[ Page 234.] ... black eunuchs, sabre in hand
In this manner the apartments of the ladies were constantly guarded. Thus, in the Story of the Enchanted Horse, Firouz Schah, traversing a strange palace by night, entered a room, “and by the light of a lantern saw that the persons he had heard snoring were black eunuchs with naked sabres by them, which was enough to inform him that this was the guard-chamber of some queen or princess.”—Arabian Nights, vol. iv, p. 189.
[ Page 234.] ... to let down the great swing
The swing was an exercise much used in the apartments of the Eastern ladies, and not only contributed to their health, but also to their amusement.—Tales of Inatulla, vol. i, p. 259.
[ Page 235.] ... melodious Philomel, I am thy rose
The passion of the nightingale for the rose is celebrated over all the East. Thus Mesihi, as translated by Sir W. Jones:
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“Come, charming maid, and hear thy poet sing, Thyself the rose, and he the bird of spring: Love bids him sing, and love will be obey’d, Be gay; too soon the flowers of spring will fade.” |
[ Page 236.] ... calenders
These were a sort of men amongst the Mahometans who abandoned father and mother, wife and children, relations and possessions, to wander through the world, under a pretence of religion, entirely subsisting on the fortuitous bounty of those they had the address to dupe.—D’Herbelot, Suppl., p. 204.