173 ([return])
[ This is a twice-told tale whose telling I have lightened a little without omitting any important detail. Gauttier reduces the ending of the history to less than five pages.]
174 ([return])
[ The normal idiom for "I accept.">[
175 ([return])
[ In text Khila't dakk al-Matrakah," which I have rendered literally: it seems to signify an especial kind of brocade.]
176 ([return])
[ The Court of Baghdad was, like the Urdú (Horde or Court) of the "Grand Mogul," organised after the ordinance of an army in the field, with its centre, the Sovran, and two wings right and left, each with its own Wazir for Commander, and its vanguard and rearguard.]
177 ([return])
[ Being the only son he had a voice in the disposal of his sister. The mother was the Kabírah = head of the household, in Marocco Al-Sídah = Madame mère; but she could not interfere single-handed in affairs concerning the family. See Pilgrimage, vol. iii. 198. Throughout Al-Islam in default of a father the eldest brother gives away the sisters, and if there be no brother this is done by the nearest male relation on the "sword" side. The mother has no authority in such matters nor indeed has anyone on the "spindle" side.]