Don Juan ii. 178.
[329]. The ox (Bakar) and the bull (Taur, vol. i. 16) are the Moslem emblems of stupidity, as with us are the highly intelligent ass and the most sagacious goose.
[330]. In Arab. “’Ud” means primarily wood; then a lute. See vol. ii. 100. The Muezzin, like the schoolmaster, is popularly supposed to be a fool.
[331]. I have noticed that among Arab lovers it was the fashion to be jealous of the mistress’s nightly phantom which, as amongst mesmerists, is the lover’s embodied will.
[332]. i.e. I will lay down my life to save thee from sorrow—a common-place hyperbole of love.
[333]. Arab. “Katl.” I have noticed the Hibernian “kilt” which is not a bull but, like most provincialisms and Americanisms, a survival, an archaism. In the old Frisian dialect, which agrees with English in more words than “bread, butter and cheese,” we find the primary meaning of terms which with us have survived only in their secondary senses, e.g. killen = to beat and slagen = to strike. Here is its great value to the English philologist. When the Irishman complains that he is “kilt” we know through the Frisian what he really means.
[334]. The decency of this description is highly commendable and I may note that the Bresl. Edit. is comparatively free from erotic pictures.
[335]. i.e. “I commit him to thy charge under God.”
[336]. This is an Americanism, but it translates passing well “Al-’iláj” = insertion.
[337]. Arab. (and Heb.) “Tarjumán” = a dragoman, for which see vol. i. 100. In the next tale it will occur with the sense of polyglottic.