Post mediam noctem visus, quum somnia vera.
(Horace Sat. i. 10, 33,)
[FN#285] The Bresl. Edit. (iii. 223) and Galland have "Torf:"
Lane (ii. 115) "El-Tarf."
[FN#286] Arab. "Maghzal ;" a more favourite comparison is with a tooth pick. Both are used by Nizami and Al-Hariri, the most "elegant" of Arab writers.
[FN#287] These form a Kasídah, Ode or Elegy= rhymed couplets numbering more than thirteen: If shorter it is called a "Ghazal." I have not thought it necessary to preserve the monorhyme.
[FN#288] Sulaymá dim. of Salmá= any beautiful woman Rabáb = the viol mostly single stringed: Tan'oum=she who is soft and gentle. These fictitious names are for his old flames.
[FN#289] i.e. wine. The distich is highly fanciful and the conceits would hardly occur to a
[FN#290] Arab. "Andam," a term applied to Brazil-wood (also called "Bakkam") and to "dragon's blood," but not, I think, to tragacanth, the "goat's thorn," which does not dye. Andam is often mentioned in The Nights.
[FN#291] The superior merit of the first (explorer, etc.) is a lieu commun with Arabs. So Al-Hariri in Preface quotes his predecessor:—
Justly of praise the price I pay;
The praise is his who leads the way.
[FN#292] There were two Lukmans, of whom more in a future page.