[416]. It is the custom for fast youths, in Egypt, Syria, and elsewhere to stick small gold pieces, mere spangles of metal on the brows, cheeks and lips of the singing and dancing girls and the perspiration and mask of cosmetics make them adhere for a time till fresh movement shakes them off.
[417]. See the same idea in vol. i. [132], and 349.
[418]. “They will ask thee concerning wine and casting of lots; say:—In both are great sin and great advantages to mankind; but the sin of them both is greater than their advantage.” See Koran ii. 216. Mohammed seems to have made up his mind about drinking by slow degrees; and the Koranic law is by no means so strict as the Mullahs have made it. The prohibitions, revealed at widely different periods and varying in import and distinction, have been discussed by Al-Bayzáwi in his commentary on the above chapter. He says that the first revelation was in chapt. xvi. 69 but, as the passage was disregarded, Omar and others consulted the Apostle who replied to them in chapt. ii. 216. Then, as this also was unnoticed, came the final decision in chapt. v. 92, making wine and lots the work of Satan. Yet excuses are never wanting to the Moslem, he can drink Champagne and Cognac, both unknown in Mohammed’s day and he can use wine and spirits medicinally, like sundry of ourselves, who turn up the nose of contempt at the idea of drinking for pleasure.
[419]. i.e. a fair-faced cup-bearer. The lines have occurred before: so I quote Mr. Payne.
[420]. It is the custom of the Arabs to call their cattle to water by whistling; not to whistle to them, as Europeans do, whilst making water.
[421]. i.e. bewitching. See vol. i. [85]. These incompatible metaphors are brought together by the Saj’a (prose rhyme) in—“iyah.”
[422]. Mesopotamian Christians, who still turn towards Jerusalem, face the West, instead of the East, as with Europeans: here the monk is so dazed that he does not know what to do.
[423]. Arab. “Bayt Sha’ar” = a house of hair (tent) or a couplet of verse. Watad (a tent-peg) also is prosodical, a foot when the two first letters are “moved” (vowelled) and the last is jazmated (quiescent), e.g. Lakad. It is termed Majmú’a (united), as opposed to “Mafrúk” (separated), e.g. Kabla, when the “moved” consonants are disjoined by a quiescent.
[424]. Lit. standing on their heads, which sounds ludicrous enough in English, not in Arabic.
[425]. These lines are in vol. iii. [251]. I quote Mr. Payne who notes “The bodies of Eastern women of the higher classes by dint of continual maceration, Esther-fashion, in aromatic oils and essences, would naturally become impregnated with the sweet scents of the cosmetics used.”