[57]. Arab. “Hilm” (vision) “au ’Ilm” (knowledge) a phrase peculiar to this MS.
[58]. The careless scribe forgets that the Sultan is speaking and here drops into the third person. This “Enallage of persons” is, however, Koranic and therefore classical: Arab critics aver that in such cases the “Hikáyah” (= literal reproduction of a discourse etc.) passes into an “Ikhbár” (= mere account of the same discourse). See Al-Mas’údí iii. 216. I dare not reproduce this figure in English.
[59]. Arab. “Auzah,” the Pers. Oták and the Turk. Otah (vulg. “Oda” whence “Odalisque”), a popular word in Egypt and Syria.
[60]. Arab. “Al-Afandiyah” showing the late date or reduction of the tale. The Turkish word derives from the Romaic Afentis (ἀφέντης) the corrupted O.G. αὐθέντης = an absolute commander, an “authentie.” The word should not be written as usual “Effendi,” but “Efendi,” as Prof. Galland has been careful to do.
[61]. Arab. “Al-dakhlah”; repeatedly referred to in The Nights. The adventure is a replica of that in “Abu Mohammed hight Lazybones,” vol. iv., pp. 171–174.
[62]. Usual in the East, not in England, where some mothers are idiots enough not to tell their daughters what to expect on the wedding night. Hence too often unpleasant surprises, disgust and dislike. The most modern form is that of the chloroform’d bride upon whose pillow the bridegroom found a paper pinned and containing the words, “Mamma says you’re to do what you like.”
[63]. Arab. “Akhaztu dam wajhhi-há.”
[64]. Arab. “Dilk” more commonly “Khirkah,” the tattered and pieced robe of a religious mendicant.
[65]. Arab. “Darbálah.” Scott (p. 24) must have read “Gharbálah” when he translated “A turban full of holes as a sieve.” In classical Arabic the word is written “Darbalah,” and seems to correspond with the Egyptian “Darábukkah,” a tabor of wood or earthenware figured by Lane (M.E. chapt. xviii.). It is, like the bowl, part of the regular Darwaysh’s begging gear.
[66]. Vulg. Maghribi. For this word see the story of Alaeddin, Supplem., vol. iii. 51. According to Heron, “History of Maugraby,” the people of Provence, Languedoc and Gascony use Maugraby as a term of cursing: Maugrebleu being used in other parts of France.