[183]. Arab. “Ibrík” usually a ewer, a spout-pot, from the Pers. Ab-ríz = water-pourer; the old woman thus vaunted her ceremonial purity. The basin and ewer are called in poetry “the two rumourers,” because they rattle when borne about.
[184]. Khátún in Turk. is = a lady, a dame of high degree; at times, as here and elsewhere, it becomes a P. N.
[185]. Arab. “Maut,” a word mostly avoided in the Koran and by the Founder of Christianity.
[186]. Arab. “Akákír,” drugs, spices, simples which cannot be distinguished without study and practice. Hence the proverb (Burckhardt, 703), Is this an art of drugs?—difficult as the druggist’s craft?
[187]. i.e. Beautiful as the fairy damsels who guard enchanted treasures, such as that of Al-Shamardal (vol. vi. 221).
[188]. i.e. by contact with a person in a state of ceremonial impurity; servants are not particular upon this point and “Salát mamlúkíyah” (Mameluke’s prayers) means praying without ablution.
[189]. i.e. Father of assaults, burdens or pregnancies; the last being here the meaning.
[190]. Ex votos and so forth.
[191]. Arab. “Iksah,” plaits, braids, also the little gold coins and other ornaments worn in the hair, now mostly by the middle and lower classes. Low Europeans sometimes take advantage of the native prostitutes by detaching these valuables, a form of “bilking” peculiar to the Nile-Valley.
[192]. In Bresl. Edit. Malíh Kawí (pron. ’Awi), a Cairene vulgarism.