[FN#201] i.e. change the sir to one less poignant? Or (perhaps) "lower thy voice."
[FN#202] i.e. from time immemorial, before the creation of the world. The most minute details of every man's life in the world are believed by the Mohammedans to have been fore-ordained by God from all eternity. This belief is summed up in the Koranic saying, "Verily, the commandment of God is a prevenient decree."
[FN#203] No mention is afterward made of any wedding, and the word is, therefore, probably used here in its implied sense of "festival," "merry-making." I am not, however acquainted with any instance of this use of the word urs.
[FN#204] Or "peewit."
[FN#205] i.e. those that led the water to the roots of the trees, after the manner of Eastern gardeners.
[FN#206] One of the seven "Gardens" or stages for the Mohammedan heaven.
[FN#207] "God is Most Great!" So called because its pronunciation, after that of the niyeh or intent (i.e. "I purpose to pray such and such prayers"), prohibits the speaking of any words previous to prayer.
[FN#208] i.e. those of the five daily prayers (due at daybreak, noon, mid-afternoon, sundown, and nightfall respectively) which she had been prevented from praying on the previous evening, through having passed it in carousing with the Jinn. It is incumbent on the strict Muslim to make up his arrears of prayer in this manner.
[FN#209] Lit. skill in physiognomy (firaseh).
[FN#210] i.e. the owner of this palace.