[FN#37] This is Christian rather than Moslem: a favourite Maltese curse is "Yahrak Kiddisak man rabba-k!" = burn the Saint who brought thee up!
[FN#38] A popular Egyptian phrase: the dog and the cock speak like Fellahs.
[FN#39] i. e. between the last sleep and dawn when they would rise to wash and pray.
[FN#40] Travellers tell of a peculiar knack of jerking the date-stone, which makes it strike with great force: I never saw this "Inwá" practised, but it reminds me of the water splashing with one hand in the German baths.
[FN#41] i.e., sorely against his will.
[FN#42] Arab. "Shaykh"=an old man (primarily), an elder, a chief (of the tribe, guild, etc.), and honourably addressed to any man. Comp. among the neo Latins "Sieur," "Signore," "Señor," "Senhor," etc. from Lat. "Senior," which gave our "Sire" and "Sir." Like many in Arabic the word has a host of different meanings and most of them will occur in the course of The Nights. Ibrahim (Abraham) was the first Shaykh or man who became grey. Seeing his hairs whiten he cried, "O Allah what is this?" and the answer came that it was a sign of dignified gravity. Hereupon he exclaimed, "O Lord increase this to me!" and so it happened till his locks waxed snowy white at the age of one hundred and fifty. He was the first who parted his hair, trimmed his mustachios, cleaned his teeth with the Miswák (tooth-stick), pared his nails, shaved his pecten, snuffed up water, used ablution after stool and wore a shirt (Tabari).
[FN#43] The word is mostly plural = Jinnís: it is also singular = a demon; and Ján bin Ján has been noticed.
[FN#44] With us moderns "liver" suggests nothing but malady: in Arabic and Persian as in the classic literature of Europe it is the seat of passion, the heart being that of affection. Of this more presently.
[FN#45] Originally in Al-Islam the concubine (Surriyat, etc.) was a captive taken in war and the Koran says nothing about buying slave-girls. But if the captives were true believers the Moslem was ordered to marry not to keep them. In modern days concubinage has become an extensive subject. Practically the disadvantage is that the slave-girls, knowing themselves to be the master's property, consider him bound to sleep with them; which is by no means the mistress's view. Some wives, however, when old and childless, insist, after the fashion of Sarah, upon the husband taking a young concubine and treating her like a daughter—which is rare. The Nights abound in tales of concubines, but these are chiefly owned by the Caliphs and high officials who did much as they pleased. The only redeeming point in the system is that it obviated the necessity of prostitution which is, perhaps, the greatest evil known to modern society.
[FN#46] Arab. "Al-Kahánah"=the craft of a "Káhin" (Heb. Cohen) a diviner, soothsayer, etc.