[266]. Arab. “Yá miskín” = O poor devil; mesquin, meschino, words evidently derived from the East.
[267]. Plur. of Maghribí, a Western man, a Moor. I have already derived the word through the Lat. “Maurus” from Maghribiyún. Europeans being unable to pronounce the Ghayn (or gh like the modern Cairenes) would turn it into “Ma’ariyún.” They are mostly of the Maliki school (for which see Sale) and are famous as magicians and treasure-finders. Amongst the suite of the late Amir Abd al-Kadir, who lived many years and died in Damascus, I found several men profoundly versed in Eastern spiritualism and occultism.
[268]. The names are respectively, Slave of the Salvation; of the One (God); of the Eternal; of the Compassionate; and of the Loving.
[269]. i.e. “the most profound”; the root is that of “Bátiní,” a gnostic, a reprobate.
[270]. i.e. the Tall One.
[271]. The loud-pealing or (ear-) breaking Thunder.
[272]. Arab. “Fás and Miknás” which the writer evidently regards as one city. “Fás” means a hatchet, from the tradition of one having been found, says Ibn Sa’id, when digging the base under the founder Idrís bin Idrís (A.D. 808). His sword was placed on the pinnacle of the minaret built by the Imám Abu Ahmad bin Abi Bakr enclosed in a golden étui studded with pearls and precious stones. From the local pronunciation “Fes” is derived the red cap of the nearer Moslem East (see Ibn Batutah p. 230).
[273]. Arab. “Al-Khurj,” whence the Span. Las Alforjas.
[274]. Arab. “Kabáb,” mutton or lamb cut into small squares and grilled upon skewers: it is the roast meat of the nearer East where, as in the West, men have not learned to cook meat so as to preserve all its flavour. This is found in the “Asa’o” of the Argentine Gaucho who broils the flesh while still quivering and before the fibre has time to set. Hence it is perfectly tender, if the animal be young, and it has a “meaty” taste half lost by keeping.
[275]. Equivalent to our puritanical “Mercy.”