[174c] Someone, I think, has called journalists “gentlemen of the third sex,” but these guardians were connected with no newspaper.
[175] The Gimbri is a diminutive mandoline, the front of which is of parchment. It has only three strings, and yet its sound is less unpleasant than that of more pretentious instruments I have heard.
[177] These two are to be found in the notes, in extenso.
[178] I render the Arabic word “Hajib” by Chamberlain, though I am not quite sure whether Chamberlain does not better correspond to the Moorish dignity of Kaid-el-Mesouar.
[179a] U.P. in N.B. stands for United Presbyterian. Stevenson refers to this sect, in one of his ballads in the Scottish dialect. This sect is little known amongst well-informed people, and its tenets have been greatly misunderstood.
[179b] In Morocco the people belong to the sect of Malekiayahs, one of the four sects into which orthodox Mohammedans are divided, the other then being the Hannafiyahs, Shafiyahs and Hambaliyahs. Thus, had I declared myself a member of the U.P. church, I fear I should still have been less orthodox than the Chamberlain.
[183] Paris is always pronounced “Baris” by Arabs. Vapor, a steamer, “Babor” and so on.
[184] Read perhaps “two dollars,” for it is politic to exaggerate the munificence of the great. The politic man shall stand before kings, and they shall honour him.
[185] Tertulia is the Spanish word for a gathering of people sitting talking about nothing, or important matters, for amusement. Thus after an hotel dinner at a watering place, there is always the “Rato de tertulia,” i.e. the half hour of conversation in which the affairs of the world and one’s acquaintances are discussed and settled. The word is also used for an evening party.
[186] Much offence has often been given in Morocco by “sportsmen” firing at storks. The Arabs, who are not civilized people, do not understand killing anything you cannot eat. Besides, the stork, amongst birds, is the friend of man, as the porpoise is amongst fish.