[108]. Loose trousers, generally made of cotton.
[109]. Moharrabin are deserters from the Egyptian army, who sometimes infest the provinces in considerable numbers; and as many have with them their arms and accoutrements, and are always joined by thieves and runaways from justice, they are marauders very formidable to travellers and caravans.
[110]. Sant, the Arabic name for the Acacia nilotica. It is a thorn-bearing variety, its wood very hard, and its yellow flower extremely fragrant.
[111]. Thebes, in Upper Egypt, is vulgarly called “Luxor,” a corruption of its proper Arabic name “El-Uksor.” The name Thebes is completely unknown to the natives.
[112]. Dervish Bey had never heard of the “gallant Ormond”; but the feelings and instincts of parental love are in all ages and climes alike.
[113]. The Fat’hah is the opening chapter of the Koran. It is recited at least once on all solemn occasions among the Moslems, and, being very short, is known by heart by many among them, who, like Mohammed Ali, know little more of the contents of their sacred book.
[114]. A slang term for arrack.
[115]. Alluding to a popular tale, in which four or five women, wives of a bakkal or grocer, came before the câdi to make a complaint against their husband. They stormed and scolded all at once, and made such a din in the court that not a word could be heard or understood. When at length they stopped for want of breath, the câdi dismissed the case, saying, “There is no crime of which the man can have been guilty that is not sufficiently punished by his having those women for wives.”
[116]. Yuzbashi, literally centurion, or captain over one hundred—a rank in the Egyptian army corresponding to that of lieutenant.
[117]. The “Ezn-el-âshah” is the muezzin’s call to prayer about two hours after sunset.