[131] Standing on one leg in presence of a superior is a mark of profound respect in India.
[132] This fable is omitted by Garcin de Tassy.
[133] It is the common belief in the East that pearls are formed in the oyster out of drops of rain falling into it when the shells are open. This notion is the subject of a mystical poem in Sa’dí’s Bustán, or Garden of Odours, Book iv, which has been thus translated:
“A drop of rain trickled from a cloud into the ocean; when it beheld the breadth of its waters it was utterly confounded.
‘What a place this sea is, and what am I? If it is existent, verily I am non-existent.’
Whilst it was thus regarding itself with the eye of contempt, an oyster received it into its bosom.
Fortune preferred it to a place of honour; for it became a renowned royal pearl.
Because it was humble, it found exaltation;—it knocked at the door of nonentity, that it might arise into being.”—Robinson’s Persian Poetry for English Readers, p. 328.
[134] Here our author makes the courtesan Dilbar discourse most eloquently and in a highly moral strain. It has always been much easier to preach than to practise, I ween!
[135] Good Muslims never commence any undertaking of importance or danger without first reciting the formula—which is also invariably placed at the beginning of all their writings—“In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate!” (Bismillahi er-rahmani er-rahimi).