[FN#392] Arab.  Jami’.  This anachronism, like many of the same kind, is only apparent.  The faith preached by Sayyidna Isa was the Islam of his day and dispensation, and it abrogated all other faiths till itself abrogated by the mission of Mahommed.  It is therefore logical to apply to it terms which we should hold to be purely Moslem.  On the other hand it is not logical to paint the drop-curtain of the Ober-Ammergau “Miracle-play” with the Mosque of Omar and the minarets of Al-Islam.  I humbly represented this fact to the mechanicals of the village whose performance brings them in so large a sum every decade; but Snug, Snout and Bottom turned up the nose of contempt and looked upon me as a mere “shallow sceptic.”

[FN#393] Arab.  “Talamizah,” plur. of Tilmiz, a disciple, a young attendant.  The word is Syriac Arabic letters and there is a Heb. root Hebrew letters but no Arabic.  In the Durrat al-Ghawwas, however, Tilmiz, Bilkis, and similar words are Arabic in the form of Fa’lil and Fi’lil

[FN#394] Ruh Allah, lit.=breath of Allah, attending to the miraculous conception according to the Moslems.  See vol. v. 238.

[FN#395] Readers will kindly pronounce this word “Sahra” not Sahara.

[FN#396] Mr. Clouston refers for analogies to this tale to his “Oriental Sources of some of Chaucer’s Tales” (Notes and Queries, 1885-86), and he finds the original of The Pardoner’s Tale in one of the Jatakas or Buddhist Birth-stories entitled Vedabbha Jataka.  The story is spread over all Europe; in the Cento Novelle Antiche; Morlini; Hans Sachs, etc.  And there are many Eastern versions, e.g. a Persian by Farid al-Din “’Attar” who died at a great age in A.D. 1278; an Arabic version in The Orientalist (Kandy, 1884); a Tibetan in Rollston’s Tibetan Tales; a Cashmirian in Knowles’ Dict. of Kashmiri Proverbs, etc., etc., etc.

[FN#397] Arab. “’Awan” lit.=aids, helpers; the “Aun of the Jinn” has often occurred.

[FN#398] i.e. the peasant.

[FN#399] i.e. those serving on the usual feudal tenure; and bound to suit and service for their fiefs.

[FN#400] i.e. the yearly value of his fief.

[FN#401] i.e. men who paid taxes.

[FN#402] Arab.  “Rasatik” plur. of Rustak.  See vol. vi. 289.

[FN#403] This adventure is a rechauffe of Amjad’s adventure (vol. iii. 333) without, however, its tragic catastrophe.

[FN#404] The text is so concise as to be enigmatical.  The house was finely furnished for a feast, as it belonged to the Man who was lavish, etc.

[FN#405] Arab.  “Khubz Samiz;” the latter is the Arabisation of the Pers.  Samid, fine white bread, simnel, Germ. semmel.

[FN#406] The text has “Bakulat"=pot-herbs; but it is probably a clerical error for “Baklawat.”  See vol. ii. 311.

[FN#407] Egyptian-like he at once calls upon Allah to witness a lie and his excuse would be that the lie was well-intentioned.