[271]. In the MS. v. 327, we find four hemistichs which evidently belong to Al-Mihrján; these are:—
“Hadst come to court her in fairer guise ✿ I had given Al-Hayfá in bestest style;
But in mode like this hast thou wrought me wrong ✿ And made Envy gibe me with jeering smile.”
Also I have been compelled to change the next sentence, which in the original is, “And hardly had King Al-Mihrján ended his words,” etc.
[272]. In this doggerel, “Kurúd” (apes) occurs as a rhyme twice in three couplets.
[273]. “Upon the poll of his head” (’alà hámati-hi) says the Arabian author, and instantly stultifies the words.
[274]. Arab. “Haudaj” = a camel-litter: the word, often corrupted to Hadáj, is now applied to a rude pack-saddle, a wooden frame of mimosa-timber set upon a “witr” or pad of old tent-cloth, stuffed with grass and girt with a single cord. Vol. viii. 235. Burckhardt gives “Maḳṣar,” and Doughty (i. 437) “Muḳṣir” as the modern Badawi term for the crates or litters in which are carried the Shaykhly housewives.
[275]. In text “Sunnah” = the practice, etc., of the Prophet: vol. v. 36, 167.
[276]. This, as the sequel shows, is the far-famed Musician, Ibrahim of Mosul: vol. vii. 113.
[277]. In the text King of Al-Sín = China, and in p. 360 of MS. Yusuf is made “King of China and Sind,” which would be much like “King of Germany and Brentford.”