How paint her hips and waist? Who saw
A mountain (Koh) dangling to a straw (káh)?
In Antar his beloved Abla is a tamarisk (T. Orientalis). Others compare with the palm-tree (Solomon), the Cypress (Persian, esp. Hafiz and Firdausi) and the Arák or wild Capparis (Arab.).
[309]. Ubi aves ibi angeli. All African travellers know that a few birds flying about the bush, and a few palm-trees waving in the wind, denote the neighbourhood of a village or a camp (where angels are scarce). The reason is not any friendship for man but because food, animal and vegetable, is more plentiful. Hence Albatrosses, Mother Carey's (Mater Cara, the Virgin) chickens, and Cape pigeons follow ships.
[310]. The stanza is called Al-Mukhammas = cinquains; the quatrains and the "bob," or "burden," always preserve the same consonance. It ends with a Koranic lieu commun of Moslem morality.
[311]. Moslem port towns usually have (or had) only two gates. Such was the case with Bayrut, Tyre, Sidon and a host of others; the faubourg-growth of modern days has made these obselete. The portals much resemble the entrances of old Norman castles—Arques for instance. Pilgrimage, i. 185.
[312]. Arab. "Lisám"; before explained.
[313]. i.e. Life of Souls (persons, etc.).
[314]. Arab. "Insánu-há" = her (i.e. their) man: i.e. the babes of the eyes: the Assyrian Ishon, dim. of Ish = Man; which the Hebrews call "Bábat" or "Bit" (the daughter); the Arabs "Bubu (or Hadakat) al-Ayn"; the Persians "Mardumak-i-chashm" (mannikin of the eye); the Greeks κόρη and the Latins pupa, pupula, pupilla. I have noted this in the Lyricks of Camoens (p. 449).
[315]. Ma'an bin Zá'idah, a soldier and statesman of the eighth century.