[634] Darwāna (a trap-door in a roof) has the variant dur-dāna, a single pearl; tūqqāī perhaps implies relationship; lūlū is a pearl, a wild cow etc.
[635] Ḥai. MS. sāīrt kīshī. Muḥ. ‘Alī is likely to be the librarian (cf. index s.n.).
[636] Elph. MS. ramāqgha u tūr-gā; Ḥai. MS. tārtātgha u tūr-gā. Ilminsky gives no help, varying much here from the true text. The archetype of both MSS. must have been difficult to read.
[637] The Ḥai. MS.’s pointing allows the sobriquet to mean ‘Butterfly.’ His family lent itself to nick-names; in it three brothers were known respectively as Fat or Lubberly, Fool and, perhaps, Butterfly.
[638] bīrk ārīgh, doubly strong by its trench and its current.
[639] I understand that time failed to set the standard in its usual rest. E. and de C. have understood that the yak-tail (qūtās tūghī f. 100) was apart from the staff and that time failed to adjust the two parts. The tūgh however is the whole standard; moreover if the tail were ever taken off at night from the staff, it would hardly be so treated in a mere bivouac.
[640] aīshīklīk tūrlūq, as on f. 113. I understand this to mean that the two men were as far from their followers as sentries at a Gate are posted outside the Gate.
[641] So too ‘Piero of Cosimo’ and ‘Lorenzo of Piero of the Medici.’ Cf. the names of five men on f. 114.
[642] shashtīm. The shasht (thumb) in archery is the thumb-shield used on the left hand, as the zih-gīr (string-grip), the archer’s ring, is on the right-hand thumb.
It is useful to remember, when reading accounts of shooting with the Turkī (Turkish) bow, that the arrows (aūq) had notches so gripping the string that they kept in place until released with the string.