[473]. i.e. In Rauzah-island: see vol. v. 169.
[474]. There is no historical person who answers to these names, “The Secure, the Ruler by Commandment of Allah.” The cognomen applies to two soldans of Egypt, of whom the later Abu al-Abbas Ahmad the Abbaside (A.D. 1261–1301) has already been mentioned in The Nights (vol. v. 86). The tale suggests the earlier Al-Hakim (Abu Ali al-Mansúr, the Fatimite, A.D. 995–1021), the God of the Druze “persuasion;” and the tale-teller may have purposely blundered in changing Mansúr to Maamún for fear of offending a sect which has been most dangerous in the matter of assassination and which is capable of becoming so again.
[475]. Arab. “’Alà kulli hál” = “whatever may betide,” or “willy-nilly.” The phrase is still popular.
[476]. The dulce desipere of young lovers, he making a buffoon of himself to amuse her.
[477]. “The convent of Clay,” a Coptic monastery near Cairo.
[478]. i.e. this is the time to show thyself a man.
[479]. The Eastern succedaneum for swimming corks and other “life-preservers.” The practice is very ancient: we find these gourds upon the monuments of Egypt and Babylonia.
[480]. Arab. “Al-Khalíj,” the name, still popular, of the Grand Canal of Cairo, whose banks, by-the-by, are quaint and picturesque as anything of the kind in Holland.
[481]. A few lines higher up it was “her neck”; but the jar may have slipped down.
[482]. We say more laconically “A friend in need.”