[571]. i.e. blackened by the fires of Jehannam.
[572]. Arab. "Bi'l-Salámah"=in safety (to avert the evil eye). When visiting the sick it is usual to say something civil; "The Lord heal thee! No evil befal thee!" etc.
[573]. Washing during sickness is held dangerous by Arabs; and "going to the Hammam" is, I have said, equivalent to convalescence.
[574]. Arab. "Máristán" (pronounced Múristan) a corruption of the Pers. "Bímáristán"=place of sickness, a hospital much affected by the old Guebres (Dabistan, i., 165, 166). That of Damascus was the first Moslem hospital, founded by Al-Walid Son of Abd al-Malik the Ommiade in A.H. 88=706-7. Benjamin of Tudela (A.D. 1164) calls it "Dar-al-Maraphtan" which his latest Editor explains by "Dar-al-Mora-bittan" (abode of those who require being chained). Al-Makrizi (Khitat) ascribes the invention of "Spitals" to Hippocrates; another historian to an early Pharaoh "Manákiyush;" thus ignoring the Persian Kings, Saint Ephrem (or Ephraim) Syru etc. In modern parlance "Maristan" is a madhouse where the maniacs are treated with all the horrors which were universal in Europe till within a few years and of which occasional traces occur to this day. In A.D. 1399 Katherine de la Court held a "hospital in the Court called Robert de Paris;" but the first madhouse in Christendom was built by the legate Ortiz in Toledo A.D. 1483, and was therefore called Casa del Nuncio. The Damascus "Maristan" was described by every traveller of the last century: and it showed a curious contrast between the treatment of the maniac and the idiot or omadhaun, who is humanely allowed to wander about unharmed, if not held a Saint. When I saw it last (1870) it was all but empty and mostly in ruins. As far as my experience goes, the United States is the only country where the insane are rationally treated by the sane.
[575]. Hence the trite saying "Whoso drinks the water of the Nile will ever long to drink it again." "Light" means easily digested water; and the great test is being able to drink it at night between the sleeps, without indigestion.
[576]. "Níl" in popular parlance is the Nile in flood, although also used for the River as a proper name. Egyptians (modern as well as ancient), have three seasons Al-Shitá (winter), Al-Sayf (summer) and Al-Níl (the Nile i.e. flood season, our mid-summer); corresponding with the Growth-months; Housing (or granary) months and Flood-months of the older race.
[577]. These lines are in the Mac. Edit.
[578]. Arab. "Birkat al-Habash," a tank formerly existing in Southern Cairo: Galland (Night 128) says "en remontant vers l'Éthiopie."
[579]. The Bres. Edit. (ii., 190) from which I borrow this description, here alludes to the well-known Island, Al-Rauzah (Rodah)=The Garden.
[580]. Arab. "Laylat al-Wafá," the night of the completion or abundance of the Nile (flood), usually between August 6th and 16th, when the government proclaims that the Nilometer shows a rise of 16 cubits. Of course it is a great festival and a high ceremony, for Egypt is still the gift of the Nile (Lane M. E. chapt. xxvi—a work which would be much improved by a better index).