[159] Washermen in India, in general, wash their linen at the ghats, and their dogs of course wander thither from home after them, and back again. This is one of their proverbs, and answers to ours of "Kicked from piller to post."
[160] The Khutba is a brief oration delivered after divine service every Friday (the Musalman Sabbath,) in which the officiating priest blesses Muhammad, his successors, and the reigning sovereign.
[161] A kind of sedan chair, or palki.
[162] The Khabar-dars are a species of spies stationed in various parts of oriental kingdoms in order to forward intelligence to head quarters.
[163] A mode of humble address, when the inferior presumes to state something contrary to what the superior maintains or desires; and as human life in India was, in olden times, not only precarious, but considered as insignificant, the oriental slave acts prudently by begging his life before he presumes to be candid.
[164] Literally, "He who is the changer of hearts."
[165] Here the first Darwesh addresses himself directly to the other three, who were his patient listeners.
[166] The jama is an Asiatic dress, something like a modern female gown, only much more full in the skirts. It is made of white cloth or muslin.
[167] A superstitious custom in India; it implies that the person who goes round, sacrifices his life at the shrine of the love, prosperity and health of the beloved object.
[168] The kazi is the judge and magistrate in Asiatic cities; he performs the rites of marriage, settles disputes, and decides civil and criminal causes. As the Muhammadan laws are derived from their religious code, the Kuran, the kazi possesses both secular and ecclesiastical powers.