'Umrah or lesser Pilgrimage, I have noted, is the ceremony performed in Meccah at any time out of the pilgrim-season proper, i.e. between the eighth and tenth days of the twelfth lunar month Zu 'l-Hijjah. It does not entitle the Moslem to be called Hjj (pilgrim) or Hj as Persians and Indians corrupt the word.

[FN#324] I need hardly note that Mohammed borrowed his pilgrimage-practices from the pagan Arabs who, centuries before his day, danced around the Meccan Ka'abah. Nor can he be blamed for having perpetuated a Gentile rite, if indeed it be true that the Ka'abah contained relics of Abraham and Ishmael.

[FN#325] On first sighting Meccah. See Night xci.

[FN#326] Arab. "Tawf:" the place is called Matf and the guide Mutawwif. (Pilgrimage, iii. 193, 205.) The seven courses are termed Ashwt.

[FN#327] Stoning the Devil at Mina. (Pilgrimage, iii. 282.) Hence Satan's title "the Stoned" (lapidated not castrated).

[FN#328] Koran viii. 66; in the chapter entided "Spoil," and relating mainly to the "day of Al-Bedr.

[FN#329] Arab. "AI-Iklah"= cancelling: Mr. Payne uses the technical term "resiliation."

[FN#330] Freedman of Abdallah, son of the Caliph Omar and noted as a traditionist.

[FN#331] i.e. at a profit: the exchange must be equal—an ordinance intended to protect the poor. Arabs have strange prejudices in these matters; for instance it disgraces a Badawi to take money for milk.

[FN#332] Arab. "Jam'ah," which in theology means the Greek , our "Church," the congregation of the Faithful under a lawful head. Hence the Sunnis call themselves "People of the Sunnat and Jam'at." In the text it is explained as "Ulfat" or intimacy.

[FN#333] Arab. "Al-Khall," i.e. of Allah=Abraham. Mohammed, following Jewish tradition, made Abraham rank second amongst the Prophets, inferior only to himself and superior to Hazrat Isa=Jesus. I have noted that Ishmael the elder son succeeded his father. He married Da'alah bint Muzz bin Omar, a Jurhamite, and his progeny abandoning Hebrew began to speak Arabic (ta'arraba); hence called Muta'arribah or Arabised Arabs. (Pilgrimage iii. 190.) He died at Meccah and was buried with his mother in the space North of the Ka'abah called Al-Hijr which our writers continue to confuse with the city Al-Hijr. (Ibid. 165-66.)

[FN#334] This ejaculation, "In the name of Allah" is, I have noted, equivalent to "saying grace." If neglected it is a sin and entails a curse.

[FN#335] The ceremonious posture is sitting upon the shin-bones, not tailor-fashion; and "bolting food" is a sign of boorishness.

[FN#336] Arab. "Zidd," the word is a fair specimen of Arabic ambiguity meaning primarily opposite or contrary (as virtue to vice), secondarily an enemy or a friend (as being opposite to an enemy).

[FN#337] "The whole earth (shall be) but His handful on the Resurrection day and in His right hand shall the Heaven be rolled up (or folded together)."-Koran xxxix. 67.

[FN#338] See Night lxxxi.

[FN#339] Koran lxxviii. 19.

[FN#340] Arab. "Al-Munfik," technically meaning one who outwardly professes Al-Islam while inwardly hating it. Thus the word is by no means synonymous with our "hypocrite," hypocrisy being the homage vice pays to virtue; a homage, I may observe, nowhere rendered more fulsomely than among the so-called Anglo-Saxon race.

[FN#341] Arab. "Tawakkul al 'llah": in the imperative the phrase is vulgarly used="Be off!"

[FN#342] i.e. ceremonial impurity which is sui generis, a very different thing from general dirtiness.

[FN#343] A thick beard is one which does not show the skin; otherwise the wearer is a "Kausaj;" in Pers. "Kseh." See vol. iii., 246.

