[101]. Arab. “Min wahid aduww” a peculiarly Egyptian or rather Cairene phrase.
[102]. Al-Danaf = the Distressing Sickness: the title would be Ahmad the Calamity. Al-Zaybak (the Quicksilver) = Mercury Ali: Hasan “Shuuman” = a pestilent fellow. We shall meet all these worthies again and again: see the Adventures of Mercury Ali of Cairo, Night dccviii., a sequel to The Rogueries of Dalilah, Night dcxcviii.
[103]. For the “Sacrifice-place of Ishmael” (not Isaac) see my Pilgrimage (iii. 306). According to all Arab ideas Ishmael, being the eldest son, was the chief of the family after his father. I have noted that this is the old old quarrel between the Arabs and their cousins the Hebrews.
[104]. This black-mail was still paid to the Badawin of Ramlah (Alexandria) till the bombardment in 1881.
[105]. The famous Issus of Cilicia, now a port-village on the Gulf of Scanderoon.
[106]. Arab. “Wada’á” = the concha veneris, then used as small change.
[107]. Arab. “Sakati” = a dealer in “castaway” articles, such as old metal, damaged goods, the pluck and feet of animals, etc.
[108]. The popular tale of Burckhardt’s death in Cairo was that the names of the three first Caliphs were found written upon his slipper-soles and that he was put to death by decree of the Olema. It is the merest nonsense, as the great traveller died of dysentery in the house of my old friend John Thurburn and was buried outside the Bab al-Nasr of Cairo, where his tomb was restored by the late Rogers Bay (Pilgrimage i. 123).
[109]. Prob. a mis-spelling for Arslán, in Turk, a lion, and in slang a piastre.
[110]. Arab. “Maka’ad”; lit. = sitting-room.