[223]. This two-bow prayer is common on the bride-night; and at all times when issue is desired.
[224]. The older Camaralzaman = "Moon of the age." Kamar is the moon between her third and twenty-sixth day: Hilál during the rest of the month: Badr (plur. Budúr, whence the name of the Princess) is the full moon.
[225]. Arab. "Ra'áyá" plur. of "Ra'íyat" our Anglo-Indian Ryot, lit. a liege, a subject; secondarily a peasant, a Fellah.
[226]. Another audacious parody of the Moslem "testification" to the one God, and to Mohammed the Apostle.
[227]. Showing how long ago forts were armed with metal plates which we have applied to war-ships only of late years.
[228]. The comparison is abominably true—in the East.
[229]. Two fallen angels who taught men the art of magic. They are mentioned in the Koran (chapt. ii.); and the commentators have extensively embroidered the simple text. Popularly they are supposed to be hanging by their feet in a well in the territory of Babel hence the frequent allusions to "Babylonian sorcery" in Moslem writings; and those who would study the black art at head-quarters are supposed to go there. They are counterparts of the Egyptian Jamnes and Mambres, the Jannes and Jambres of St. Paul (2 Tim. iii. 8).
[230]. An idol or idols of the Arabs (Allat and Ozza) before Mohammed (Koran chapt. ii. 256). Etymologically the word means "error" and the termination is rather Hebraic than Arabic.
[231]. Arab. "Khayt hamayán" (wandering threads of vanity), or Mukhát al-Shaytan (Satan's snivel), = our "gossamer" = God's summer (Mutter-Gottes-Sommer) or God's cymar (P).
[232]. These lines occur in Night xvii.; so I borrow from Torrens (p. 163) by way of variety.