O friend, this is the vale Akik; here stand and strive in
thought: 
     If not a very lover, strive to be by love distraught!

for whose esoteric meaning see Pilgrimage ii. 24.  I passed through Al-Akik in July when it was dry as summer dust and its “beautiful trees” were mere vegetable mummies.

[FN#175] Those who live in the wet climates of the Northern temperates can hardly understand the delight of a shower in rainless lands, like Arabia and Nubia.  In Sind we used to strip and stand in the downfall and raise faces sky-wards to get the full benefit of the douche.  In Southern Persia food is hastily cooked at such times, wine strained, Kaliuns made ready and horses saddled for a ride to the nearest gardens and a happy drinking-bout under the cypresses.  If a man refused, his friends would say of him, " See how he turns his back upon the blessing of Allah!” (like an ass which presents its tail to the weather).

[FN#176] i.e. the destruction of the Barmecides.

[FN#177] He was Wazir to the Great “Saladin” (Salah al-Din = one conforming with the Faith):, ) See vol. iv. 271, where Saladin is also entitled Al-Malik c al-Nasir = the Conquering King.  He was a Kurd and therefore fond of boys (like Virgil, Horace, etc.), but that perversion did not prey prevent his being one of the noblest of men.  He lies in the Great Amawi Mosque of Damascus and I never visited a tomb with more reverence.

[FN#178] Arab.  “Ahassa bi’l-Shurbah :”  in our idiom “he smelt a rat”.

[FN#179] This and the next tale are omitted by Lane (iii. 254) on “account of its vulgarity, rendered more objectionable by indecent incidents.”  It has been honoured with a lithographed reprint at Cairo A.H. 1278 and the Bresl.  Edit. ix. 193 calls it the “Tale of Ahmad al-Danaf with Dalilah.”

[FN#180] “Ahmad, the Distressing Sickness,” or “Calamity;” Hasan the Pestilent and Dalilah the bawd.  See vol. ii. 329, and vol. iv. 75.

[FN#181] A foetus, a foundling, a contemptible fellow.

[FN#182] In the Mac.  Edit. “her husband”:  the end of the tale shows the error, infra, p. 171.  The Bresl.  Edit., x. 195, informs us that Dalilah was a “Faylasufiyah"=philosopheress.

[FN#183] Arab.  “Ibrik” usually a ewer, a spout-pot, from the Pers.  Ab-riz=water-pourer:  the old woman thus vaunted her ceremonial purity.  The basin and ewer are called in poetry “the two rumourers,” because they rattle when borne about.

[FN#184] Khatun in Turk. is=a lady, a dame of high degree; at times as here and elsewhere, it becomes a P. N.

[FN#185] Arab.  “Maut,” a word mostly avoided in the Koran and by the Founder of Christianity.

[FN#186] Arab.  “Akakir,” drugs, spices, simples which cannot be distinguished without study and practice.  Hence the proverb (Burckhardt, 703), Is this an art of drugs?—­difficult as the druggist’s craft?

[FN#187] i.e.  Beautiful as the fairy damsels who guard enchanted treasures, such as that of Al-Shamardal (vol. vi. 221).