[173]. Arab. "Sama'an wa tá'atan;" a popular phrase of assent generally translated "to hear is to obey;" but this formula may be and must be greatly varied. In places it means "Hearing (the word of Allah) and obeying" (His prophet, viceregent, etc.)
[174]. Arab. "Sawáb"=reward in Heaven. This word for which we have no equivalent has been naturalised in all tongues (e.g. Hindostani) spoken by Moslems.
[175]. Wine-drinking, at all times forbidden to Moslems, vitiates the Pilgrimage-rite: the Pilgrim is vowed to a strict observance of the ceremonial law and many men date their "reformation" from the "Hajj." Pilgrimage, iii., 126.
[176]. Here some change has been necessary; as the original text confuses the three "ladies."
[177]. In Arab-the plural masc. is used by way of modesty when a girl addresses her lover; and for the same reason she speaks of herself as a man.
[178]. Arab. "Al-Na'im;" in full "Jannat al-Na'im"=the Garden of Delights, i.e. the fifth Heaven made of white silver. The generic name of Heaven (the place of reward) is "Jannat," lit. a garden; "Firdaus" being evidently derived from the Persian through the Greek παράδεισος, and meaning a chase, a hunting-park. Writers on this subject should bear in mind Mandeville's modesty, "Of Paradise I cannot speak properly, for I was not there."
[179]. Arab. "Mikra'ah," the dried mid-rib of a date-frond used for many purposes, especially the bastinado.
[180]. According to Lane (i., 229) these and the immediately following verses are from an ode by Ibn Sahl al-Ishbili. They are in the Bul. Edit. not the Mac. Edit.
[181]. The original is full of conceits and plays on words which are not easily rendered in English.
[182]. Arab. "Tarjumán," same root as Chald. Targum (=a translation), the old "Truchman," and through the Ital. "tergomano" our "Dragoman;" here a messenger.