73 ([return])
[ Arab. "Falsafah"=philosophy: see vols. v. 234 and vii. 145.]
74 ([return])
[ In the text "Fa-yatrahúna," masc. for fem.]
75 ([return])
[ The writer probably remembered that the cat was a sacred animal amongst the Egyptians: see Herod., ii. 66, and Diod. Sic., who tells us (vol. i. p. 94) of a Roman put to death under Ptolemy Auletes for accidentally killing one of these holy beasts. The artists of Bubastis, whose ruins are now for the first time being scientifically explored, modelled the animal in bronze with an admirable art akin to nature.]
76 ([return])
[ M. Houdas explains this miswritten passage, Quand le soleil fut levé et qu'il pénétra par ces ouvertures (lis. abkhásh, trou de flûte), il répandit le sable dans ces cylindres formés par la lumière du soleil. It is not very intelligible. I understand that the Sage went behind the Palace and drove through a mound or heap of earth a narrow hole bearing east-west, which he partially filled up with sand; and so when the sun rose the beams fell upon it and made it resemble a newly made cord of white flax. M. Agoub (in Gauttier vol. vi. 344) shirks, as he is wont to do, the whole difficulty. (The idea seems to me to be, and I believe this is also the meaning of M. Houdas, that Haykar produced streaks of light in an otherwise dark room by boring holes in the back wall, and scattered the sand over them, so that, while passing through the rays of the sun, it assumed the appearance of ropes. Hence he says mockingly to Pharaoh, "Have these ropes taken up, and each time you please I will twist thee the like of them"—reading "Aftilu," lst p. aor. instead of "Iftil", 2nd imper.—ST.)]
77 ([return])
[ Gauttier (vi. 347), Ces présens ne sont pas dignes de lui; mais peu de chose contents les rois.]