[85]. The stomach has two mouths, œsophagic above (which is here alluded to) and pyloric below.
[86]. Arab. “’Irk al-Unsá” = chordæ testiculorum, in Engl. simply the cord.
[87]. The “’Ajúz” is a woman who ceases to have her monthly period: the idea is engrained in the Eastern mind and I cannot but believe in it seeing the old-young faces of men who have “married their grandmothers” for money or folly, and what not.
[88]. Arab. “Al-’Akík,” vol. iii. 179: it is a tradition of the Prophet that the best of bezels for a signet-ring is the carnelian, and such are still the theory and the practice of the Moslem East.
[89]. Arab. “Tuhál;” in text “Tayhál.” Mr. Doughty (Arabia Deserta, i. 547) writes the word “Tahal” and translates it “ague-cake,” i.e. the throbbing enlarged spleen, left after fevers, especially those of “Al-Hijáz and Khaybar.” [The form “Tayhál” with a plural “Tawáhil” for the usual “Tihál” = spleen is quoted by Dozy from the valuable Vocabulary published by Schiaparelli, 1871, after an old MS. of the end of the xiii. century. It has the same relation to the verb “tayhal” = he suffered from the spleen, which “Tihál” bears to the verb “tuhil,” used passively in the same sense. The name of the disease is “Tuhál.”—St.]
[90]. In text “Kasalah” = a shock of corn, assemblage of sheaves. It may be a clerical error for “Kasabah” = stalk, haulm, straw.
[91]. Of course the conversation drifts into matters sexual and intersexual: in a similar story, “Tawaddud,” the learned slave-girl, “hangs down her head for shame and confusion” (vol. v. 225); but the young Sayyid speaks out bravely as becomes a male masculant.
[92]. [In the text: “Allatí lau nazarat ilà ’l-samá la-a’shab (fourth form of ’ashab with the affirmative “la”) al-Safá (pl. of Safát), wa lau nazarat ilà ’l-arz la amtar taghru-há (read thaghru-há) Lúluan lam yuskab wa ríku-há min al-Zulál a’zab (for a’zab min al-Zulál),” which I would translate: Who if she look upon the heavens, the very rocks cover themselves with verdure, and an she look upon the earth, her lips rain unpierced pearls (words of virgin eloquence) and the dews of whose mouth are sweeter than the purest water.—St.]
[93]. These lines have often occurred before: see index (vol. x. 443) “Wa lau anunahá li ’l-Mushrikín,” etc. I have therefore borrowed from Mr. Payne, vol viii. 78, whose version is admirable.
[94]. For the Jahim-hell, see vol. viii. 111.