[169] All good Musalmans bathe after performing the rites of Venus, hence the purport of the princess's simple question is obvious enough.
[170] Called warku-l-khiyal; it is made from the leaves of the charas, a species of hemp; it is a common inebriating beverage in India; the different preparations of it is called ganja, bhang, &c.
[171] Literally a "weighty khil'at," owing to the quantity of embroidery on it. The perfection of these oriental dresses is, to be so stiff as to stand on the floor unsupported.
[172] The paisa is the current copper coin of India; it is the 64th part of a rupee, and is in value as nearly as possible 3/4 of our halfpenny, or a farthing and a-half.
[173] The word kafir denotes literally, "infidel," or "heathen." It is here used as a term of endearment, just as we sometimes use the word "wicked rogue."
[174] Literally, "lakhs of rupees." In India money accounts are reckoned by hundreds, thousands, lakhs and crores, instead of hundreds, thousands, and millions, as with us. A hundred thousands make a lakh, and a hundred lakhs, a crore. As the Indian mode of reckoning, though simple enough, is apt to perplex the beginner, let us take for example the number 123456789, which we thus point off,—123,456,789; but in India it would be pointed as follows:—12,34,56,789, and read 12 crores, 34 lakhs, fifty-six thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.
[175] The muwazzin is a public crier, who ascends the turret or minaret of a mosque and calls out to the inhabitants the five periods of prayers; more especially the morning, noon and evening prayers.
[176] This is a proverb, founded on a short story, viz.: "A certain Arab lost his camel; he vowed, if he found it, to sell it for a dinar, merely as a charitable deed. The camel was found, and the Arab sorely repented him of his vow. He then tied a cat on the camel's neck, and went through the city of Baghdad, exclaiming, 'O, true believers, here is a camel to be sold for a dinar, and a cat for a thousand dinars; but they cannot be sold the one without the other.'"
[177] Taks are small recesses in the walls of apartments in Asia, for holding flower-pots, phials of wine, fruits, &c.
[178] In the original it is a proverb, "When evil comes, the dog will bite even the man that is mounted on a camel," said of a person who is extremely unfortunate.