[34]. Arab. “Laffa ’l-isnayn bi-zulúmati-h,” the latter word = Khurtúm, the trunk of an elephant, from Zalm = the dewlap of sheep or goat.
[35]. In the text “Yámin,” a copyist’s error, which can mean nothing else but “Yasimín.”
[36]. The H. V. rejects this detail for “a single piece of mother-o’-pearl twelve yards long,” etc. Galland has une seule écaille de poisson. In my friend M. Zotenberg’s admirable translation of Tabari (i. 52) we read of a bridge at Baghdad made of the ribs of Og bin ’Unk (= Og of the Neck), the fabled King of Bashan.
[37]. I have noted that this is the primitive attire of Eastern man in all hot climates, and that it still holds its ground in that grand survival of heathenry, the Meccan Pilgrimage. In Galland the four strips are of taffetas jaune, the Hind. “Taftí.”
[38]. The word is Hizám = girdle, sash, waist-belt, which Galland turns into nappes. The object of the cloths edged with gems and gums was to form a barrier excluding hostile Jinns: the European magician usually drew a magic circle.
[39]. This is our corruption of the Malay Aigla = sandal wood. See vol. ix. 150.
[40]. Lit. = the Day of Assembly, “Yaum al-Mahshar.” These lines were translated at Cannes on Feb. 22nd, 1886, the day before the earthquake which brought desolation upon the Riviera. It was a second curious coincidence. On Thursday, July 10th, 1863—the morning when the great earthquake at Accra laid in ruins the town and the stout old fort built in the days of James II—I had been reading the Koranic chapter entitled “Earthquakes” (No. XCIX) to some Moslem friends who had visited my quarters. Upwards of a decade afterwards I described the accident in “Ocean Highways,” (New Series, No. II., Vol. I. pp. 448–461), owned by Trübner & Co., and edited by my friend Clements Markham, and I only regret that this able Magazine has been extinguished by that dullest of Journals, “Proceedings of the R. S. S. and monthly record of Geography.”
[41]. Galland has un tremblement pareil à celui qu’Israfyel (Isráfíl) doit causer le jour du jugement.
[42]. The idea is Lady M. W. Montague’s (“The Lady’s Resolve.”)
In part she is to blame that has been tried: