Page [25]. “Account of his property” &c.—signet, chattels, and ledger—“and said, ‘you must manifest your zeal in the seasons of sowing and of harvest, and become the mushrif of my property.’” A mushrif is an officer of the treasury, who authenticates accounts and writings. The dihkān gave him his signet, in order that he might transact his business with full authority. “Seals, or signets,” says Dr H. H. Wilson, “were from the earliest periods commonly used in the East. Ahasuerus takes his signet off his hand and gives it, first to Haman, and again to Mordecai; and Herodotus notices that each of the Babylonians wore a seal-ring. The Greeks and Romans had their rings curiously engraved with devices, and that cast by Polycrates into the sea was the work of an engraver whose name the historian has thought not unworthy of commemoration. The use of the seal amongst the Orientals at the present day is not, as with us, to secure an envelope, but to verify letters and documents in place of a written signature. Amongst the natives of Hindūstān, both Muhammadan and Hindū, the seal is engraved with the name of the wearer, and the surface being smeared superficially only with ink, the application of the seal to the paper leaves the letters which are cut in the stone white on a black ground. Such also was the manner in which the seals of the Greeks and Romans were applied.” Lane, in his Modern Egyptians, says: “On the little finger of the right hand is worn a seal-ring (Khātim), which is generally of silver, with a cornelian, or other stone, upon which is engraved the wearer’s name; the name is accompanied by the words ‘his servant’—signifying the servant, or worshipper, of God—and often by other words expressive of the person’s trust in God, &c. (see St. John’s Gospel iii, 33, and Exodus xxxix, 30). The Prophet disapproved of gold; therefore few Muslims wear gold rings; but the women have various ornaments (rings, bracelets &c.) of that precious metal. The impression of the seal-ring is considered as more valid than the sign-manual. Therefore giving the ring to another person is the utmost mark of confidence.—See Genesis xli, 42.”
Page [27]. “Bit the finger of amazement.”—Biting the hand or finger is a common mode in the East of manifesting surprise, grief, or anger. Thus in the Kur’ān, xxv, 29: “On that day the unjust person shall bite his hands for anguish;” and iii, 119: “When they assemble together privately they bite their fingers’-ends out of wrath against you.” In the Gulistān of Sa`dī, i, 4: “The King seized the hand of amazement with his teeth;” again, v, 19: “Thine enemy bites the back of his hand through vexation;” and again, vii, 19: “The fingers of astonishment were between their teeth.” In one of the beautiful poems of Bahāu-’d-Dīn Zuhayr, of Egypt (A.D. 1186–1258), elegantly translated by Professor E. H. Palmer:
When she passed me without speaking, I declare,
I could almost bite my hand off with despair.
And in the Turkish poem of Khusrev and Shīrīn, by Shayki, ob. A.D. 1426 (Mr Gibb’s Ottoman Poems, p. 6):
No power was left him, neither sport nor pleasure,
He bit his finger, wildered beyond measure.
Page [27]. “Driven forth from the village”; the text adds; “and they deprived him of whatever they had given.”
Page [27]. “For the sake of God:” a common phrase among Muslims. A rather humorous example of its use occurs in the Gulistān (chap, iv, tale 14): A harsh-voiced man was reading the Kur’ān in a loud tone. A pious man passed by him, and said: “What is thy monthly stipend?”—“Nothing,” he replied.—“Why then,” he inquired, “dost thou give thyself all this trouble?”—“I read for the sake of God,” he replied.—“For God sake, then, don’t read,” said he.
Page [27]. “A pearl of such exquisite beauty,” &c.—In the East it is popularly believed that the pearl is formed in the oyster from a rain-drop: Sa’dī, in the fourth book of his Bustān, has some beautiful verses on this notion, in which he inculcates the practice of humility. Pearls are called marvārīd, “production of light,” and, usually when they are unpierced, lū’lū’, “luminous,” “brilliant.” They are divided into twelve classes, each having a distinctive name, according to their “water” or lustre; the first class being called shahvār, “the regal,” the clearest, purest, and most lustrous. Pearls are also divided into twelve classes, according to shape. They are further divided, in respect of size, into fifteen classes, according to the number of holes in the different sieves through which they are passed, from the smallest, of which twelve hundred weigh a miskal, up to the largest, of which forty weigh a miskal. The best pearl-fisheries are at Ceylon, and in the Persian Gulf, at Bahrayn, Kīsh, and Sharak; but the Arabian pearls are less prized than the Indian. Their colour and quality are said to depend on the bottom of the sea where they are produced: in black slime they are dark; in shallow waters, yellowish.—Tavernier mentions a remarkable pearl found at Katifa, in Arabia, the fishery probably alluded to by Pliny (Nat. Hist. b. ix, c. 54), which he purchased for £10,000 of our money! It is said to be now in the possession of the Shah of Persia.