[355]. i.e. the inverted n.
[356]. It may also mean a “Sevigné of pearls.”
[357]. Koran xxvii. 12. This was one of the nine “signs” to wicked “Pharaoh.” The “hand of Moses” is a symbol of power and ability (Koran vii. 105). The whiteness was supernatural beauty, not leprosy of the Jews (Exod. iv. 6); but brilliancy, after being born red or black: according to some commentators, Moses was a negro.
[358]. Koran iii. 103; the other faces become black. This explains, I have noticed, the use of the phrases in blessing and cursing.
[359]. Here we have the naked legend of the negro’s origin; one of those nursery tales in which the ignorant of Christendom still believe. But the deduction from the fable and the testimony to the negro’s lack of intelligence, though unpleasant to our ignorant negrophils, are factual and satisfactory.
[360]. Koran, xcii. 1, 2: an oath of Allah to reward and punish with Heaven and Hell.
[361]. Alluding to the “black drop” in the heart: it was taken from Mohammed’s by the Archangel Gabriel. The fable seems to have arisen from the verse “Have we not opened thy breast?” (Koran, chapt. xciv. 1). The popular tale is that Halímah, the Badawi nurse of Mohammed, of the Banu Sa’ad tribe, once saw her son, also a child, running towards her and asked him what was the matter. He answered, “My little brother was seized by two men in white who stretched him on the ground and opened his belly!” For a full account and deductions see the Rev. Mr. Badger’s article, “Muhammed” (p. 959) in vol. iii. “Dictionary of Christian Biography.”
[362]. Arab, “Sumr,” lit. brown (as it is afterwards used), but politely applied to a negro: “Yá Abu Sumrah!” O father of brownness.
[363]. Arab. “Lumá” = dark hue of the inner lips admired by the Arabs and to us suggesting most unpleasant ideas. Mr. Chenery renders it “dark red” and “ruddy,” altogether missing the idea.
[364]. Arab. “Saudá,” feminine of aswad (black), and meaning black bile (melancholia) as opposed to leucocholia.