[FN#453] Arab. "Al-Ghadir," lit. a place where water sinks, a lowland: here the drainage-lakes east of Damascus into which the Baradah (Abana?) discharges. The higher eastern plain is "Al-Ghutah" before noticed.
[FN#454] The "Plain of Pebbles" still so termed at Damascus; an open space west of the city.
[FN#455] Every Guide-book, even the Reverend Porter's "Murray," gives a long account of this Christian Church 'verted to a Mosque.
[FN#456] Arab. "Nabút"; Pilgrimage i. 336.
[FN#457] The Bres. Edit. says, "would have knocked him into Al-Yaman," (Southern Arabia), something like our slang phrase "into the middle of next week."
[FN#458] Arab. "Khádim": lit. a servant, politely applied (like Aghá = master) to a castrato. These gentry wax furious if baldly called "Tawáshi" = Eunuch. A mauvais plaisant in Egypt used to call me The Agha because a friend had placed his wife under my charge.
[FN#459] This sounds absurd enough in English, but Easterns always put themselves first for respect.
[FN#460] In Arabic the World is feminine.
[FN#461] Arab. "Sáhib" = lit. a companion; also a friend and especially applied to the Companions of Mohammed. Hence the Sunnis claim for them the honour of "friendship" with the Apostle; but the Shia'hs reply that the Arab says "Sahaba-hu'l-himár" (the Ass was his Sahib or companion). In the text it is a Wazirial title, in modern India it is = gentleman, e.g. "Sahib log" (the Sahib people) means their white conquerors, who, by the by, mostly mispronounce the word "Sáb."
[FN#462] Arab. "Suwán," prop. Syenite, from Syene (Al-Suwan) but applied to flint and any hard stone.