[FN#77] In the Bul. Edit. "Ruyán," evidently a clerical error. The name is fanciful not significant.
[FN#78] The geography is ultra-Shakespearean. "Fárs" (whence "Persia") is the central Province of the grand old Empire now a mere wreck, "Rúm" (which I write Roum, in order to avoid Jamaica) is the neo-Roman or Byzantine Empire, while "Yunan" is the classical Arab term for Greece (Ionia) which unlearned Moslems believe to be now under water.
[FN#79] The Sun greets Mohammed every morning even as it dances on Easter Day for Christendom. Risum teneatis?
[FN#80] Arab. "Nadím," a term often occurring. It denotes one who was intimate enough to drink with the Caliph, a very high honour and a dangerous. The last who sat with "Nudamá" was Al-Razi bi'llah A.H. 329 = 940. See Al-Siyuti's famous "History of the Caliphs" translated and admirably annotated by Major H. S. Jarrett, for the Bibliotheca Indica, Calcutta, 1880.
[FN#81]Arab. Maydán (from Persian); Lane generally translates it "horse course ' and Payne "tilting yard." It is both and something more; an open space, in or near the city, used for reviewing troops, races, playing the Jeríd (cane-spear) and other sports and exercises: thus Al-Maydan=Gr. hippodrome. The game here alluded to is our -'polo," or hockey on horseback, a favourite with the Persian Kings, as all old illustrations of the Shahnamah show. Maydan is also a natural plain for which copious Arabic has many terms, Fayhah or Sath (a plain generally), Khabt (a low-lying plain), Bat'há (a low sandy flat), Mahattah (a plain fit for halting) and so forth. (Pilgrimage iii., 11.)
[FN#82] For details concerning the "Ghusl" see Night xliv.
[FN#83] A popular idiom and highly expressive, contrasting the upright bearing of the self-satisfied man with the slouch of the miserable and the skirt-trailing of the woman in grief. I do not see the necessity of such Latinisms as "dilated" or "expanded."
[FN#84] All these highest signs of favour foreshow, in Eastern tales and in Eastern life, an approaching downfall of the heaviest; they are so great that they arouse general jealousy. Many of us have seen this at native courts.
[FN#85] This phrase is contained in the word "ihdák" =encompassing, as the conjunctiva does the pupil.
[FN#86] I have noted this formula, which is used even in conversation when about to relate some great unfact.