[165]. Arab. “Dihkán,” in Persian a villager; but here something more, a village-elder or chief. Al-Mas’udi (chap. xxiv.), and other historians apply the term to a class of noble Persians descended from the ten sons of Wahkert, the first “Dihkán,” the fourth generation from King Kayomars.
[166]. Reminding one not a little of certain anecdotes anent Quakers, current in England and English-speaking lands.
[167]. Arab. “Karyah,” a word with a long history. The root seems to be Karaha, he met; in Chald. Karih and Kária (emphatic Kárita) = a town or city; and in Heb. Kirjath, Kiryáthayim, etc. We find it in Carthage = Kartá hádisah, or New Town as opposed to Utica (Atíkah) = Old Town; in Carchemish and in a host of similar compounds. In Syria and Egypt Kariyah, like Kafr, now means a hamlet, a village.
[168]. i.e. wandering at a venture.
[169]. Arab. “Sakhrah,” the old French Corvée, and the “Begár” of India.
[170]. Arab. “Matmúrah:” see vol. ii. 39, where it is used as an “underground cell.” The word is extensively used in the Maghrib or Western Africa.
[171]. Arab. “Yá Abá Sábir.” There are five vocative particles in Arabic; “Yá,” common to the near and far; “Ayá” (ho!) and “Hayá” (holla!) addressed to the far, and “Ay” and “A” (A-’Abda-lláhi, O Abdullah), to those near. All govern the accusative of a noun in construction in the literary language only; and the vulgar use none but the first named. The English-speaking races neglect the vocative particle, and I never heard it except in the Southern States of the Anglo-American Union = Oh, Mr. Smith.
[172]. He was not honest enough to undeceive them; a neat Quaker-like touch.
[173]. Here the oath is justified; but the reader will have remarked that the name of Allah is often taken in vain. Moslems, however, so far from holding this a profanation deem it an acknowledgment of the Omnipotence and Omnipresence. The Jews from whom the Christians have borrowed had an interest in concealing the name of their tribal divinity; and therefore made it ineffable.
[174]. i.e. the grave, the fosse commune of slain men.