[FN#344] Arab. "Al-Khutnah." Nowhere commanded in the Koran and being only a practice of the Prophet, the rite is not indispensable for converts, especially the aged and the sick. Our ideas upon the subject are very hazy, for modern "niceness" allows a "Feast of the Circumcision," but no discussion thereon. Moses (alias Osarsiph) borrowed the rite from the Egyptian hierophants who were all thus "purified"; the object being to counteract the over-sensibility of the "sixth sense" and to harden the glans against abrasions and infection by exposure to air and friction against the dress. Almost all African tribes practise it but the modes vary and some are exceedingly curious: I shall notice a peculiarly barbarous fashion called Al-Salkh (the flaying) still practised in the Arabian province Al-Asr. (Pilgrimage iii. 80.) There is a difference too between the Hebrew and the Moslem rite. The Jewish operator, after snipping off the foreskin, rips up the prepuce with his sharp thumb-nails so that the external cutis does not retract far from the internal; and the wound, when healed, shows a narrow ring of cicatrice. This ripping is not done by Moslems. They use a stick as a probe passed round between glans and prepuce to ascertain the extent of the frenum and that there is no abnormal adhesion. The foreskin is then drawn forward and fixed by the forceps, a fork of two bamboo splints, five or six inches long by a quarter thick, or in some cases an iron like our compasses. This is tied tightly over the foreskin so as to exclude about an inch and a half of the prepuce above and three quarters below. A single stroke of the razor drawn directly downwards removes the skin. The slight bleeding is stopped by burnt rags or ashes and healed with cerates, pledgets and fumigations. Thus Moslem circumcision does not prevent the skin retracting.

[FN#345] Of these 6336 versets only some 200 treat on law, civil and ceremonial, fiscal and political, devotional and ceremonial, canonical and ecclesiastical.

[FN#346] The learned young woman omitted Ukhnkh=Enoch, because not in Koran; and if she denoted him by "Idrs," the latter is much out of place.

[FN#347] Some say grandson of Shem. (Koran vii. 71.)

[FN#348] Koran vii. 63, etc.

[FN#349] Father-in-law of Moses. (Koran vii. 83.)

[FN#350] Who is the last and greatest of the twenty-five.

[FN#351] See Night ccccxxxviii.

[FN#352] Koran ii., whose 256th Ayah is the far-famed and sublime Throne-verse which begins "Allah! there is no god but He, the Living, the Eternal One, whom nor slumber nor sleep seizeth on!" The trivial name is taken from the last line, "His throne overstretcheth Heaven and Earth and to Him their preservation is no burden for He is the most Highest, the Supreme." The lines are often repeated in prayers and engraved on agates, etc., as portable talismans.

[FN#353] Koran ii. 159.

[FN#354] Koran xvi. 92. The verset ends with, "He warneth you, so haply ye may be mindful."

[FN#355] Koran lxx. 38.

[FN#356] Koran xxxix. 54.

[FN#357] The Sunnis hold that the "Anbiy" (=prophets, or rather announcers of Allah's judgments) were not sinless. But this dogma is branded as most irreverent and sinful by the Shi'ahs or Persian "followers of Ali," who make capital out of this blasphemy and declare that if any prophet sinned he sinned only against himself.

[FN#358] Koran xii. 18.

[FN#359] Koran ii. 107.

[FN#360] Koran ii. 57. He (Allah) does not use the plurale majestatis.

[FN#361] Koran ii. 28.

[FN#362] Koran xvi. 100. Satan is stoned in the Min or Mun basin (Night ccccxlii.) because he tempted Abraham to disobey the command of Allah by refusing to sacrifice Ishmael. (Pilgrimage iii. 248.)

[FN#363] It may also mean "have recourse to God."

[FN#364] Abdallah ibn Abbas, before noticed, first cousin of Mohammed and the most learned of the Companions. See D'Herbelot.

[FN#365] Koran xcvi., "Blood-clots," 1 and 2. "Read" may mean "peruse the revelation" (it was the first Koranic chapter communicated to Mohammed), or "recite, preach."

