[15]. Arab. Sabíkah = bar, lamina, from “Sabk” = melting, smelting: the lump in the crucible would be hammered out into an ingot in order to conceal the operation.
[16]. i.e. £375.
[17]. Such report has cost many a life: the suspicion was and is still deadly as heresy in a “new Christian” under the Inquisition.
[18]. Here there is a double entendre: openly it means, “Few men recognise as they should the bond of bread and salt;” the other sense would be (and that accounts for the smile), “What the deuce do I care for the bond?”
[19]. Arab. “Kabbát” in the Bresl. Edit. “Ka’abán”; Lane (iii. 519) reads “Ka’áb plur. of Ka’ab a cup.”
[20]. A most palpable sneer. But Hasan is purposely represented as a “softy” till aroused and energized by the magic of Love.
[21]. Arab. Al-iksír (see Night dcclxxix. supra p. [9]): the Greek word ξηρόν which has returned from a trip to Arabia and reappeared in Europe as “Elixir.”
[22]. “Awák” plur. of “Ukíyah,” the well-known “oke,” or “ocque,” a weight varying from 1 to 2 lbs. In Morocco it is pronounced “Wukíyah,” and = the Spanish ounce (p. 279 Rudimentos del Arabe Vulgar, etc., by Fr. José de Lorchundi, Madrid, Rivadeneyra, 1872.)
[23]. These lines have occurred in vol. iv. [267], where references to other places is given. I quote Lane by way of variety. In the text they are supposed to have been written by the Persian, a hint that Hasan would never be seen again.
[24]. i.e. a superfetation of iniquity.