[60]. The giraffe is here mal-placé: it is, I repeat, one of the most timid of the antelope tribe. Nothing can be more graceful than this huge game as it stands under a tree extending its long and slender neck to the foliage above it; but when in flight all the limbs seem loose and the head is carried almost on a level with the back.
[61]. The fire-arms may have been inserted by the copier; the cross-bow (Arcubalista) is of unknown antiquity. I have remarked in my book of the Sword (p. 19) that the bow is the first crucial evidence of the distinction between the human weapon and the bestial arm, and like the hymen or membrane of virginity proves a difference of degree if not of kind between man and the so-called lower animals. I note from Yule’s Marco Polo (ii., 143) “that the cross-bow was re-introduced into European warfare during the twelfth century”; but the arbalest was well known to the bon roi Charlemagne (Regnier Sat. X).
[62]. In Al-Islam this was unjustifiable homicide, excused only because the Kafir had tried to slay his own son. He should have been summoned to become a tributary and then, on express refusal, he might legally have been put to death.
[63]. i.e. “Rose King,” like the Sikh name “Gulab Singh” = Rosewater Lion, sounding in translation almost too absurd to be true.
[64]. “Repentance acquits the penitent” is a favourite and noble saying popular in Al-Islam. It is first found in Seneca; and is probably as old as the dawn of literature.
[65]. Here an ejaculation of impatience.
[66]. i.e. “King Intelligence”: it has a ludicrous sound suggesting only “Dandanha-i-Khirad” = wisdom-teeth. The Mac. Edit. persistently keeps “Ward Shah,” copyist-error.
[67]. i.e. Fakhr Taj, who had been promised him in marriage. See Night dcxxxiii. supra, vol. vi.
[68]. The name does not appear till further on, after vague Eastern fashion which, here and elsewhere I have not had the heart to adopt. The same may be found in Ariosto, passim.
[69]. A town in Persian Irak, unhappily far from the “Salt sea.”