[FN#51] The strict Muslim is averse from taking an oath, even in support at the truth, and will sometimes submit to a heavy loss rather than do so. For an instance of this, see my "Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night," Vol. V. p. 44, The King of the Island.
[FN#52] To wit, the merchant and his officious friend.
[FN#53] There appears to be some mistake here, but I have no means of rectifying it. The passage is probably hopelessly corrupt and a portion of the conclusion of the story seems to have dropped out.
[FN#54] i.e. well-guarded, confined in the harem.
[FN#55] i.e. an old woman to crafty that she was a calamity to those against whom she plotted.
[FN#56] i.e. the amount of the contingent dowry and of the allowance which he was bound to make her for her support during the four months and some days which must elapse before she could lawfully marry again.
[FN#57] i.e. thou wilt have satisfied us all.
[FN#58] With the smoke of burning aloes-wood or other perfume, a common practice among the Arabs. The aloes-wood is placed upon burning charcoal in a censer perforated with holes, which is swung towards the person to be fumigated, whose clothes and hair are thus impregnated with the grateful fragrance of the burning wood. An accident such as that mentioned in the text might easily happen during the process of fumigation.
[FN#59] i.e. by God. The old woman is keeping up her assumption of the character of a devotee by canting about Divine direction.
[FN#60] This is the same story as "The House with the Belvedere." See my "Book of the Thousand Nights and one Night," Vol. V. p. 323.