to an Arab to suggest, as a matter of course, a bird’s necklace, and hence the bird itself, we would probably find a trace of this particular meaning, if not in other Arabic books, at least in Persian writers or dictionaries; but here the word “Rishah,” by some pronounced “Reshah” with the Ya majhul, never occurs in connection with jewels; it means fringe, filament, fibre.  On the other hand, the suggestion of the bird presents itself quite naturally at the sight of the feather. 3.  Ib. p. 210 the youth requests the old man to tell him concerning the “Tayrah allazi Rish-ha (not Rishat-ha) min Ma’adin,” which, I believe, can only be rendered by:  the bird whose plumage is of precious stones.  The “Rishah” itself was said to be “min Zumurrud wa Lulu,” of emeralds and pearls; and the cage will be “min Ma’adin wa Lulu,” of precious stones and pearls, in all which cases the use of the preposition “min” points more particularly to the material of which the objects are wrought than the mere Izafah.  The wonderfulness of the bird seems therefore rather to consist in his jewelled plumage than the gift of speech or other enchanting qualities, and I would take it for one of those costly toys, in imitation of trees and animals, in which Eastern princes rejoice, and of which we read so many descriptions, not only in books of fiction, but even in historical works.  If it were a live-bird of the other kind, he would probably have put in his word to expose the false brothers of the Prince.—­St.]

[FN#306] This is conjectural:  the text has a correction which is hardly legible. [I read:  “Wa lakin hu ajmalu min-hum bi-jamalin mufritin, lakinnahu matrudun hu wa ummu-hu” = “and yet he was more beautiful than they with surpassing beauty, but he was an outcast, he and his mother,” as an explanation, by way of parenthesis, for their daring to treat him so shamefully.—­St.]

[FN#307] The venerable myth of Andromeda and Perseus (who is Horus in disguise) brought down to Saint George (his latest descendant), the Dragon (Typhon) and the fair Saba in the “Seven Champions of Christendom.”  See my friend M. Clermont Ganneau’s Horus et Saint-Georges; Mr. J. R. Anderson’s “Saint Mark’s Rest; the Place of Dragons;” and my “Book of the Sword,” chapt. ix.

[FN#308] i.e. there was a great movement and confusion.

[FN#309] [In the text ’Afar, a word frequently joined with “Ghubar,” dust, for the sake of emphasis; hence we will find in Night ccccxxix. the verb “yu’affiru,” he was raising a dust-cloud.—­St.]

[FN#310] Upon the subject of “throwing the kerchief” see vol. vi. 285.  Here it is done simply as a previously concerted signal of recognition.

[FN#311] In text “’Ala Yadin;” for which vulgarism see vol. iii. 51.

[FN#312] Elephants are usually, as Cuvier said of the (Christian) “Devil” after a look at his horns and hoofs, vegetarians.