[87]. Arab “Ya jáhil,” lit. = O ignorant. The popular word is Ahmak which, however, in the West means a maniac, a madman, a Santon; “Bohlí” being = a fool.
[88]. The prison according to the practice of the East being in the palace: so the Moorish “Kasbah,” which lodges the Governor and his guard, always contains the jail.
[89]. Arab. “Tuwuffiya,” lit. = was received (into the grace of God), an euphemistic and more polite term than “máta” = he died. The latter term is avoided by the Founder of Christianity; and our Spiritualists now say “passed away to a higher life,” a phrase embodying a theory which, to say the least, is “not proven.”
[90]. Arab. “Yá Abá al-Khayr” = our my good lord, sir, fellow, etc.
[91]. Arab. “Háwi” from “Hayyah,” a serpent. See vol. iii. [145]. Most of the Egyptian snake-charmers are Gypsies, but they do not like to be told of their origin. At Baroda in Guzerat I took lessons in snake-catching, but found the sport too dangerous; when the animal flies, the tail is caught by the left hand and the right is slipped up to the neck, a delicate process, as a few inches too far or not far enough would be followed by certain death in catching a Cobra. At last certain of my messmates killed one of the captives and the snake-charmer would have no more to do with me.
[92]. Arab. “Sallah,” also Pers., a basket of wickerwork. This article is everywhere used for lodging snakes from Egypt to Morocco.
[93]. Arab. “Mubárak.” It is a favourite name for a slave in Morocco; the slave-girl being called Mubárakah; and the proverb being, “Blessed is the household which hath neither M’bárk nor M’bárkah” (as they contract the words).
[94]. The Bresl. Edit. (viii. 48) instead of the Gate (Báb) gives a Bádhanj = a Ventilator; for which latter rendering see vol. i. [257]. The spider’s web is Koranic (lxxxi. 40) “Verily frailest of all houses is the house of the spider.”
[95]. Prob. from the Persian Wird = a pupil, a disciple.
[96]. And yet, as the next page shows the youth’s education was complete in his twelfth year. But as all three texts agree, I do not venture upon changing the number to six or seven, the age at which royal education outside the Harem usually begins.