[FN#209] Arab. "Takbís." Many Easterns can hardly sleep without this kneading of the muscles, this "rubbing" whose hygienic properties England is now learning.
[FN#210] The converse of the breast being broadened, the drooping, "draggle-tail" gait compared with the head held high and the chest inflated.
[FN#211] This penalty is mentioned in the Koran (chapt. v.) as fit for those who fight against Allah and his Apostle, but commentators are not agreed if the sinners are first to be put to death or to hang on the cross till they die. Pharaoh (chapt. xx.) threatens to crucify his magicians on palm-trees, and is held to be the first crucifier.
[FN#212] Arab. "'Ajami"=foreigner, esp. a Persian: the latter in The Nights is mostly a villain. I must here remark that the contemptible condition of Persians in Al-Hijáz (which I noted in 1852, Pilgrimage, i., 327) has completely changed. They are no longer, "The slippers of Ali and hounds of Omar:" they have learned the force of union and now, instead of being bullied, they bully.
[FN#213] The Calc. Edit. turns them into Tailors (Khayyátín) and Torrens does not see the misprint.
[FN#214] i.e. Axe and sandals.
[FN#215] Lit. "Strike his neck."
[FN#216] A phrase which will frequently recur; meaning the situation suggested such words a these.
[FN#217] The smiter with the evil eye is called “A’in” and the person smitten “Ma’ín” or “Ma’ún.”
[FN#218] Arab. "Sákiyah," the well-known Persian wheel with pots and buckets attached to the tire. It is of many kinds, the boxed, etc., etc., and it is possibly alluded to in the "pitcher broken at the fountain" (Ecclesiastes xii. 6) an accident often occurring to the modern "Noria." Travellers mostly abuse its "dismal creaking" and "mournful monotony": I have defended the music of the water-wheel in Pilgrimage ii. 198.