[FN#366] Koran xxvii. 30. Mr. Rodwell (p.1) holds to the old idea that the "Basmalah" is of Jewish origin, taught to the Kuraysh by Omayyah, of Taif, the poet and Hanf (convert).

[FN#367] Koran ix.: this was the last chapter revealed and the only one revealed entire except verse 110.

[FN#368] Ali was despatched from Al-Medinah to Meccah by the Prophet on his own slit-eared camel to promulgate this chapter; and meeting the assembly at Al-'Akabah he also acquainted them with four things; (1) No Infidel may approach the Meccah temple; (2) naked men must no longer circut the Ka'abah; (3) only Moslems enter Paradise, and (4) public faith must be kept.

[FN#369] Dictionaries give the word "Basmalah" (=saying Bismillah); but the common pronunciation is "Bismalah."

[FN#370] Koran xvii. 110, a passage revealed because the Infidels, hearing Mohammed calling upon The Compassionate, imagined that Al-Rahmn was other deity but Allah. The "names" have two grand divisions, Asm Jall, the fiery or terrible attributes, and the Asm Jaml (airy, watery, earthy or) amiable. Together they form the Asm al-Husna or glorious attributes, and do not include the Ism al-A'azam, the ineffable name which is known only to a few.

[FN#371] Koran ii. 158.

[FN#372] Koran xcvi. before noticed.

[FN#373] A man of Al-Medinah, one of the first of Mohammed's disciples.

[FN#374] Koran lxxiv. 1, etc., supposed to have been addressed by Gabriel to Mohammed when in the cave of Hira or Jabal Nr. He returned to his wife Khadijah in sore terror at the vision of one sitting on a throne between heaven and earth, and bade her cover him up. Whereupon the Archangel descended with this text, supposed to be the first revealed. Mr. Rodwell (p. 3) renders it, "O thou enwrapped in thy mantle!" and makes it No. ii. after a Fatrah or silent interval of six months to three years.

[FN#375] There are several versets on this subject (chapts. ii. and xxx.)

[FN#376] Koran cx. 1.

[FN#377] The third Caliph; the "Writer of the Koran."

[FN#378] Koran, v. 4. Sale translates "idols." Mr. Rodwell, "On the blocks (or shafts) of Stone," rude altars set by the pagan Arabs before their dwellings.

[FN#379] Koran, v. 116. The words are put into the mouth of Jesus.

[FN#380] The end of the same verse.

[FN#381] Koran, v. 89. Supposed to have been revealed when certain Moslems purposed to practise Christian asceticism, fasting, watching, abstaining from women and sleeping on hard beds. I have said Mohammed would have "no monkery in Al-Islam," but human nature willed otherwise. Mr. Rodwell prefers "Interdict the healthful viands."

[FN#382] Koran, iv. 124.

[FN#383] Arab. "Mukri." "Kri" is one who reads the Koran to pupils; the Mukri corrects them. "With the passage of the clouds" = without a moment's hesitation.

[FN#384] The twenty-first, twenty-fourth and eighteenth Arabic letters.

[FN#385] Arab. "Hizb." The Koran is divided into sixty portions, answering to "Lessons" for convenience of public worship.

[FN#386] Arab. "Jallah,"=saying Jalla Jallu-hu=magnified be His Majesty!, or glorified be His Glory.

[FN#387] Koran, xi. 50.

[FN#388] The partition-wall between Heaven and Hell which others call Al-'Urf (in the sing. from the verb meaning he separated or parted). The Jews borrowed from the Guebres the idea of a partition between Heaven and Hell and made it so thin that the blessed and damned can speak together. There is much dispute about the population of Al-A'arf, the general idea being that they are men who do not deserve reward in Heaven or punishment in Hell. But it is not a "Purgatory" or place of expiating sins.

[FN#389] Koran, vii. 154.

[FN#390] A play on the word ayn, which means "eye" or the eighteenth letter which in olden times had the form of a circle.

