[165]. This especially is on the lines of “The Physician Dúbán”; vol. i. 45.
[166]. In text “Wa min-hum man fáha,” evidently an error of the scribe for “Man nafá-hu.” Scott (vi. 351), after the fashion of the “Improver-school,” ends the tale, which is somewhat tailless, after this fashion. “At the same instant, the Sultan and his courtiers found themselves assaulted by invisible agents, who, tearing off their robes, whipped them with scourges till the blood flowed in streams from their lacerated backs. At length the punishment ceased, but the mortification of the Sultan did not end here, for all the gold which the Dirveshe had transmuted returned to its original metals. Thus, by his unjust credulity, was a weak Prince punished for his ungrateful folly. The barber and his son also were not to be found, so that the sultan could gain no intelligence of the Dirveshe, and he and his courtiers became the laughing-stock of the populace for years after their merited chastisement.” Is nothing to be left for the reader’s imagination?
[167]. See under the same name the story in my Suppl. vol. i. 239: where the genealogy and biography of the story is given. I have translated the W. M. version because it adds a few items of interest. A marginal note of Scott’s (in the W. M. MS. v. 196) says that the “Tale is similar to Lesson iv. in the Tirrea Bede.” See note at the end of this History.
[168]. For the Badawí tent, see vol. vii. 109.
[169]. In text “Birkah” = a fountain-basin, lake, pond, reservoir. The Bresl. Edit. has “Sardáb” = a souterrain.
[170]. Arab. “Jummayz”: see vol. iii. 302. In the Bresl. Edit. it is a “tall tree,” and in the European versions always a “pear-tree,” which is not found in Badawi-land.
[171]. “Adí” in Egyptian (not Arabic) is = that man, the (man) here; “Adíní” (in the text) is = Here am I, me voici. Spitta Bey (loc. cit. iv. 20, etc.)
[172]. Arab. “Ma’múrah.” In the Bresl. edit. “the place is full of Jinns and of Marids.” I have said that this supernatural agency, ever at hand and ever credible to Easterns, makes this the most satisfactory version of the world-wide tale.
[173]. The planet Mars.
[174]. The Asiatics have a very contemptible opinion of the Russians, especially of the females, whom they believe to be void of common modesty. Our early European voyagers have expressed the same idea.—Scott.