[109]. As an Arab often does when deep in thought. Lane appositely quotes John viii. 6. “Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground.” Mr. Payne translates, “He fell a-drumming on the earth with his fingers,” but this does not complete the sense.
[110]. i.e. “And the peace of Allah be upon thee! that will end thy story.” The Arab formula, “Wa al-Salám” (pron. Wassalám) is used in a variety of senses.
[111]. Like Camoens, one of the model lovers, he calls upon Love to torment him still more—ad majorem Dei (amoris) gloriam.
[112]. Pron. Aboor-Ruwaysh. “The Father of the little Feather”: he is afterwards called “Son of the daughter of the accursed Iblis”; yet, as Lane says, “he appears to be a virtuous person.”
[113]. Arab. “Kantara al-lijám fí Karbús (bow) sarjih.”
[114]. I do not translate “beckoned” because the word would give a wrong idea. Our beckoning with the finger moved towards the beckoner makes the so-beckoned Eastern depart in all haste. To call him you must wave the hand from you.
[115]. The Arabs knew what large libraries were; and a learned man could not travel without camel-loads of dictionaries.
[116]. Arab. “Adim;” now called Bulghár, our Moroccan leather.
[117]. Arab. “Zinád,” which Lane renders by “instruments for striking fire,” and Mr. Payne, after the fashion of the translators of Al-Hariri, “flint and steel.”
[118]. A congener of Hasan and Husayn, little used except in Syria where it is a favourite name for Christians. The Muhit of Butrus Al-Bostání (s.v.) tells us that it also means a bird called Abú Hasan and supplies various Egyptian synonyms. In Mod. Arab. Grammar the form Fa’’úl is a diminutive as Hammúd for Ahmad, ’Ammúr for ’Amrú. So the fem. form, Fa’’úlah, e.g. Khaddúgah = little Khadijah and Naffúsah = little Nafisah; Ar’úrah = little clitoris: whereas in Heb. it is an incrementative e.g. dabbúlah a large dablah (cake or lump of dried figs, etc).