[396]. The mention of coffee now frequently occurs in this tale and in that which follows; the familiar use of it showing a comparatively late date, and not suggesting the copyist’s hand.
[397]. Arab. “Al-Kahwah,” the place being called from its produce. See Pilgrimage i. 317–18.
[398]. Arab. “Al-Ghurbah Kurbah:” the translation in the text is taken from my late friend Edward Eastwick, translator of the Gulistan and author of a host of works which show him to have been a ripe Oriental scholar.
[399]. The fiction may have been suggested by the fact that in all Moslem cities from India to Barbary the inner and outer gates are carefully shut during the noontide devotions, not “because Friday is the day on which creation was finished and Mohammed entered Al-Medinah;” but because there is a popular idea that in times now approaching the Christians will rise up against the Moslems during prayers and will repeat the “Sicilian Vespers.”
[400]. i.e. the syndic of the Guild of Jewellers.
[401]. This is an Arab Lady Godiva of the wrong sort.
[402]. This is explained in my Pilgrimage i. 99 et seq.
[403]. About three pennyweights. It varies, however, everywhere and in Morocco the “Mezkal” as they call it is an imaginary value, no such coin existing.
[404]. i.e. over and above the value of the gold, etc.
[405]. This was the custom of contemporary Europe and more than one master cutler has put to death an apprentice playing Peeping Tom to detect the secret of sword-making.