[238]. So the Persian “May your shadow never be less” means, I have said, the shadow which you throw over your servant. Shade, cold water and fresh breezes are the joys of life in arid Arabia.
[239]. When a Fellah demanded money due to him by the Government of Egypt, he was at once imprisoned for arrears of taxes and thus prevented from being troublesome. I am told that matters have improved under English rule, but I “doubt the fact.”
[240]. This freak is of course not historical. The tale-teller introduces it to enhance the grandeur and majesty of Harun al-Rashid, and the vulgar would regard it as a right kingly diversion. Westerns only wonder that such things could be.
[241]. Uncle of the Prophet: for his death see Pilgrimage ii. 248.
[242]. First cousin of the Prophet, son of Abú Tálib, a brother of Al-Abbás from whom the Abbasides claimed descent.
[243]. i.e. I hope thou hast or Allah grant thou have good tidings to tell me.
[244]. Arab. “Nákhúzah Zulayt.” The former, from the Persian Nákhodá or ship-captain which is also used in a playful sense “a godless wight,” one owning no (ná) God (Khudá). Zulayt = a low fellow, blackguard.
[245]. Yásamín and Narjis, names of slave-girls or eunuchs.
[246]. Arab. Tamar-hanná, the cheapest of dyes used ever by the poorest classes. Its smell, I have said, is that of newly mown hay, and is prized like that of the tea-rose.
[247]. The formula (meaning, “What has he to do here?”) is by no means complimentary.