[223]. A right kingly king, in the Eastern sense of the word, would strike off their heads for daring to see omens threatening his son and heir: this would be constructive treason of the highest because it might be expected to cause its own fulfilment.
[224]. Mahommed’s Hadís “Kazzibú ’l-Munajjimúna bi Rabbi ’l-Ka’abah” = the Astrologers lied, by the Ka’abah’s Lord!
[225]. Arab. “Khawátín,” plur. of Khátún, a matron, a lady, vol. iv. 66.
[226]. See Al-Mas’udi, chapt. xvii. (Fr. Transl. ii. 48–49) of the circular cavity two miles deep and sixty in circuit inhabited by men and animals on the Caucasus near Derbend.
[227]. Arab. “Nafas” lit. = breath. Arabs living in a land of caverns know by experience the danger of asphyxiation in such places.
[228]. This simple tale is told with much pathos not of words but of sense.
[229]. Arab. “Ajal” = the appointed day of death; also used for sudden death. See vol. i. 74.
[230]. i.e. the Autumnal Equinox, one of the two great festival days (the other being the New Year) of the Persians, and surviving in our Michaelmas. According to Al-Mas’udí (chap. xxi.), it was established to commemorate the capture of Zahhák (Azhi-Daháka), the biting snake (the Hindu Ahi) of night and darkness, the Greek Astyages, by Furaydun or Feridun. Prof. Sayce (Principles of Comparative Philology, p. 11) connects the latter with the Vedic deity Trita, who harnessed the Sun-horse (Rig. v. i. 163, 2, 3), the τριτογένεια of Homer, a title of Athene, the Dawn-goddess, and Burnouf proved the same Trita to be Thraétaona, son of Athwya, of the Avesta, who finally became Furaydún, the Greek Kyrus. See vol. v. 1.
[231]. In Chavis and Cazotte, “Story of Selimansha and his Family.”
[232]. Arab. for Pers. Pahluwán (from Pahlau) a brave, a warrior, an athlete, applied in India to a champion in any gymnastic exercise, especially in wrestling. The Frenchman calls him “Balavan”; and the Bresl. text in more than one place (p. 312) calls him “Bahwán.”