[FN#185] I have noticed how the left hand is used in the East. In the second couplet we have "Istinjб"=washing the fundament after stool. The lines are highly appropriate for a nightman. Easterns have many foul but most emphatic expressions like those in the text I have heard a mother say to her brat, "I would eat thy merde!" (i.e. how I love thee!).
[FN#186] Arab. "Harrбk," whence probably our "Carack" and
"Carrack" (large ship), in dictionaries derived from Carrus
Marinus.
[FN#187] Arab. "Ghбshiyah"=lit. an йtui, a cover; and often a saddle-cover carried by the groom.
[FN#188] Arab. "Sharбb al-tuffбh" = melapio or cider.
[FN#189] Arab. "Mudawwarah," which generally means a small round cushion, of the Marocco-work well known in England. But one does not strike a cushion for a signal, so we must revert to the original-sense of the word "something round," as a circular plate of wood or metal, a gong, a "bell" like that of the Eastern Christians.
[FN#190] Arab. "Tъfбn" (from the root tauf, going round) a storm, a circular gale, a cyclone the term universally applied in Al-lslam to the "Deluge," the "Flood" of Noah. The word is purely Arabic; with a quaint likeness to the Gr. {Greek letters}, in Pliny typhon, whirlwind, a giant (Typhњus) whence "Typhon" applied to the great Egyptian god "Set." The Arab word extended to China and was given to the hurricanes which the people call "Tee foong," great winds, a second whimsical-resemblance. But Sir John Davis (ii. 383) is hardly correct when he says, "the name typhoon, in itself a corruption of the Chinese term, bears a singular (though we must suppose an accidental) resemblance to the Greek {Greek letters}. "
[FN#191] Plurale majestatis acting superlative; not as Lane supposes (ii. 224) "a number of full moons, not only one." Eastern tongues abound in instances beginning with Genesis (i. 1), "Gods (he) created the heaven," etc. It is still preserved in Badawi language and a wildling greatly to the astonishment of the citizens will address his friend "Yб Rijбl"= O men!
[FN#192] Arab. "Hбsid" = an envier: in the fourth couplet "Azъl" (Azzбl, etc.) = a chider, blamer; elsewhere "Lawwбm" = accuser, censor, slanderer; "Wбshн,"=whisperer, informer; "Rakib"=spying, envious rival; "Ghбbit"=one emulous without envy; and "Shбmit"= a "blue" (fierce) enemy who rejoices over another's calamities. Arabic literature abounds in allusions to this unpleasant category of "damned ill-natured friends;" and Spanish and Portuguese letters, including Brazilian, have thoroughly caught the trick. In the Eastern mind the "blamer" would be aided by the "evil eye."
[FN#193] Another plural for a singular, "O my beloved!"
[FN#194] Arab. "Khayr"=good news, a euphemistic reply even if the tidings be of the worst.