[FN#145] Arab.  “Sifah,"=lit. a quality.

[FN#146] Arab.  “Istilah"=specific dialect, idiom.  See De Sacy, Chrestomathie, i. 443, where the learned Frenchman shows abundant learning, but does very little for the learner.

[FN#147] In the text “Kattan"=linen, flax.

[FN#148] Arab.  “Fi Jifan ka’l-Jawabi!” which, I suppose, means small things (or men) and great.

[FN#149] This form of cleverness is a favourite topic in Arabian folk-lore.  The model man was Iyas al-Muzani, al-Kazi (of Bassorah), in the 2nd century A.H., mentioned by Al-Hariri in his 7th Ass. and noted in Arab.  Prov. (i. 593) as “more intelligent than Iyas.”  Ibn Khallikan (i. 233) tells sundry curious tales of him.  Hearing a Jew ridicule the Moslem Paradise where the blessed ate and drank ad libitum but passed nothing away, he asked if all his food were voided:  the Jew replied that God converted a part of it into nourishment and he rejoined, “Then why not the whole?” Being once in a courtyard he said that there was an animal under the bricks and a serpent was found:  he had noted that only two of the tiles showed signs of dampness and this proved that there was something underneath that breathed.  Al-Maydani relates of him that hearing a dog bark, he declared that the beast was tied to the brink of a well; and he judged so because the bark was followed by an echo.  Two men came before him, the complainant claimed money received by the defendant who denied the debt.  Iyas asked the plaintiff where he had given it, and was answered, “Under a certain tree.”  The judge told him to go there by way of refreshing his memory and in his absence asked the defendant if his adversary could have reached it.  “Not yet,” said the rogue, forgetting himself; “’tis a long way off”—­which answer convicted him.  Seeing three women act upon a sudden alarm, he said, “One of them is pregnant, another is nursing, and the third is a virgin.”  He explained his diagnosis as follows:  “In time of danger persons lay their hands on what they most prize.  Now I saw the pregnant woman in her flight place her hand on her belly, which showed me she was with child; the nurse placed her hand on her bosom, whereby I knew that she was suckling, and the third covered her parts with her hand proving to me that she was a maid.”  (Chenery’s Al Hariri, p. 334.)

[FN#150] Such an address would be suited only to a King or a ruler.

[FN#151] Ms. iii. 231-240; Scott’s “Story of the Sisters and the Sultana their mother,” vi. 82; Gauttier’s Histoire de la Sulthane et de ses trois Filles, vi. 228.

[FN#152] Arab, “Darajatani"=lit. two astronomical degrees:  the word is often used in this Ms.

[FN#153] Arab.  “Siwan;” plur.  “Siwawin.”

[FN#154] Arab. “’Ala hudud (or Ala hadd) al-Shauk,” repeated in Ms. iii. 239.

[FN#155] Here the writer, forgetting that the youngest sister is speaking, breaks out into the third person—­“their case”—­“their mother,” etc.