[FN#173] i.e. I know not which to choose of the superabundant material at my command in the way of instances of women's craft.
[FN#174] Breslau Text, vol xii. pp. 398-402.
[FN#175] i.e. incensed with the smoke of burning musk. It is a common practice in the East to fumigate drinking-vessels with the fragrant smoke of aloes-wood and other perfumes, for the purpose of giving a pleasant flavour to the water, etc., drunk from them.
[FN#176] Huneini foucaniyeh. Foucaniyeh means "upper" (fem.); but the meaning of huneini is unknown to me.
[FN#177] Heriseh. See supra, Vol. II. p. 26, note 4.
[FN#178] The Arabs distinguish three kinds of honey, i.e. bees' honey, cane honey (treacle or syrup of sugar) and drip-honey (date-syrup).
[FN#179] i.e. yet arrive in time for the rendezvous.
[FN#180] Breslau Text, pp. 402-412.
[FN#181] i.e. on an island between two branches of the Nile.
[FN#182] It is not plain what Khalif is here meant, though it is evident, from the context, that an Egyptian prince is referred to, unless the story is told of the Abbaside Khalif El Mamoun, son of Er Reshid (A.D. 813-33), during his temporary residence in Egypt, which he is said to have visited. This is, however, unlikely, as his character was the reverse of sanguinary; besides, El Mamoun was not his name, but his title (Aboulabbas Abdallah El Mamoun Billah). Two Khalifs of Egypt assumed the title of El Hakim bi Amrillah (He who rules or decrees by or in accordance with the commandment of God), i.e. the Fatimite Abou Ali El Mensour (A.D. 995-1021), and the faineant Abbaside Aboulabbas Ahmed (A.D. 1261-1301); but neither of these was named El Mamoun. It is probable, however, that the first named is the prince referred to in the story, the latter having neither the power nor the inclination for such wholesale massacres as that described in the text, which are perfectly in character with the brutal and fantastic nature of the founder of the Druse religion.