[FN#188] i.e. by contact with a person in a state of ceremonial impurity; servants are not particular upon this point and “Salat mamlukiyah” (Mameluke’s prayers) means praying without ablution.

[FN#189] i.e.  Father of assaults, burdens or pregnancies; the last being here the meaning.

[FN#190] Ex votos and so forth.

[FN#191] Arab.  “Iksah,” plaits, braids, also the little gold coins and other ornaments worn in the hair, now mostly by the middle and lower classes.  Low Europeans sometimes take advantage of the native prostitutes by detaching these valuables, a form of “bilking” peculiar to the Nile-Valley.

[FN#192] In Bresl.  Edit.  Malih Kawi (pron.  ’Awi), a Cairene vulgarism.

[FN#193] Meaning without veil or upper clothing.

[FN#194] Arab.  “Kallakas” the edible African arum before explained.  This Colocasia is supposed to bear, unlike the palm, male and female flowers in one spathe.

[FN#195] See vol. iii. 302.  The figs refer to the anus and the pomegranates, like the sycomore, to the female parts.  Me nec faemina nec puer, &c., says Horace in pensive mood.

[FN#196] It is in accordance to custom that the Shaykh be attended by a half-witted fanatic who would be made furious by seeing gold and silks in the reverend presence so coyly curtained.

[FN#197] In English, “God damn everything an inch high!”

[FN#198] Burckhardt notes that the Wali, or chief police officer at Cairo, was exclusively termed Al-Agha and quotes the proverb (No. 156) “One night the whore repented and cried:—­What! no Wali (Al-Agha) to lay whores by the heels?” Some of these Egyptian by-words are most amusing and characteristic; but they require literal translation, not the timid touch of the last generation.  I am preparing, for the use of my friend, Bernard Quaritch, a bona fide version which awaits only the promised volume of Herr Landberg.

[FN#199] Lit. for “we leave them for the present”:  the formula is much used in this tale, showing another hand, author or copyist.

[FN#200] Arab.  “Uzrah.”

[FN#201] i.e.  “Thou art unjust and violent enough to wrong even the Caliph!”

[FN#202] I may note that a “donkey-boy” like our “post-boy” can be of any age in Egypt.

[FN#203] They could legally demand to be recouped but the chief would have found some pretext to put off payment.  Such at least is the legal process of these days.

[FN#204] i.e. drunk with the excess of his beauty.

[FN#205] A delicate way of offering a fee.  When officers commanding regiments in India contracted for clothing the men, they found these douceurs under their dinner-napkins.  All that is now changed; but I doubt the change being an improvement:  the public is plundered by a “Board” instead of an individual.