[FN#265] Again “Bartaman” for “Martaban.”

[FN#266] The “Sahib” = owner, and the “Dallal” = broker, are evidently the same person.

[FN#267] “Ala kam” for “kam” (how much?)—­peasants’ speech.

[FN#268] She has appeared already twice in The Nights, esp. in The Tale of Ghanim bin ’Ayyub (vol. ii. 45) and in Khalifah the Fisherman of Baghdad (vol. viii. 145).  I must again warn my readers nto to confound “Kut” = food with “Kuwwat” = force, as in Scott’s “Koout al Koolloob” (vi. 146).  See Terminal Essay p. 101.

[FN#269] In text “Mu’ammarjiyah” (master-masons), a vulgar Egyptianism for “Mu’ammarin.”  See “Jawashiyah,” vols. ii. 49; viii. 330.  In the third line below we find “Muhandizin” = gemoetricians, architects, for “Muhandism.” [Perhaps a reminiscence of the Persian origin of the word “Handasah” = geometry, which is derived from “Andazah” = measurement, etc.-St.]

[FN#270] The text ends this line in Arabic.

[FN#271] Alluding to the curious phenomenon pithily expressed in the Latin proverb, “Suus cuique crepitus bene olet,” I know of no exception to the rule, except amongst travellers in Tibet, where the wild onion, the only procurable green-stuff, produces an odour so rank and fetid that men run away from their own crepitations.  The subject is not savoury, yet it has been copiously illustrated:  I once dined at a London house whose nameless owner, a noted bibliophile, especially of “facetiae,” had placed upon the drawing-room table a dozen books treating of the “Crepitus ventris.”  When the guests came up and drew near the table, and opened the volumes, their faces were a study.  For the Arab.  “Faswah” = a silent break wind, see vol. ix. 11 and 291.  It is opposed to “Zirt” = a loud fart and the vulgar term, see vol. ii. 88.

[FN#272] Arab.  “Ya Haza,” see vol. i. 290.

[FN#273] In text “Yumkinshayy,” written in a single word, a favourite expression, Fellah-like withal, throughout this Ms.

[FN#274] In text “Tafazzalu;” see vol. ii. 103.

[FN#275] The word (Saray) is Pers.  But naturalised throughout Egypt and Syria; in places like Damascus where there is no king it is applied to the official head-quarters of the Wali (provincial governor), and contains the prison like the Maroccan “Kasbah.”  It must not be confounded with “Serraglio” = the Harem, Gynecium or women’s rooms, which appears to be a bastard neo-Latin word “Serrare,” through the French Serrer.  I therefore always write it with the double “canine letter.”

[FN#276] I have noted (vol. i. 95) that the “Khil’ah” = robe of honour, consists of many articles, such as a horse, a gold-hilted sword, a fine turban, etc., etc.

[FN#277] This again shows the “Nakkal” or coffee-house tale-teller.  See vol. x. 144.

[FN#278] This is the Moslem version of “Solomon’s Judgment” (1 Kings iii. 16-20).  The Hebrew legend is more detailed but I prefer its rival for sundry reasons.  Here the women are not “harlots” but the co-wives of one man and therefore hostile; moreover poetical justice is done to the constructive murderess.