[FN#337] The Ms. here is hardly intelligible but the sense shows the word to be “Misallah” (plur.  “Misall”) = a large needle for sewing canvas, &c.  In Egypt the usual pronunciation is “Musallah,” hence the vulgar name of Cleopatra’s needle “Musallat Far’aun” (of Pharaoh) the two terms contending for which shall be the more absurd.  I may note that Commander Gorridge, the distinguished officer of the U.S.  Navy who safely and easily carried the “Needle” to New York after the English had made a prodigious mess with their obelisk, showed me upon the freshly uncovered base of the pillar the most distinct intaglio representations of masonic implements, the plumb-line, the square, the compass, and so forth.  These, however, I attributed to masonry as the craft, to the guild; he to Freemasonry, which in my belief was unknown to the Greeks and Romans, and is never mentioned in history before the eight Crusades (A.D. 1096-1270).  The practices and procedure were evidently borrowed from the various Vehms and secret societies which then influenced the Moslem world, and our modern lodges have strictly preserved in the “Architect of the Universe,” Arian and Moslem Unitarianism as opposed to Athanasian and Christian Tritheism; they admit the Jew and the Mussulman as apprentices, but they refuse the Hindu and the Pagan.  It seems now the fashion to run down the mystic charities of the brethren are still active, and the society still takes an active part in politics throughout the East.  As the late Pope Pius ix. (fitly nicknamed “Pio no-no"), a free mason himself, forbade Freemasonry to his church because a secret society is incompatible with oral confession (and priestcraft tolerates only its own mysteries), and made excommunication the penalty, the French lodges have dwindled away and the English have thriven upon their decay, thus enlisting a host of neophytes who, when the struggle shall come on, may lend excellent aid.

[FN#338] The “Janazah” or bier, is often made of planks loosely nailed or pegged together into a stretcher or platform, and it would be easy to thrust a skewer between the joints.  I may remind the reader that “Janazah” = a bier with a corpse thereon (vol. ii. 46), whereas the “Sarir” is the same when unburdened, and the “Na’ash” is a box like our coffin, but open at the tip.

[FN#339] [In the Arab.  Text “They will recognise me,” which I would rather refer to the Vagabonds than to the crowd, as the latter merely cries wonder at the resuscitation, without apparently troubling much about the wonder-worker.—­St.]

[FN#340] [Ar. “na’tazu,” viii. form of ’aza = it escaped, was missing, lacked, hence the meaning of this form, “we are in want of,” “we need.”—­St.]

[FN#341] For the “Ardabb” (prop.  “Irdabb”) = five bushels:  see vol. i. 263.

[FN#342] [In the Ms. “’Ayyinah,” probably a mis-reading for “’Ayniyyah” = a sample, pattern.—­St.]

[FN#343] In text “Kubbah” = vault, cupola, the dome of unbaked brick upon peasants’ houses in parts of Egypt and Syria, where wood for the “Sat’h” or flat roof is scarce.  The household granary is in the garret, from which the base of the dome springs, and the “expense-magazines” consist of huge standing coffers of wattle and dab propped against the outside walls of the house.