[463]. Arab. “Lahd, Luhd,” the niche or cell hollowed out in the side of the oblong trench: here the corpse is deposited and covered with palm-fronds etc. to prevent the earth touching it. See my Pilgrimage ii. 304.
[464]. For the incredible amount of torture which Eastern obstinacy will sometimes endure, see Al-Mas’udi’s tale of the miserable little old man who stole the ten purses, vol. viii. 153 et seq.
[465]. Arab. “Jarídah” (whence the Jaríd-game) a palm-frond stripped of its leaves and used for a host of purposes besides flogging, chairs, sofas, bedsteads, cages etc. etc. Tales of heroism in “eating stick” are always highly relished by the lower orders of Egyptians who pride themselves upon preferring the severest bastinado to paying the smallest amount of “rint.”
[466]. Arab. “Náwús,” the hollow tower of masonry with a grating over the central well upon which the Magian corpse is placed to be torn by birds of prey: it is kept up by the Parsi population of Bombay and is known to Europeans as the “Tower of Silence.” Náís and Náwús also mean a Pyrethrum, a fire-temple and have a whimsical resemblance to the Greek Ναός.
[467]. For Munkar and Nakir, the Interrogating Angels, see vol. v. 111. According to Al-Mas’udi (chapt. xxxi.) these names were given by the Egyptians to the thirteenth and fourteenth cubits marked on the Nilometer which, in his day, was expected to shew seventeen.
[468]. The text (xi. 227) has “Tannúr” = an oven, evidently a misprint for “Kubúr” = tombs.
[469]. Arab. “’An Abí” = (a propitiatory offering) for my father. So in Marocco the “Powder-players” dedicate a shot to a special purpose or person, crying, “To my sweetheart!” “To my dead!” “To my horse!” etc.
[470]. For this formula see vol. i. 65. It is technically called “Haukalah” and “Haulakah” words in the third conjugation of increased triliterals, corresponding with the quadriliteral radicals and possessing the peculiar power of Kasr = abbreviation. Of this same class is Basmalah (vol. v. 206; ix. 1).
[471]. This scene with the watch would be relished in the coffee-house, where the tricks of robbers, like a gird at the police, are always acceptable.
[472]. Arab. “Lá af’al”; more commonly Má af’al. Má and Lá are synonymous negative particles, differing, however, in application. Má (Gr. μὴ) precedes definites, or indefinites: Lá and Lam (Gr. οὐ) only indefinites as “Lá iláha” etc.