[FN#172] In Persia this is called “Pa-andaz,” and must be prepared for the Shah when he deigns to visit a subject.  It is always of costly stuffs, and becomes the perquisite of the royal attendants.

[FN#173] Here the European hand again appears to me:  the Sultan as a good Moslem should have made the Wuzu-ablution and prayed the dawn-prayers before doing anything worldly.

[FN#174] Arab.  Fi ghuzuni zalika,” a peculiar phrase, Ghazn=a crease, a wrinkle.

[FN#175] In the H. V. the King “marvelled to see Alaeddin’s mother without her veil and magnificently adorned with costly jewels and said in his mind, ’Methought she was a grey-haired crone, but I find her still in the prime of life and comely to look upon, somewhat after the fashion of Badr al-Budur.’ " This also was one of the miracles of the Lamp.

[FN#176] For this word see vols. i. 46, vii. 326.  A Joe Miller is told in Western India of an old General Officer boasting his knowledge of Hindostani.  “How do you say, Tell a plain story, General?” asked one of the hearers, and the answer was, “Maydan ki bat bolo!” = “speak a word about the plain” (or level space).

[FN#177] The prehistoric Arabs:  see supra p. 98.

[FN#178] Popularly, Jerid, the palm-frond used as javelin:  see vol. vi. 263.

[FN#179] In order to keep off the evil eye, one of the functions of iron and steel:  see vol. ii. 316.

[FN#180] The H. V. adds, “Little did the Princess know that the singers were fairies whom the Slave of the Lamp had brought together.”

[FN#181] Alexander the Great:  see v. 252, x. 57.  The H. V. adds, “Then only one man and one woman danced together, one with other, till midnight, when Alaeddin and the Princess stood up, for it was the wont of China in those days that bride and bridegroom perform together in presence of the wedding company.”

[FN#182] The exceptional reserve of this and other descriptions makes M. H. Zotenberg suspect that the tale was written for one of the Mameluke Princesses:  I own to its modesty but I doubt that such virtue would have recommended it to the dames in question.  The H. V. adds a few details:—­“Then, when the bride and bridegroom had glanced and gazed each at other’s face, the Princess rejoiced with excessive joy to behold his comeliness, and he exclaimed, in the courtesy of his gladness, ’O happy me, whom thou deignest, O Queen of the Fair, to honour despite mine unworth, seeing that in thee all charms and graces are perfected.’ "

[FN#183] The term has not escaped ridicule amongst Moslems.  A common fellow having stood in his way the famous wit Abu al-’Ayna asked “What is that?” “A man of the Sons of Adam” was the reply.  “Welcome, welcome,” cried the other, “Allah grant thee length of days.  I deemed that all his sons were dead.”  See Ibn Khallikan iii. 57.

[FN#184] This address to an inanimate object (here a window) is highly idiomatic and must be cultivated by the practical Arabist.  In the H. V. the unfinished part is the four-and-twentieth door of the fictitious (ja’ali) palace.