[47]. In Galland he is a savetier * * * naturellement gai, et qui avait toujours le mot pour rire: the H.V. naturally changed him to a tailor as the Chámár or leather-worker would be inadmissible to polite conversation.
[48]. i.e. a leader of prayer; the Pers. “Písh-namáz” = fore-prayer, see vols. ii. 203; iv. 111 and 227. Galland has “ímán,” which can mean only faith, belief, and in this blunder he is conscientiously followed by his translators—servum pecus.
[49]. Galland nails down the corpse in the bier—a Christian practice—and he certainly knew better. Moreover, prayers for the dead are mostly recited over the bier when placed upon the brink of the grave; nor is it usual for a woman to play so prominent a part in the ceremony.
[50]. See vols. v. 111, ix. 163 and x. 47.
[51]. Galland is less merciful, “Aussitôt le conducteur fut déclaré digne de mort tout d’une voix, et il s’y condamna lui-même,” etc. The criminal, indeed, condemns himself and firmly offers his neck to be stricken.
[52]. In the text “Lauh,” for which see vol. v. 73.
[53]. In Arab. “Káma” = he rose, which, in vulgar speech especially in Egypt, = he began. So in Spitta-Bey’s “Contes Arabes Modernes” (p. 124) “Kámat al-Sibhah dhákat fí yad akhí-h” = the chaplet began (lit. arose) to wax tight in his brother’s hand. This sense is shadowed forth in classical Arabic.
[54]. So in old Arabian history “Kasír” (the Little One), the Arab Zopyrus, stows away in huge camel-bags the 2,000 warriors intended to surprise masterful Queen Zebba. Chronique de Tabari, vol. ii. 26. Also the armed men in boxes by which Shamar, King of Al-Yaman, took Shamar-kand = Shamar’s-town, now Samarkand. (Ibid. ii. 158.)
[55]. i.e. for a walk, a “constitutional”: the phrase is very common in Egypt, and has occurred before.
[56]. These visions are frequent in Al-Islam; see Pilgrimage iii. 254–55. Of course Christians are not subject to them, as Moslems also are never favoured with glimpses of the Blessed Virgin and the Saints; the best proof of their “Subjectivity.”