[FN#287] These lines have occurred in Night cccxix. I give Mr.
Payne's version for variety.
[FN#288] i.e. in her prime, at fourteen to fifteen.
[FN#289] i.e. pale and yellow.
[FN#290] The word means the wood; but it alludes to a preparation made by levigating it on a stone called in India "Sandlαsα." The gruel-like stuff is applied with the right hand to the right side of the neck, drawing the open fingers from behind forwards so as to leave four distinct streaks, then down to the left side, and so on to the other parts of the body.
[FN#291] Arab. "Haykal" which included the Porch, the Holy and
the Holy of Holies. The word is used as in a wider sense by
Josephus A. J. v. v. 3. In Moslem writings it is applied to a
Christian Church generally, on account of its images.
[FN#292] These lines having occurred before, I here quote Mr.
Payne.
[FN#293] Arab writers often mention the smile of beauty, but rarely, after European fashion, the laugh, which they look upon as undignified. A Moslem will say "Don't guffaw (Kahkahah) in that way; leave giggling and grinning to monkeys and Christians." The Spaniards, a grave people, remark that Christ never laughed. I would draw the reader's attention to a theory of mine that the open-hearted laugh has the sound of the vowels a and o; while e, i, and u belong to what may be roughly classed as the rogue order.
[FN#294] i.e. gaining the love of another, love.
[FN#295] i.e. the abrogated passages and those by which they are abrogated. This division is necessary for "inspired volumes," which always abound in contradictions. But the charge of "opportunism" brought against the Koran is truly absurd; as if "revelation" could possibly be aught save opportune.
[FN#296] Koran iv. 160, the chapter "Women."