170 ([return])
[ Arab. "Matmúrah:" see vol. ii. 39, where it was used as an "underground cell." The word is extensively used in the Maghrib or Western Africa.]
171 ([return])
[ Arab. "Yá Abá Sábir." There are five vocative particles in Arabic; "Yá," common to the near and far; "Ayá" (ho!) and "Hayá" (holla!) addressed to the far, and "Ay" and "A" (A-'Abda-lláhi, O Abdullah), to those near. All govern the accusative of a noun in construction in the literary language only; and the vulgar use none but the first named. The English-speaking races neglect the vocative particle, and I never heard it except in the Southern States of the AngloAmerican Union=Oh, Mr. Smith.]
172 ([return])
[ He was not honest enough to undeceive them; a neat Quaker-like touch.]
173 ([return])
[ Here the oath is justified; but the reader will have remarked that the name of Allah is often taken in vain. Moslems, however, so far from holding this a profanation deem it an acknowledgment of the Omnipotence and Omnipresence. The Jews from whom the Christians have borrowed had an interest in concealing the name of their tribal divinity; and therefore made it ineffable.]
174 ([return])
[ i.e. the grave, the fosse commune of slain men.]