[FN#391] From misreading these words comes the absurd popular belief of the moon passing up and down Mohammed's sleeves. George B. Airy (The Athenum, Nov.29, 1884) justly objects to Sale's translation "The hour of judgment approacheth" and translates "The moon hath been dichotomised" a well-known astronomical term when the light portion of the moon is defined in a strait line: in other words when it is really a half-moon at the first and third quarters of each lunation. Others understand, The moon shall be split on the Last Day, the preterite for the future in prophetic style. "Koran Moslems" of course understand it literally.

[FN#392] Chapters liv., lv. and lvi.

[FN#393] We should say, not to utter, etc.

[FN#394] These well-known "humours of Hippocrates," which reappear in the form of temperaments of European phrenology, are still the base of Eastern therapeutics.

[FN#395] The doctrine of the three souls will be intelligible to Spiritualists.

[FN#396] Arab. "Al-lmi"=the l-shaped, curved, forked.

[FN#397] Arab. "Usus," our os sacrum because, being incorruptible, the body will be built up thereon for Resurrection-time. Hence Hudibras sings (iii. 2),

"The learned Rabbis of the Jews Write there's a bone which they call leuz, I' the rump of man, etc."

It is the Heb. "Uz," whence older scholars derived os. Sale (sect. iv.) called it "El Ajb, os coccygis or rump-bone."

[FN#398] Arab physiologists had difficulties in procuring "subjects"; and usually practised dissection on the simiads. Their illustrated books are droll; the figures have been copied and recopied till they have lost all resemblance to the originals.

[FN#399] The liver and spleen are held to be congealed blood. Hence the couplet,

"We are allowed two carrions (i.e. with throats uncut) and two bloods, The fish and the locust, the liver and the spleen." (Pilgrimage iii. 92.)

[FN#400] This is perfectly true and yet little known to the general.

[FN#401] Koran xvii. 39.

[FN#402] Arab. "Al-malikhulya," proving that the Greeks then pronounced the penultimate vowel according to the acute accenta; not as we slur it over. In old Hebrew we have the transliteration of four Greek words; in the languages of Hindostan many scores including names of places; and in Latin and Arabic as many hundreds. By a scholar-like comparison of these remains we should find little difficulty in establishing the true Greek pronunciation since the days of Alexander the Great; and we shall prove that it was pronounced according to accent and emphatically not quantity. In the next century I presume English boys will be taught to pronounce Greek as the Greeks do.

[FN#403] Educated Arabs can quote many a verse bearing upon domestic medicine and reminding us of the lines bequeathed to Europe by the School of Salerno. Such e.g. are;

"After the noon-meal, sleep, although for moments twain; After the night-meal, walk, though but two steps be ta'en; And after swiving stale, though but two drops thou drain."

[FN#404] Arab. "Sardah" (Thardah), also called "ghaut"=crumbled bread and hashed meat in broth; or bread, milk and meat. The Sardah of Ghassn, cooked with eggs and marrow, was held a dainty dish: hence the Prophet's dictum.

[FN#405] Koran v. 92. "Lots"=games of chance and "images"=statues.

[FN#406] Koran ii. 216. The word "Maysar" which I have rendered "gambling" or gaming (for such is the modern application of the word), originally meant what St. Jerome calls and explains thereby the verse (Ezek. xxi. 22), "The King held in his hand the lot of Jerusalem" i.e. the arrow whereon the city-name was written. The Arabs use it for casting lots with ten azlam or headless arrows (for dice) three being blanks and the rest notched from one to seven. They were thrown by a "Zrib" or punter and the stake was generally a camel. Amongst so excitable a people as the Arabs, this game caused quarrels and bloodshed, hence its prohibition: and the theologians, who everywhere and at all times delight in burdening human nature, have extended the command, which is rather admonitory than prohibitive, to all games of chance. Tarafah is supposed to allude to this practice in his Mu'allakah.

[FN#407] Liberal Moslems observe that the Koranic prohibition is not absolute, with threat of Hell for infraction. Yet Mohammed doubtless forbade all inebriatives and the occasion of his so doing is well known. (Pilgrimage ii. 322.)

