[272] Nuzhet el-Mutaämmil, section 8.
[273] Nuzhet el-Mutaämmil, section 7.
[274] Modern Egyptians, ch. vi.
[275] "The Protestants of Hungary admit the plea of 'irrevocabile odium.'"—Urquhart's Spirit of the East, ii. 416.
[276] A religious lady once asked me if I so conformed with the manners of the Easterns as to eat in their "beastly manner." I replied, "Do not call it a 'beastly manner:' call it the manner of our Lord and his Apostles." But some excuse may be made in this case. I was determined, when I first went to the East, never to conform to the practice of eating with the fingers when I could avoid it; however, after I had first seen the manner of doing this, I immediately adopted the custom, and continued it.
[277] Mishkát el-Maṣábeeḥ, ii. 81.
[278] Selections from the Ḳur-án, 1st. ed., p. 59.
[279] Urquhart's Spirit of the East, ii. 415-416. See the two chapters on "the life of the Harem" and "State of Women," which I think the most valuable portion of the book.
[280] Modern Egyptians, ch. vi.
[281] A fellow-wife is called, in Arabic, "ḍarrah," a word derived from "ḍarar," which signifies "injury," because fellow-wives usually experience injurious treatment, one from another. The word "ḍarrah," in vulgar or colloquial Arabic (by substituting a soft for an emphatic d, and u for a), is pronounced "durrah," which properly signifies "a parrot." "The life of a fellow-wife is bitter" ("´eeshet eḍ-ḍurrah murrah") is a common proverb. [Eṭ-Ṭantáwee.]