[217]. This is the rule in Egypt and Syria and a clout hung over the door shows that women are bathing. I have heard, but only heard, that in times and places when eunuchs went in with the women youths managed by long practice to retract the testicles so as to pass for castratos. It is hard to say what perseverance may not effect in this line; witness Orsini and his abnormal development of hearing, by exercising muscles which are usually left idle.
[218]. This reference to Allah shows that Abu Sir did not believe his dyer-friend.
[219]. Arab. “Dawá” (lit. remedy, medicine) the vulgar term: see vol. iv. [256]: also called Rasmah, Núrah and many other names.
[220]. Arab. “Má Kahara-ní” = or none hath overcome me.
[221]. Bresl. Edit. “The King of Isbániya.” For the “Ishbán” (Spaniards) an ancient people descended from Japhet son of Noah and who now are no more, see Al-Mas’udi (Fr. Transl. i. 361). The “Herodotus of the Arabs” recognises only the “Jalálikah” or Gallicians, thus bearing witness to the antiquity and importance of the Gallego race.
[222]. Arab. “Sha’r,” properly, hair of body, pile, especially the pecten. See Burckhardt (Prov. No. 202), “grieving for lack of a cow she made a whip of her bush,” said of those who console themselves by building Castles in Spain. The “parts below the waist” is the decent Turkish term for the privities.
[223]. The drowning is a martyr’s death, the burning is a foretaste of Hell-fire.
[224]. Meaning that if the trick had been discovered the Captain would have taken the barber’s place. We have seen (vol. i. [63]) the Prime Minister superintending the royal kitchen and here the Admiral fishes for the King’s table. It is even more naïve than the Court of Alcinöus.
[225]. Bresl. Edit. xi. 32: i.e. save me from disgrace.
[226]. Arab. “Khinsir” or “Khinsar,” the little finger or the middle finger. In Arabic each has its own name or names which is also that of the corresponding toe e.g. Ibhám (thumb); Sabbábah, Musabbah or Da”áah (forefinger); Wastá (medius); Binsir (annularis, ring-finger) and Khinsar (minimus). There are also names for the several spaces between the fingers. See the English Arabic Dictionary (London, Kegan Paul and Co., 1881) by the Revd. Dr. Badger, a work of immense labour and research but which I fear has been to the learned author a labour of love not of profit.