[9]. Easterns, I have observed, have no way of saying “Thank you;” they express it by a blessing or a short prayer. They have a right to your surplus: daily bread is divided, they say and, eating yours, they consider it their own. I have discussed this matter in Pilgrimage i. 75-77, in opposition to those who declare that “gratitude” is unknown to Moslems.
[10]. Cufa (Kufah) being a modern place never had a “King,” but as the Hindu says, “Delhi is far”—it is a far cry to Loch Awe. Here we can hardly understand “Malik” as Governor or Viceroy: can it be syn. with Zú-mál (moneyed)?
[11]. Abd al-Malik has been before mentioned as the “Sweat of a Stone,” etc. He died recommending Al-Hajjaj to his son, Al-Walid, and one of his sayings is still remembered. “He who desireth to take a female slave for carnal enjoyment, let him take a native of Barbary; if he need one for the sake of children, let him have a Persian; and whoso desireth one for service, let him take a Greek.” Moderns say, “If you want a brother (in arms) try a Nubian; one to get you wealth an Abyssinian and if you want an ass (for labour) a Sáwahíli, or Zanzibar negroid.”
[12]. Probably suggested by the history of Antiochus and Stratonice, with an addition of Eastern mystery such as geomancy.
[13]. Arab. “Kárúrah”: the “water-doctor” has always been an institution in the East and he has lately revived in Europe—especially at the German baths and in London.
[14]. Lane makes this phrase “O brother of the Persians!” synonymous with “O Persian!” I think it means more, a Persian being generally considered “too clever by half.”
[15]. The verses deal in untranslatable word-plays upon women’s names, Naomi (the blessing) Su’adá or Su’ád (the happy, which Mr. Redhouse, in Ka’ab’s Mantle-poem, happily renders Beatrice); and Juml (a sum or total) the two latter, moreover, being here fictitious.
[16]. “And he (Jacob) turned from them, and said, ‘O how I am grieved for Joseph!’ And his eyes became white with mourning.... (Quoth Joseph to his brethren), ‘Take this my inner garment and throw it on my father’s face and he shall recover his sight....’ So, when the messenger of good tidings came (to Jacob) he threw it (the shirt) over his face and he recovered his eye-sight.”—Koran, xii. 84, 93, 96. The commentators, by way of improvement, assure us that the shirt was that worn by Abraham when thrown into the fire (Koran, chapt. xvi.) by Nimrod (!). We know little concerning “Jacob’s daughters” who named the only bridge spanning the upper Jordan, and who have a curious shrine-tomb near Jewish “Safed” (North of Tiberias), one of the four “Holy Cities.” The Jews ignore these “daughters of Jacob” and travellers neglect them.
[17]. Easterns, I have remarked, mostly recognise the artistic truth that the animal man is handsomer than woman; and that “fair sex” is truly only of skin-colour. The same is the general rule throughout creation, for instance the stallion compared with the mare, the cock with the hen; while there are sundry exceptions such as the Falconidæ.
[18]. The Badawi (who is nothing if not horsey) compares the gait of a woman who walks well (in Europe rarely seen out of Spain) with the slightly swinging walk of a thoroughbred mare, bending her graceful neck and looking from side to side at objects as she passes.