[FN#408] I have noticed this soured milk in Pilgrimage i. 362.

[FN#409] He does not say the "Caliph" or successor of his uncle Mohammed.

[FN#410] The Jewish Korah (Numbers xvi.) fabled by the Koran (xxviii. 76), following a Talmudic tradition, to have been a man of immense wealth. The notion that lying with an old woman, after the menses have ceased, is unwholesome, dates from great antiquity; and the benefits of the reverse process were well known to good King David. The faces of children who sleep with their grandparents (a bad practice now waxing obsolete in England), of a young wife married to an old man and of a young man married to an old woman, show a peculiar wizened appearance, a look of age overlaying youth which cannot be mistaken.

[FN#411] Arab. "Hindib"(=endubium): the modern term is Shakuryah=chicore. I believe it to be very hurtful to the eyes.

[FN#412] Arab. "Khuffsh" and "Watwt": in Egypt a woman is called "Watwtyah" when the hair of her privities has been removed by applying bats' blood. I have often heard of this; but cannot understand how such an application can act depilatory.

[FN#413] Dictionaries render the word by "dragon, cockatrice." The Badawin apply it to a variety of serpents mostly large and all considered venomous.

[FN#414] Arab. "Zarr wa 'urwah," 1it.=handle. The button-hole, I have said, is a modern invention; Urwah is also applied to the loopshaped handle of the water-skin, for attachment of the Allkah or suspensory thong.

[FN#415] Koran lxx. 40; see also the chapter following, v. 16.

[FN#416] Koran x. 5; the "her" refers to the sun.

[FN#417] Koran xxxvi. 40.

[FN#418] Koran xxii. 60.

[FN#419] Arab. "Manzil:" these are the Hindu "Nakshatra"; extensively used in meteorology even by Europeans unconsciously: thus they will speak of the Elephantina-storm without knowing anything of the lunar mansion so called. The names in the text are successively Sharatn=two horns of the Ram; (2) the Ram's belly; (3) the Pleiades; (4) Aldebaran; (5) three stars in Orion's head; (6) ditto in Orion's shoulder; (7) two stars above the Twins; (8) Lion's nose and first summer station; (9) Lion's eye; (1O) Lion's forehead; (11) Lion's mane; (12) Lion's heart; (13) the Dog, two stars in Virgo; (14) Spica Virginis; (15) foot of Virgo; (16) horns of Scorpio; (17) the Crown; (18) heart of Scorpio; (19) tail of Scorpio; (2O) stars in Pegasus; (21) where no constellation appears; (22) the Slaughterer's luck; (23) Glutton's luck; (24) Luck of Lucks, stars in Aquarius; (25) Luck of Tents, stars in Aquarius; (26) the fore-lip or spout of Urn; (27) hind lip of Urn; and (28) in navel of Fish's belly (Batn al-Ht); of these 28, to each of the four seasons 7 are allotted.

[FN#420] The Hebrew absey, still used by Moslems in chronograms. For mnemonic purposes the 28 letters are distributed into eight words of which the first and second are Abjad and Hawwaz. The last six letters in two words (Thakhiz and Zuzigh) are Arabian, unknown to the Jews and not found in Syriac.

[FN#421] Arab. "Zindk;" properly, one who believes in two gods (the old Persian dualism); in books an atheist, i.e. one who does not believe in a god or gods; and, popularly, a free-thinker who denies the existence of a Supreme Being, rejects revelation for the laws of Nature imprinted on the heart of man and for humanity in its widest sense. Hence he is accused of permitting incestuous marriages and other abominations. We should now call him (for want of something better) an Agnostic.

[FN#422] Koran xxxi. 34. The words may still be applied to meteorologists especially of the scientific school. Even the experienced (as the followers of the late Mathieu de la Drme) reckon far more failures than successes. The Koranic passage enumerates five things known only to Allah; Judgment-day; rain; sex of child in womb; what shall happen to-morrow and where a man shall die.

