[155]. Here the writer, forgetting that the youngest sister is speaking, breaks out into the third person—“their case”—“their mother,” etc.
[156]. The idea is that of the French anonyma’s “Mais, Monsieur, vous me suivez comme un lavement.”
[157]. The text (p. 243) speaks of two eunuchs, but only one has been noticed.
[158]. Arab. “Manjaník;” there are two forms of this word from the Gr. Μάγγανον, or Μηχανὴ and it survives in our mangonel, a battering engine. The idea in the text is borrowed from the life of Abraham whom Nimrod cast by means of a catapult (which is a bow worked by machinery) into a fire too hot for man to approach.
[159]. Showing that he was older; otherwise she would have addressed him, “O my cousin.” A man is “young,” in Arab speech, till forty and some say fifty.
[160]. The little precatory formula would keep off the Evil Eye.
[161]. Supper comes first because the day begins at sundown.
[162]. Calotte or skull-cap; vol. i. 224; viii. 120.
[163]. This is a new “fact” in physics and certainly to be counted amongst “things not generally known.” But Easterns have a host of “dodges” to detect physiological differences such as between man and maid, virgin and matron, imperfect castratos and perfect eunuchs and so forth. Very Eastern, mutatis mutandis, is the tale of the thief-catcher, who discovered a fellow in feminine attire by throwing an object for him to catch in his lap and by his closing his legs instead of opening them wide as the petticoated ones would do.
[164]. She did not wish to part with her maidenhead at so cheap a price.