[FN#292] In the text “Jath ni” = the wife of an elder brother.  Hindostani, like other Eastern languages, is rich in terms for kinship whereof English is so exceptionally poor.  Mr. Francis Galtson, in his well-known work, “Hereditary Genius,” a misnomer by the by for “HeredTalent,” felt this want severely and was at pains to supply it.

[FN#293]In the text “Thag,” our English “Thug,” often pronounced moreover by the Briton with the sibilant “th.”  It means simply a cheat:  you say to your servant “T£ bar  Thag hai” = thou art a precious rascal; but it has also the secondary meaning of robber, assassin, and the tertiary of Bhaw ni-worshippers who offer indiscriminate human sacrifices to the De‰ss of Destruction.  The word and the thing have been made popular in England through the “Confessions of a Thug” by my late friend Meadows Taylor; and I may record my conviction that were the English driven out of India, “Thuggee,” like piracy in Cutch and in the Persian Gulf, would revive at the shortest possible time.

[FN#294] i.e. the Civil Governor, who would want nothing better.

[FN#295]This is in Galland and it is followed by the H. V.; but it would be more natural to suppose that of the quarters two were hung up outside the door and the others within.  Vol.  XIII

[FN#296] I am unwilling to alter the time honoured corruption:  properly it is written Marjanah = the “Coralline,” from Marjan = red coral, for which see vols. ii. 100; vii. 373.

[FN#297] i.e. the " ’Iddah.” during which she could not marry.  See vol. iii. 292.

[FN#298] In Galland he is a savetier * * * naturellement gai, et qui avait toujours le mot pour rire:  the H. V. naturally changed him to a tailor as the Ch m r or leather-worker would be inadmissible to polite conversation.

[FN#299] i.e. a leader of prayer; the Pers.  “P¡sh-nam z” = fore-prayer, see vols. ii. 203; iv. 111 and 227.  Galland has “¡m n,” which can mean only faith, belief, and in this blunder he is conscientiously followed by his translators—­servum pecus

[FN#300] Galland nails down the corpse in the bier—­a Christian practice—­and he certainly knew better.  Moreover, prayers for the dead are mostly recited over the bier when placed upon the brink of the grave; nor is it usual for a woman to play so prominent a part in the ceremony.

[FN#301] See vols. v. 111; ix. 163 and x. 47.

[FN#302] Galland is less merciful, “Aussitot le conducteur fut d‚clar‚ digne de mort tout d’une voix, et il s’y condamna lui-mˆme,” etc.  The criminal, indeed, condemns himself and firmly offers his neck to be stricken.

[FN#303] In the text “Lauh,” for which see vol. v. 73.

[FN#304] In Arab.  “Kama” = he rose, which, in vulgar speech especially in Egypt, = he began.  So in Spitta-Bey’s “Contes Arabes Modernes” (p. 124) “K mat al-Sibhah dh kat fi yad akh¡-h” = the chaplet began (lit. arose) to wax tight in his brother’s hand.  This sense is shadowed forth in classical Arabic.