[256]. In the first hemistich, "bi-shitt 'il wády" (by the wady-bank): in the second, "wa shatta 'l wády" ("and my slayer"—i.e. wády act. part. of wady, killing—"hath paced away").
[257]. The double entendre is from the proper names Budúr and Su'ád (Beatrice) also meaning "auspicious (or blessed) full moons."
[258]. Arab. "Házir" (also Ahl al-hazar, townsmen) and Bádi, a Badawi, also called "Ahl al-Wabar," people of the camel's hair (tent) and A'aráb (Nomadic) as opposed to Arab (Arab settled or not). They still boast with Ibn Abbas, cousin of Mohammed, that they have kerchiefs (not turbands) for crowns, tents for houses, loops for walls, swords for scarves and poems for registers or written laws.
[259]. This is a peculiarity of the Jinn tribe when wearing hideous forms. It is also found in the Hindu Rakshasa.
[260]. Which, by the by, are small and beautifully shaped. The animal is very handy with them, as I learnt by experience when trying to "Rareyfy" one at Bayrut.
[261]. She being daughter of Al-Dimiryát, King of the Jinns. Mr. W. F. Kirby has made him the subject of a pretty poem.
[262]. These lines have occurred in Night xxii. I give Torrens's version (p. 223) by way of variety.
[263]. Arab. "Kámat Alfiyyah," like an Alif, the first of the Arabic alphabet, the Heb. Aleph. The Arabs, I have said, took the flag or water-leaf form and departed very far from the Egyptian original (we know from Plutarch that the hieroglyphic abecedarium began with "a"), which was chosen by other imitators, namely the bull's head; and which in the cursive form, especially the Phœnician, became a yoke. In numerals "Alif" denotes one or one thousand. It inherits the traditional honours of Alpha (as opposed to Omega), and in books, letters and writings generally it is placed as a monogram over the "Bismillah," an additional testimony to the Unity. (See vol. i. p. 1). In mediæval Christianity this place of honour was occupied by the cross: none save the wildest countries have preserved it, but our vocabulary still retains Criss' (Christ-)cross Row, for horn-book, on account of the old alphabet and nine digits disposed in the form of a Latin cross. Hence Tickell ("The Horn-book"):
——Mortals ne'er shall know
More than contained of old the Chris'-cross Row.