[FN#143] i.e. the return of our beloved hath enabled us to remove the barriers that stood between us and delight.
[FN#144] Singing (as I have before pointed out) is not, in the eyes of the strict Muslim, a reputable occupation and it is, therefore, generally the first idea of the "repentant" professional songstress or (as in this case) enfranchised slave-girl, who has been wont to entertain her master with the display of her musical talents, to free herself from all signs of her former profession and identify herself as closely as possible with the ordinary "respectable" bourgeoise of the harem, from whom she has been distinguished hitherto by unveiled face and freedom of ingress and egress; and with this aim in view she would naturally be inclined to exaggerate the rigour of Muslim custom, as applied to herself.
[FN#145] Breslau Text, vol. xii. pp. 383-4 (Night mi).
[FN#146] i.e. that of the king, his seven viziers, his son and his favourite, which in the Breslau
Edition immediately follows the Story of El Abbas and Mariyeh and occupies pp. 237-383 of vol.
xii. (Nights dcccclxxix-m). It will be found translated in my "Book of the Thousand Nights and
One Night," Vol. V. pp. 260-346, under the name of "The Malice of Women."
[FN#147] i.e. those who practise it.
[FN#148] Or "cause" (sebeb).
[FN#149] Or "preservation" (selameh).
[FN#150] Or "turpitude, anything that is hateful or vexatious" (keraheh).
[FN#151] Or "preservation" (selameh).
[FN#152] Or "turpitude, anything that is hateful or vexatious" (keraheh).