[499]. See vol. vii. 363; ix. 238.
[500]. Arab. “Musallà,” which may be either a praying carpet, a pure place in a house, or a small chapel like that near Shiraz which Hafiz immortalised,
“Bring, boy, the sup that’s in the cup; in highest Heaven man ne’er shall find
Such watery marge as Ruknábád, Musallà’s mazes rose entwined.”
[501]. Arab. “Ihtidá,” = divine direction to Hudà or salvation. The old bawd was still dressed as a devotee, and keeps up the cant of her caste. No sensible man in the East ever allows a religious old woman to pass his threshold.
[502]. In this tale “poetical justice” is neglected, but the teller skilfully caused the wife to be ravished and not to be a particeps criminis. The lover escapes scot-free because Moslems, as well as Hindus, hold that the amourist under certain conditions is justified in obtaining his object by fair means or foul. See p. 147 of “Early Ideas, a Group of Hindoo Stories,” collected and collated by Anaryan; London, Allens, 1881.
[503]. This is supplied from the “Tale of the King and his Wazir’s Wife,” vol. vi. 129.
[504]. Arab. “Ibl,” a specific name: it is presently opposed to “Nákah,” a she-dromedary, and “Ráhilah,” a riding-camel.
[505]. Here “Amsaytu” is used in its literal sense “I evened” (came at evening), and this is the case with seven such verbs, Asbaha, Amsá, Azhá, Azhara, A’tama, Zalla, and Báta, which either conjoin the sense of the sentence with their respective times, morning, evening, forenoon, noon and the first sundown watch, all day and all night or are used “elegantly,” as grammarians say, for the simple “becoming” or “being.”
[506]. The Badawi dogs are as dangerous as those of Montenegro but not so treacherous: the latter will sneak up to the stranger and suddenly bite him most viciously. I once had a narrow escape from an ignoble death near the slaughter-house of Alexandria-Ramlah, where the beasts were unusually ferocious. A pack assailed me at early dawn and but for an iron slick and a convenient wall I should have been torn to pieces.