[FN#539] He sent the provisions not to be under an obligation to her in this matter. And she received them to judge thereby of his liberality
[FN#540] Those who have seen the process of wine-making in the Libanus will readily understand why it is always strained.
[FN#541] Arab. "Kulkasá," a kind of arum or yam, eaten boiled like our potatoes.
[FN#542]At first he slipped the money into the bed-clothes: now he gives it openly and she accepts it for a reason.
[FN#543] Arab. Al-Zalamah lit. = tyrants, oppressors, applied to the police and generally to employés of Government. It is a word which tells a history.
[FN#544] Moslem law is never completely satisfied till the criminal confess. It also utterly ignores circumstantial evidence and for the best of reasons: amongst so sharp-witted a people the admission would lead to endless abuses. I greatly surprised a certain Governor-General of India by giving him this simple information
[FN#545] Cutting off the right hand is the Koranic punishment (chapt. v.) for one who robs an article worth four dinars, about forty francs to shillings. The left foot is to be cut off at the ankle for a second offence and so on; but death is reserved for a hardened criminal. The practice is now obsolete and theft is punished by the bastinado, fine or imprisonment. The old Guebres were as severe. For stealing one dirham's worth they took a fine of two, cut off the ear-lobes, gave ten stick-blows and dismissed the criminal who had been subjected to an hour's imprisonment. A second theft caused the penalties to be doubled; and after that the right hand was cut off or death was inflicted according to the proportion stolen.
[FN#546] Koran viii. 17.
[FN#547] A universal custom in the East, the object being originally to show that the draught was not poisoned.
[FN#548] Out of paste or pudding.