[FN#579] The Bres. Edit. (ii., 190), from which I borrow this description, here alludes to the well-known Island, Al-Rauzah (Rodah) = The Garden.
[FN#580] Arab. "Laylat al-Wafá," the night of the completion or abundance of the Nile (-flood), usually between August 6th and 16th, when the government proclaims that the Nilometer shows a rise of 16 cubits. Of course it is a great festival and a high ceremony, for Egypt is still the gift of the Nile (Lane M. E. chapt. xxvi—a work which would be much improved by a better index).
[FN#581] i.e., admiration will be complete.
[FN#582] Arab. "Sáhil Masr" (Misr): hence I suppose Galland's villes maritimes.
[FN#583] A favourite simile, suggested by the broken glitter and shimmer of the stream under the level rays and the breeze of eventide.
[FN#584] Arab. "Halab," derived by Moslems from "He (Abraham) milked (halaba) the white and dun cow." But the name of the city occurs in the Cuneiforms as Halbun or Khalbun, and the classics knew it as {Greek Letters}, Beroca, written with variants.
[FN#585] Arab. "Ká'ah," usually a saloon; but also applied to a fine house here and elsewhere in The Nights.
[FN#586] Arab. "Ghamz" = winking, signing with the eye which, amongst Moslems, is not held "vulgar."
[FN#587] Arab. "Kamís" from low Lat. "Camicia," first found in St. Jerome:— "Solent militantes habere lineas, quas Camicias vocant." Our shirt, chemise, chemisette, etc., was unknown to the Ancients of Europe.
[FN#588] Arab. "Narjís." The Arabs borrowed nothing, but the Persians much, from Greek Mythology. Hence the eye of Narcissus, an idea hardly suggested by the look of the daffodil (or asphodel)-flower, is at times the glance of a spy and at times the die-away look of a mistress. Some scholars explain it by the form of the flower, the internal calyx resembling the iris, and the stalk being bent just below the petals suggesting drooping eyelids and languid eyes. Hence a poet addresses the Narcissus:—