[Note 4]. The fountain of Zemsem is at Mecca; and, according to the Mahometans, it is the very spring which God made to flow in favor of Hagar, when Abraham compelled her to go and find one. This water was drank through religious motives, and was frequently sent as presents to different princes, and their favorites.
[Note 5]. A scherif is the same as a sequin, each of which is nearly equal to ten shillings of our money.
[Note 6]. The year 653, means that year of the Hegira; an epoch, from which all the Mahometans reckon, and which corresponds to the year 1255 of the Christian æra. We may from hence conjecture, at least, that these tales were in existence in Arabic at that time.
[Note 7]. The Arabian author seems here to be in an error respecting the year 7320. The 653d year of the Hegira and the 1255 after the birth of Christ, corresponds with the 1557 of the epoch of the Seleucides, which is the same as that of Alexander the Great, and which is here denominated Iskander with the two horns, according to the Arabic mode of expression.
[Note 8]. The inns, or public places, where travellers and foreigners lodge, are called, “khans,” in most of the eastern nations: sometimes “caravanseras,” but these are chiefly, as their name seems to import, for the use of the caravans.
[Note 9]. Mostanser Billah was raised to the dignity of caliph in the 623d year of the Hegira, that is, in the year 1226 of the Christian æra. He was the 36th caliph of the race of the Abassides.
[Note 10]. See note 8 of the first volume.
[Note 11]. Almost all the eastern nations, and particularly all the Mahometans, are forbidden to drink wine after their meals.
[Note 12]. The Bedouins are a tribe of wandering Arabs, who live in the desert, and who constantly attack and plunder the caravans on their journey, if they are not sufficiently numerous and strong to resist them.
[Note 13]. The word “Schemselnihar,” in Arabic, signifies the Sun of the Day.