[276]. Arab. Táir al-bayn, any bird, not only the Hátim or black crow, which announces separation. Crows and ravens flock for food to the camps broken up for the springtide and autumnal marches, and thus become emblems of desertion and desolation. The same birds are also connected with Abel’s burial in the Koran (v. 34), a Jewish tradition borrowed by Mohammed. Lastly, here is a paronomasia in the words “Ghuráb al-Bayn” = Raven of the Wold (the black bird with white breast and red beak and legs): “Ghuráb” (Heb. Oreb) connects with Cuba = strangerhood, exile, and “Bayn” with distance, interval, disunion, the desert (between the cultivated spots). There is another and a similar pun anent the Bán-tree; the first word meaning “he fared, he left.”
[277]. Arab. “Tayr,” any flying thing, a bird; with true Arab carelessness the writer waits till the tale is nearly ended before letting us know that the birds are pigeons (Hamám).
[278]. Arab. “Karalynn.” The Arabs say, “Allah cool thine eye,” because tears of grief are hot and those of joy cool (Al-Asma’i); others say the cool eye is opposed to that heated by watching; and Al-Hariri (Ass. xxvii.) makes a scorching afternoon “hotter than the tear of a childless mother.” In the burning climate of Arabia coolth and refrigeration are equivalent to refreshment and delight.
[279]. Arab. “Muunah,” the “Mona” of Maroccan travellers (English not Italian who are scandalised by “Mona”) meaning the provisions supplied gratis by the unhappy villagers to all who visit them with passport from the Sultan. Our cousins German have lately scored a great success by paying for all their rations which the Ministers of other nations, England included, were mean enough to accept.
[280]. Arab. “Kaannahu huwa”; lit. = as he (was) he. This reminds us of the great grammarian, Sibawayh, whose name the Persians derive from “Apple-flavour” (Sib + BA). He was disputing, in presence of Harun al-Rashid with a rival Al-Kiss, and advocated the Bastian form, “Fa-izá huwa hú” (behold, it was he) against the Ku fan, “Fa-izá huwa IA” (behold, it was him). The enemy overcame him by appealing to Badawin, who spoke impurely, whereupon Sibawayh left the court, retired to Khorasan and died, it is said of a broken heart.
[281]. This is a sign of the Sada or melancholic temperament in which black bile predominates. It is supposed to cause a distaste for society and a longing for solitude, an unsettled habit of mind and neglect of worldly affairs. I remarked that in Arabia students are subject to it, and that amongst philosophers and literary men of Mecca and Al-Medinah there was hardly one who was not spoken of as a “Sada.” See Pilgrimage ii. 49, 50.
[282]. i.e. I am a servant and bound to tell thee what my orders are.
[283]. A touching lesson how tribes settle matters in the East.
[284]. i.e. fresh from water (Arab. “Rutub”), before the air can tarnish them. The pearl (margarita) in Arab is Lulu’; the “Union” or large pearl Durr, plur. Durar. In modern parlance Durr is the second quality of the twelve into which pearls are divided.
[285]. i.e. the Wazir, but purposely left vague.