[FN#559] He had apparently learned (though the Arabic author omits, with characteristic carelessness, to tell us so) that Alaeddin was absent a. hunting.

[FN#560] Akemm, vulg. for kemm, a quantity.

[FN#561] Minareh, lit. “alight-stand,” i.e. either a lamp-stand or a candlestick.

[FN#562] Bi-ziyadeh, which generally means “in excess, to boot,” but is here used in the sense of “in abundance.”

[FN#563] Aalem.

[FN#564] After the wont of “the natural enemy of mankind’ in all ages.

[FN#565] Keszr.

[FN#566] Night DLXXVI.

[FN#567] Aghatu ’t tuwashiyeh.

[FN#568] Ubb.

[FN#569] Lit. “who” (men), but this is probably a mistake for ma (that which).

[FN#570] Ifrikiyeh.

[FN#571] Night DLXXVII.

[FN#572] Ummar.  This may, however, be a mistake (as before, see ante p. 177, note 2 {see FN#482}) for ema

[FN#573] Lit.  “O company” (ya jema"t), a polite formula of address, equivalent to our “Gentlemen.”

[FN#574] Night DLXXVIII.

[FN#575] Lit. “the affair (or commandment, amr) is going to be sealed upon us.”

[FN#576] Sic (dara haulahu thelatheta dauratin); but qu’re should it not rather be, “gave three sweeps or whirls with his sword round his head”?  See my “Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night,” Vol.  VI. p. 355.

[FN#577] Lit. “hath been bountiful unto me ;” [the matter of] my life.”

[FN#578] Night DLXXIX.

[FN#579] Previous to prayer.

[FN#580] Lit. made easy to (yessera li).

[FN#581] The name of the province is here applied to an imaginary city.

[FN#582] Night DLXXX.

[FN#583] Lit. “who hath a head with the head-seller or dealer in heads, etc.”  The word here employed (rewwas) commonly signifies “a man who cooks and sells sheepsheads, oxheads, etc.”  M. Zotenberg makes the following note on this passage in. his edition of Alaeddin; “Rewwas (for raa"s) signifies not only ’he who sells cooked heads,’ but also ’he who makes a business of cooking heads.’  Consequently whoso entrusteth a head to the rewwas is preoccupied and sleeps not.”  M. Zotenberg’s note is unintelligible, in consequence of his having neglected to explain that the passage in question is a common Egyptian proverb, meaning (says Burckhardt), “the person whose fortune is entrusted to the hands of strangers cannot enjoy repose.”  “The poor,” adds he, “at Cairo buy sheepsheads and for a trifle have them boiled in the bazaar by persons who are not only cooks, but sellers of sheepsheads, and are therefore called raa"s, or in the Egyptian dialect rewwas.”  The proverb is in the present case evidently meant as a play upon the literal meaning ("headsman,” hence by implication “executioner”) of the word rewwas, although I cannot find an instance of the word being employed in this sense.  It is, however, abundantly evident from the general context that this is the author’s intention in the passage in question, Alaeddin’s head being metaphorically in the hands of (or pledged to) the headsman, inasmuch as he had engaged to return and suffer decapitation in case he should not succeed in recovering the princess within forty days.