[FN#519] These lines are in vols. iii. 258 and iv. 204. I quote
Mr. Payne.
[FN#520] Arab. "Firásah," lit. = skill in judging of horse flesh
(Faras) and thence applied, like "Kiyáfah," to physiognomy. One
Kári was the first to divine man's future by worldly signs
(Al-Maydáni, Arab. prov. ii. 132) and the knowledge was
hereditary in the tribe Mashíj.
[FN#521] Reported to be a "Hadis" or saying of Mohammed, to whom are attributed many such shrewd aphorisms, e.g. "Allah defend us from the ire of the mild (tempered)."
[FN#522] These lines are in vol. i. 126. I quote Torrens (p. 120).
[FN#523] These lines have occurred before. I quote Mr. Payne.
[FN#524] Arab. "Khák-bák," an onomatopÂia like our flip-flap and a host of similar words. This profaning a Christian Church which contained the relics of the Virgin would hugely delight the coffee-house habitués, and the Egyptians would be equally flattered to hear that the son of a Cairene merchant had made the conquest of a Frankish Princess Royal. That he was an arrant poltroon mattered very little, as his cowardice only set of his charms.
[FN#525] i.e. after the rising up of the dead.
[FN#526] Arab. "Nafísah," the precious one i.e. the Virgin.
[FN#527] Arab. "Nákús," a wooden gong used by Eastern Christians which were wisely forbidden by the early Moslems.
[FN#528] i.e. a graceful, slender youth.