[FN#423] The fifth and seventh months (January and March) of the Coptic year which, being solar, is still used by Arab and Egyptian meteorologists. Much information thereon will be found in the "Egyptian Calendar" by Mr. Mitchell, Alexandria, 1876. It bears the appropriate motto "Anni certus modus apud solos semper Egyptios fuit." (Macrobius.) See also Lane M.E., chapt. ix.

[FN#424] Vulg. Kiyk; the fourth month, beginning 9th—1Oth December. The first month is Tt, commencing 1Oth—11th September.

[FN#425] The 8th and 12th months partly corresponding with April and August: Htr is the 3rd (November) and AmshRr the 6th (February).

[FN#426] Moslems have been compelled to adopt infidel names for the months because Mohammed's Koranic rejection of Nasy or intercalation makes their lunar months describe the whole circle of the seasons in a cycle of about thirty-three and a half years. Yet they have retained the terms which contain the original motive of the denomination. The first month is Muharram, the "Holy," because war was forbidden; it was also known as Safar No. 1. The second Safar="Emptiness," because during the heats citizens left the towns and retired to Tif and other cool sites. Rab'a (first and second) alluded to the spring-pasturages; Jumd (first and second) to the "hardening" of the dry ground and, according to some, to the solidification, freezing, of the water in the highlands. Rajab (No.7)="worshipping," especially by sacrifice, is also known as Al-Asamm the deaf; because being sacred, the rattle of arms was unheard. Sha'abn="collecting," dispersing, ruining, because the tribal wars recommenced: Ramazan (intensely hot) has been explained and Shawwl (No. 10) derives from Shaul (elevating) when the he-camels raise their tails in rut. Z'l-Ka'adah, the sedentary, is the rest time of the year, when fighting is forbidden and Zu'l-Hijjah explains itself as the pilgrimage-month.

[FN#427] The lowest of the seven.

[FN#428] Koran xxxvii. 5.

[FN#429] Arab. "Faylasf," an evident corruption from the Greek. Amongst the vulgar it denotes a sceptic, an atheist; much the same a "Frammsn" or Freemason. The curious reader will consult the Dabistan, vol. iii. chapt. xi. p. 138 et seq. "On the Religion of the Wise" (philosophi), and, Beaconsfield's theft from Shaftesbury.

[FN#430] Koran xxxvi. 37-38.

[FN#431] Koran xxii. 7. The Hour i.e. of Judgment.

[FN#432] Koran xx. 58. The Midrasch Tanchumah on Exod. vii. gives a similar dialogue between Pharaoh and Moses. (Rodwell, in loco.)

[FN#433] Arab. "Sham'n" or "Shim'n," usually applied to Simon Peter (as in Acts xv. 14). But the text alludes to Saint Simeon (Luke ii. 25-35). See Gospel of Infancy (ii. 8) and especially the Gospel of Nicodemus (xii. 3) which makes him a High-Priest.

[FN#434] Slih the Patriarch's she-camel, miraculously produced from the rock in order to convert the Thamd-tribe. (Koran vii.)

[FN#435] When Abu Bakr was hiding with Mohammed in a cave on the Hill Al-Saur (Thaur or Thr, Pilgrimage ii. 131) South of Meccah, which must not be confounded with the cave on Jabal Hir now called Jabal Nr on the way to Arafat (Pilgrimage iii. 246), the fugitives were protected by a bird which built her nest at the entrance (according to another legend it was curtained by a spider's web), whilst another bird (the crow of whom I shall presently speak) tried to betray them. The first bird is popularly supposed to have been a pigeon, and is referred to by Hudibras,

"Th' apostles of this fierce religion Like Mahomet, were ass and widgeon."

The ass I presume alludes to the marvellous beast Al-Burk which the Greeks called from (Euthymius in Pocock, Spec. A.H. p.144) and which Indian Moslems picture with human face, ass's ears, equine body and peacock's wings and tail. The "widgeon" I presume to be a mistake or a misprint for pigeon.