[248]. Arab. “Jarrah” (pron. “Garrah”) a “jar.” See Lane (M. E. chapt. v.) who was deservedly reproached by Baron von Hammer for his superficial notices. The “Jarrah” is of pottery, whereas the “Dist” is a large copper chauldron and the Khalkínah one of lesser size.
[249]. i.e. What a bother thou art, etc.
[250]. This sudden transformation, which to us seems exaggerated and unnatural, appears in many Eastern stories and in the biographies of their distinguished men, especially students. A youth cannot master his lessons; he sees a spider climbing a slippery wall and after repeated falls succeeding. Allah opens the eyes of his mind, his studies become easy to him, and he ends with being an Allámah (doctissimus).
[251]. Arab. “Bismillah, Námí!” here it is not a blessing but a simple invitation, “Now please go to sleep.”
[252]. The modern inkcase of the Universal East is a lineal descendant of the wooden palette with writing reeds. See an illustration of that of “Amásis, the good god and lord of the two lands” (circ. B.C. 1350) in British Museum (p. 41, “The Dwellers on the Nile,” by E. A. Wallis Bridge, London, 56, Paternoster Row, 1885).
[253]. This is not ironical, as Lane and Payne suppose, but a specimen of inverted speech—Thou art in luck this time!
[254]. Arab. Marhúb = terrible: Lane reads Mar’úb = terrified. But the former may also mean, threatened with something terrible.
[255]. i.e. in Kut al-Kulúb.
[256]. Lit. to the son of thy paternal uncle, i.e. Mohammed.
[257]. In the text he tells the whole story beginning with the eunuch and the hundred dinars, the chest, etc.; but—“of no avail is a twice-told tale.”