[365]. i.e. the Magians, Sabians, Zoroastrians.
[366]. The “Unguinum fulgor” of the Latins who did not forget to celebrate the shining of the nails although they did not Henna them like Easterns. Some, however, have suggested that Ῥοδοδάκτυλος alludes to colouring matter.
[367]. Women with white skins are supposed to be heating and unwholesome: hence the Hindu Rajahs slept with dark girls in the hot season.
[368]. Moslems sensibly have a cold as well as a hot Hell, the former called Zamharir (lit. “intense cold”) or Al-Barahút, after a well in Hazramaut; as Gehenna (Arab. Jahannam) from the furnace-like ravine East of Jerusalem (Night cccxxv). The icy Hell is necessary in terrorem for peoples who inhabit cold regions and who in a hot Hell only look forward to an eternity of “coals and candles” gratis. The sensible missionaries preached it in Iceland till foolishly forbidden by Papal Bull.
[369]. Koran ii. 26; speaking of Abraham when he entertained the angels unawares.
[370]. Arab “Rakb,” usually applied to a fast-going caravan of dromedary riders (Pilgrimage ii. 329). The “Cafilah” is Arab.: “Caravan” is a corruption of the Pers. Karwán.
[371]. A popular saying. It is interesting to contrast this dispute between fat and thin with the Shakespearean humour of Falstaff and Prince Henry.
[372]. Arab. “Dalak” vulg Hajar al-Hammam (Hammam-stone). The comparison is very apt: the rasps are of baked clay artificially roughened (see illustrations in Lane M. E. chapt. xvi.) The rope is called “Masad,” a bristling line of palm-fibre like the coir now familiarly known in England.
[373]. Although the Arab’s ideal of beauty, as has been seen and said, corresponds with ours, the Egyptians (Modern) the Maroccans and other negrofied races like “walking tun-butts” as Clapperton called his amorous widow.
[374]. Arab. “Khayzar” or “Khayzarán” the rattan-palm. Those who have seen this most graceful “palmijuncus” in its native forest will recognise the neatness of the simile.