[FN#213] About the equivalent to the Arab. or rather Egypto-Syrian form “Jiddan,” used in the modern slang sense.

[FN#214] i.e. that he become my son-in-law.

[FN#215] For the practice of shampooing often alluded to in The Nights, see vol. iii. 17.  The king “sleeping on the boys’ knees” means that he dropped off whilst his feet were on the laps of the lads.

[FN#216] Meaning the honour of his Harem.

[FN#217] Pardon, lit.=security; the cry for quarter already introduced into English

          “Or raise the craven cry Aman.”

It was Mohammed’s express command that this prayer for mercy should be respected even in the fury of fight.  See vol. i. 342.

[FN#218] A saying found in every Eastern language beginning with Hebrew; Proverbs xxvi. 27, “Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein.”

[FN#219] i.e. a domed tomb where prayers and perlections of the Koran could be made.  “Kubbah” in Marocco is still the term for a small square building with a low medianaranja cupola under which a Santon lies interred.  It is the “little Waly” of our “blind travellers” in the unholy “Holy Land.”

[FN#220] i.e. to secure her assistance in arousing the king’s wrath.

[FN#221] i.e. so slow to avenge itself.

[FN#222] Story of Sultan Hebriam (!), and his Son” (Chavis and Cazotte).  Unless they greatly enlarged upon the text, they had a much fuller copy than that found in the Bresl.  Edit.

[FN#223] A right kingly king, in the Eastern sense of the word, would strike off their heads for daring to see omens threatening his son and heir:  this would be constructive treason of the highest because it might be expected to cause its own fulfilment.

[FN#224] Mohammed’s Hadis “Kazzibu ’l-Munajjimuna bi Rabbi ’I-Ka’abah"=the Astrologers lied, by the Ka’abah’s Lord!

[FN#225] Arab.  “Khawatin,” plur. of Khatun, a matron, a lady, vol. iv. 66.

[FN#226] See Al-Mas’udi, chapt. xvii. (Fr. Transl. ii. 48-49) of the circular cavity two miles deep and sixty in circuit inhabited by men and animals on the Caucasus near Derbend.

[FN#227] Arab.  “Nafas” lit.=breath.  Arabs living in a land of caverns know by experience the danger of asphyxiation in such places.

[FN#228] This simple tale is told with much pathos not of words but of sense.

[FN#229] Arab.  “Ajal"=the appointed day of death, also used for sudden death.  See vol. i. 74.

[FN#230] i.e. the Autumnal Equinox, one of the two great festival days (the other being the New Year) of the Persians, and surviving in our Michaelmas.  According to Al-Mas’udi (chap. xxi.), it was established to commemorate the capture of Zahhak (Azhi-Dahaka), the biting snake (the Hindu Ahi) of night and darkness, the Greek Astyages, by Furaydun or Feridun.  Prof.  Sayce (Principles of Comparative Philology, p. 11) connects the latter with the Vedic deity Trita, who harnessed the Sun-horse (Rig. v. i. 163, 2, 3), the of Homer, a title of Athene, the Dawn-goddess, and Burnouf proved the same Trita to be Thraetaona, son of Athwya, of the Avesta, who finally became Furaydun, the Greek Kyrus.  See vol. v. 1.