[FN#138] Syn. chamberlain (hajib).

[FN#139] Syn. eyebrow (hajib).  The usual trifling play of words is of course intended.

[FN#140] Lit. feathers.

[FN#141] Solomon is fabled by the Muslims to have compelled the wind to bear his throne when placed upon his famous magic carpet.  See my “Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night,” Vol.  V. pp. 235-6.

[FN#142] Quære the teeth.

[FN#143] i.e. the return of our beloved hath enabled us to remove the barriers that stood between us and delight.

[FN#144] Singing (as I have before pointed out) is not, in the eyes of the strict Muslim, a reputable occupation and it is, therefore, generally the first idea of the “repentant” professional songstress or (as in this case) enfranchised slave-girl, who has been wont to entertain her master with the display of her musical talents, to free herself from all signs of her former profession and identify herself as closely as possible with the ordinary “respectable” bourgeoise of the harem, from whom she has been distinguished hitherto by unveiled face and freedom of ingress and egress; and with this aim in view she would naturally be inclined to exaggerate the rigour of Muslim custom, as applied to herself.

[FN#145] Breslau Text, vol. xii. pp. 383-4 (Night mi).

[FN#146] i.e. that of the king, his seven viziers, his son and his favourite, which in the Breslau Edition immediately follows the Story of El Abbas and Mariyeh and occupies pp. 237-383 of vol. xii. (Nights dcccclxxix-m).  It will be found translated in my “Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night,” Vol.  V. pp. 260-346, under the name of “The Malice of Women.”

[FN#147] i.e. those who practise it.

[FN#148] Or “cause” (sebeb).

[FN#149] Or “preservation” (selameh).

[FN#150] Or “turpitude, anything that is hateful or vexatious” (keraheh).

[FN#151] Or “preservation” (selameh).

[FN#152] Or “turpitude, anything that is hateful or vexatious” (keraheh).

[FN#153] These preliminary words of Shehrzad have no apparent connection with the story that immediately follows and which is only her own told in the third person, and it is difficult to understand why they should be here introduced.  The author may have intended to connect them with the story by means of a further development of the latter and with the characteristic carelessness of the Eastern story-teller, forgotten or neglected to carry out his intention; or, again, it is possible that the words in question may have been intended as an introduction to the Story of the Favourite and her Lover (see post, p. 165), to which they seem more suitable, and have been misplaced by an error of transcription.  In any case, the text is probably (as usual) corrupt.

[FN#154] Breslau Text, vol. xii. pp. 384-394.

[FN#155] The kingdom of the elder brother is afterwards referred to as situate in China.  See post, p. 150.