[423]. This paragraph is supplied by Mr. Payne: something of the kind has evidently fallen out of the Arab. text.
[424]. i.e. in the presence of witnesses, legally.
[425]. Lit. a myriad, ten thousand dirhams. See vol. iv. 281.
[426]. The fire was intended to defend the mother and babe from Jinns, bad spirits, the evil eye, etc. Romans lit candles in the room of the puerpara; hence the goddess Candelifera, and the term Candelaria applied to the B.V. In Brand’s Popular Antiquities (ii. 144) we find, “Gregory mentions an ordinary superstition of the old wives who dare not trust a child in a cradle by itself alone without a candle;” this was for fear of the “night-hag” (Milton, P. L., ii. 662). The same idea prevailed in Scotland and in Germany: see the learned Liebrecht (who translated the Pentamerone) “Zur Folkskunde,” p. 31. In Sweden if the candle go out, the child may be carried off by the Trolls (Weckenstedt, Wendische Sagen, p. 446). The custom has been traced to the Malay peninsula, whither it was probably imported by the Hindus or the Moslems, and amongst the Tajiks in Bokhara. For the Hindu practice, see Katha S. S. 305, and Prof. Tawney’s learned note analysed above.
[427]. Arab. “Káhinah,” fem. of Káhin (Cohen): see Kahánah, vol. i. 28.
[428]. i.e. for a long time, as has been before explained.
[429]. i.e. at his service. Arabia was well provided with Hetairæ and public women long before the days of Al-Islam.
[430]. Arab. “Athar” = sign, mark, trail.
[431]. i.e. Persia. See vol. v. 26.
[432]. Arab. “’Akákír” plur. of ’Akkár prop. = aromatic roots; but applied to vulgar drugs or simples, as in the Tale of the Sage Duban, i. 46.