[327]. i.e. the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean.
[328]. i.e. Settled by the Koran.
[329]. The uglier the old woman the better procuress she is supposed to make. See the Santa Verdiana in Boccaccio v., 10. In Arab. "Ajuz" (old woman) is highly insulting and if addressed to an Egyptian, whatever be her age she will turn fiercely and resent it. The polite term is Shaybah (Pilgrimage iii., 200).
[330]. The four ages of woman, considered after Demosthenes in her three-fold character, prostitute for pleasure, concubine for service and wife for breeding.
[331]. Arab. "Jilá" (the Hindostani Julwa)=the displaying of the bride before the bridegroom for the first time, in different dresses, to the number of seven which are often borrowed for the occasion. The happy man must pay a fee called "the tax of face-unveiling" before he can see her features. Amongst Syrian Christians he sometimes tries to lift the veil by a sharp movement of the sword which is parried by the women present, and the blade remains entangled in the cloth. At last he succeeds, the bride sinks to the ground covering her face with her hands and the robes of her friends: presently she is raised up, her veil is readjusted and her face is left bare.
[332]. Arab. "Ishá"=the first watch of the night, twilight, supper-time, supper. Moslems have borrowed the four watches of the Romans from 6 (a.m. or p.m.) to 6; and ignore the three original watches of the Jews, even, midnight and cockcrow (Sam. ii. 19, Judges vii. 19, and Exodus xiv. 24).
[333]. A popular Arab hyperbole.
[334]. Arab. "Shakáik al-Nu'umán," lit. the fissures of Nu'uman, the beautiful anemone, which a tyrannical King of Hirah, Nu'uman ibn Al-Munzir, a contemporary of Mohammed, attempted to monopolize.
[335]. Arab. "Andam"=here the gum called dragon's blood; in other places the dye-wood known as brazil.
[336]. I need hardly say that in the East, where bells are unused, clapping the hands summons the servants. In India men cry "Quy hye" (Koi hái?) and in the Brazil whistle "Pst!" after the fashion of Spain and Portugal.