[121]. Yochanan (whom Jehovah has blessed) Jewish for John, is probably a copy of the Chaldean Euahanes, the Oannes of Berosus = Ea Khan, Hea the fish. The Greeks made it Joannes; the Arabs “Yohanná” (contracted to “Hanná,” Christian) and “Yáhyá” (Moslem). Prester (Priest) John is probably Ung Khan, the historian prince conquered and slain by Janghiz Khan in A.D. 1202. The modern history of “John” is very extensive: there may be a full hundred varieties and derivations of the name. “Husn Maryam” = the beauty (spiritual, etc.) of the B.V.
[122]. Primarily being middle-aged; then aid, a patron, servant, etc. Also a tribe of the Jinn usually made synonymous with “Márid,” evil controuls, hostile to men: modern spiritualists would regard them as polluted souls not yet purged of their malignity. The text insinuates that they were at home amongst Christians and in Genoa.
[123]. Arab. “Sar’a” = epilepsy, falling sickness, of old always confounded with “possession” (by evil spirits) or “obsession.”
[124]. Again the true old charge of falsifying the so-called “Sacred books.” Here the Koran is called “Furkán.” Sale (sect. iii.) would assimilate this to the Hebr. Perek or Pirka, denoting a section or portion of Scripture; but Moslems understand it to be the “Book which distinguished (faraka, divided) the true from the false.” Thus Caliph Omar was entitled “Fárúk” = the Distinguisher (between right and wrong). Lastly, “Furkán,” meaning as in Syr. and Ethiop. deliverance, revelation, is applied alike to the Pentateuch and Koran.
[125]. Euphemistic for “thou shalt die.”
[126]. Lit. “From (jugular) vein to vein” (Arab. Waríd). Our old friend Lucretius again: “Tantane relligio,” etc.
[127]. As opposed to the “but” or outer room.
[128]. Arab. “Darb al-Asfar” in the old Jamalíyah or Northern part of Cairo.
HATIM OF THE TRIBE OF TAYY.
It is told of Hátim of the tribe of Tayy,[[129]] that when he died, they buried him on the top of a mountain and set over his grave two troughs hewn out of two rocks and stone girls with dishevelled hair. At the foot of the hill was a stream of running water, and when wayfarers camped there, they heard loud crying and keening in the night, from dark till daybreak; but when they arose in the morning, they found nothing but the girls carved in stone. Now when Zú ‘l-Kurá’a,[[130]] King of Himyar, going forth of his tribe, came to that valley, he halted to pass the night there——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.