[375]. This is the popular idea of a bushy “veil of nature” in women: it is always removed by depilatories and vellication. When Bilkis Queen of Sheba discovered her legs by lifting her robe (Koran xxvii.), Solomon was minded to marry her, but would not do so till the devils had by a depilatory removed the hair. The popular preparation (called Núrah) consists of quicklime 7 parts, and Zirník or orpiment, 3 parts: it is applied in the Hammam to a perspiring skin, and it must be washed off immediately the hair is loosened or it burns and discolours. The rest of the body-pile (Sha’arat opp. to Sha’ar = hair) is eradicated by applying a mixture of boiled honey with turpentine or other gum, and rolling it with the hand till the hair comes off. Men I have said remove the pubes by shaving, and pluck the hair of the armpits, one of the vestages of pre-Adamite man. A good depilatory is still a desideratum, the best perfumers of London and Paris have none which they can recommend. The reason is plain: the hair-bulb can be eradicated only by destroying the skin.
[376]. Koran, ii. 64: referring to the heifer which the Jews were ordered to sacrifice.
[377]. Arab. “kallá,” a Koranic term possibly from Kull (all) and lá (not) = prorsus non—altogether not!
[378]. “Habáb” or “Habá,” the fine particles of dust, which we call motes. The Cossid (Arab. Kásid) is the Anglo-Indian term for a running courier (mostly under Government), the Persian “Shátir” and the Guebre Rávand.
[379]. Arab. “Samhari” a very long thin lance so called after Samhar, the maker, or the place of making. See vol. ii. p. 1. It is supposed to cast, when planted in the ground, a longer shadow in proportion to its height, than any other thing of the kind.
[380]. Arab. “Suláfah;” properly ptisane which flows from the grapes before pressure. The plur. “Sawálif” also means tresses of hair and past events: thus there is a “triple entendre.” And again “he” is used for “she.”
[381]. There is a pun in the last line, “Khálun (a mole) khallauni” (rid me), etc.
[382]. Of old Fustát, afterwards part of Southern Cairo, a proverbially miserable quarter, hence the saying, “They quoted Misr to Káhirah (Cairo), whereon Bab al-Luk rose with its grass,” in derision of nobodies who push themselves forward. Burckhardt, Prov. 276.
[383]. Its fruits are the heads of devils; a true Dantesque fancy. Koran, chapt. xvii. 62, “the tree cursed in the Koran” and in chapt. xxxvii, 60, “is this better entertainment, or the tree of Al-Zakkúm?” Commentators say that it is a thorn bearing a bitter almond which grows in the Tehamah and was therefore promoted to Hell.
[384]. Arab. “Lasm” (lathm) as opposed to Bausah or boseh (a buss) and Kublah (a kiss, generic).