[308] Kunwar is the Hindu name for the son of a raja.
[309] The chaugan is a Persian sport performed on horseback, with a large ball like a foot-ball, which is knocked about with a long stick like a shepherd's crook; it is precisely the game called in Scotland "shintey," and in England "hockey," only that the players are mounted.
[310] Rani is the Hindu name of a raja's wife.
[311] Literally, "without a partner." The Musalmans consider our doctrine of the Trinity as a deadly error.
[312] Sarandip is the name for the island of Ceylon among the Arabs and Persians, as well as the Musalmans of India. The ancient Hindu name was Lanka, applied both to the island and its capital.
[313] The term kisra is evidently applied here to Naushirwan, not to Cyrus, as is stated in some books.
[314] Iran is the ancient name of Persia in its more extended sense, that is, the Persian Empire. Fars is sometimes used in the same sense. Strictly speaking, it denotes Persia proper, which is only a province of Iran.
[315] The kafila-bashi is the head man of the kafila, or company of merchants, who travel in a body for mutual safety, and compose what is commonly called a caravan, properly a karwan; the richest and most respectable merchant of the party is generally elected bashi; all the rest obey his orders, and he directs the movements, &c., of the whole company, and moreover, acts, in all cases of dispute, as judge and magistrate.
[316] The farsakh, or farsang, or parsang, is a measure of distance in Persia, and contains at the present day about 3 3/4 English miles. Herodotus reckoned the [Greek: pasasaggaes]; in his time at 30 Grecian stadia.
[317] Salsabil is the name of a fountain of Paradise, according to Muhammadan belief.