from the Egyptian “Punt” identified by him with the Somali country. This would make “Africa,” as it ought to be, an Egyptian (Coptic) term.
57
Herodotus (i. 80) notes this concerning the camel. Elephants are not allowed to walk the streets in Anglo-Indian cities, where they have caused many accidents.
58
Arab. Wahk or Wahak, suggesting the Roman retiarius. But the lasso pure and simple, the favourite weapon of shepherd and herdsmen was well-known to the old Egyptians and in ancient India. It forms one of the T-letters in the hieroglyphs.
59
Compare with this and other Arab battle-pieces the Pandit’s description in the Kathá Sarit Sagara,
60
The giraffe is here mal-placé: it is, I repeat, one of the most timid of the antelope tribe. Nothing can be more graceful than this huge game as it stands under a tree extending its long and slender neck to the foliage above it; but when in flight all the limbs seem loose and the head is carried almost on a level with the back.
61
The fire-arms may have been inserted by the copier; the cross-bow (Arcubalista) is of unknown antiquity. I have remarked in my book of the Sword (p. 19) that the bow is the first crucial evidence of the distinction between the human weapon and the bestial arm, and like the hymen or membrane of virginity proves a difference of degree if not of kind between man and the so-called lower animals. I note from Yule’s Marco Polo (ii., 143) “that the cross-bow was re-introduced into European warfare during the twelfth century”; but the arbalest was well known to the
62
In Al-Islam this was unjustifiable homicide, excused only because the Kafir had tried to slay his own son. He should have been summoned to become a tributary and then, on express refusal, he might legally have been put to death.
63
64
“Repentance acquits the penitent” is a favourite and noble saying popular in Al-Islam. It is first found in Seneca; and is probably as old as the dawn of literature.
65
Here an ejaculation of impatience.
66
67
68
The name does not appear till further on, after vague Eastern fashion which, here and elsewhere I have not had the heart to adopt. The same may be found in Ariosto,
69
A town in Persian Irak, unhappily far from the “Salt sea.”
70
“Earthquake son of Ennosigaius” (the Earthquake-maker).
71
Arab. “Ruba’al-Kharáb” or Ruba’al-Khálí (empty quarter), the great central wilderness of Arabia covering some 50,000 square miles and still left white on our maps (Pilgrimage, i. 14).
72
Pers. “Life King,” women also assume the title of Shah.
73
Arab. “Mujauhar”: the watery or wavy mark upon Eastern blades is called the “jauhar,” lit. = jewel. The peculiarity is also called water and grain, which gives rise to a host of
74
Etymologically meaning tyrants or giants; and applied to great heathen conquerors like Nimrod and the mighty rulers of Syria, the Anakim, Giants and other peoples of Hebrew fable. The Akásirah are the Chosroës before noticed.
75
Arab. “Askar jarrár” lit. “drawing”: so in Egyptian slang “Nás jarrár” = folk who wish to draw your money out of your pocket, greedy cheats.
76
In Turkestan: the name means “Two lights.”
77
In Armenia, mentioned by Sadik Isfaháni (Transl. p. 62).
78
This is the only ludicrous incident in the tale which justifies Von Hammer’s suspicion. Compare it with the combat between Rustam and his son Sohráb.
79
I cannot understand why Trébutien, iii., 457, writes this word Afba. He remarks that it is the “Oina and Riya” of Jámí, elegantly translated by M. de Chezy in the Journal Asiatique, vol. 1, 144.
80
I have described this part of the Medinah Mosque in Pilgrimage ii, 62–69. The name derives from a saying of Mohammed (of which there are many variants), “Between my tomb and my pulpit is a garden of the Gardens of Paradise” (Burckhardt, Arabia, p. 337). The whole Southern portico (not only a part) now enjoys that honoured name and the tawdry decorations are intended to suggest a parterre.
81
Mohammed’s companions (Asháb), numbering some five hundred, were divided into two orders, the Muhájirin (fugitives) or Meccans who accompanied the Apostle to Al-Medinah (Pilgrimage ii. 138) and the Ansár (Auxiliaries) or Medinites who invited him to their city and lent him zealous aid (Ibid ii. 130). The terms constantly occur in Arab history.
82
The “Mosque of the Troops,” also called Al-Fath (victory), the largest of the “Four Mosques:” it is still a place of pious visitation where prayer is granted. Koran, chapt. xxxiii., and Pilgrimage ii. 325.
83
Arab. “Al-Wars,” with two meanings. The Alfáz Adwiyah gives it = Kurkum, curcuma, turmeric, safran d’Inde; but popular usage assigns it to Usfur, Kurtum or safflower (
84
Two men of the great ’Anazah race went forth to gather Karaz, the fruit of the Sant (
85
Name of a desert (Mafázah) and a settlement on the Euphrates’ bank between Basrah and the site of old Kufah near Kerbela; the well known visitation place in Babylonian Irak.
86
Of the Banu Sulaym tribe; the adjective is Sulami not Sulaymi.
87
Arab. “Amám-ak” = before thee (in space); from the same root as Imám = antistes, leader of prayer; and conducing to perpetual puns,
88
He was angry, as presently appears, because he had heard of certain love passages between the two and this in Arabia is a dishonour to the family.
89
Euphemy for “my daughter.”
90
The Badawin call a sound dollar “Kirsh hajar” or “Riyal hajar” (a stone dollar;
