[484]. These dried fruits to which pistachios are often added, form the favourite “filling” of lamb and other meats prepared in “puláo” (pilaff).
[485]. “Anta jáib(un) bas rájul (an) wáhid (an)”—veritable and characteristic peasant’s jargon.
[486]. i.e. it is a time when men should cry for thy case. “Lá Haula” = there is no Majesty, etc. An ejaculation of displeasure, disappointment, despair.
[487]. In text “Maháshima-k” = good works, merits; in a secondary sense beard and mustachios. The word yard (etymologically a rod) is medical English, and the young student is often surprised to see, when a patient is told to show his yard, a mere inchlet of shrunken skin. [“Maháshim,” according to Bocthor, is a plural without singular, meaning: les parties de la génération. Pedro de Alcala gives “Hashshúm,” pl. “Hasháshim,” for the female parts, and both words are derived from the verb “hasham, yahshím,” he put to shame.—St.]
[488]. Characteristic words of abuse, “O thou whose fate is always to fail, O thou whose lot is ever subject to the accidents of Fortune!”
[489]. Arab. “Bayzah” = an egg, a testicle. See “Bayza’áni,” vol. ii. 55.
[490]. Here the text ends with the tag, “Concluded is the story of the Woman with her Husband and her Lover. It is related of a man which was a Kazi,” etc. I have supplied what the writer should have given.
[491]. The “Mahkamah” (Place of Judgment), or Kazi’s Court, at Cairo is mostly occupied with matrimonial disputes, and is fatally famous for extreme laxness in the matter of bribery and corruption. During these days it is even worse than when Lane described it, M.E., chapt. iv.
[492]. The first idea of an Eastern would be to appeal from the Kazi to the Kazi’s wife, bribing her if he failed to corrupt the husband; and he would be wise in his generation as the process is seldom known to fail.
[493]. In Arab. “Sitta-há”: the Mauritanians prefer “Sídah,” and the Arabian Arabs “Kabírah” = the first lady, Madame Mère.