[524]. The writer does not mean to charge the girl with immodesty (after the style “Come to my arms, my slight acquaintance!”) but to show how powerfully Fate and Fortune wrought upon her. Hence also she so readily allowed the King’s son to possess her person.
[525]. [I read “al-Muhibbattu,” fem. of “Muhibb,” lover (in Tasawwuf particularly = lover of God), and take the “lam taku taslah” in the second verse for the 3rd person fem., translating: The loving maiden has come in obedience to the lover’s call, proudly trailing her skirts (“tajarru min al-Tíhi Azyála-há”), and she is meet, etc.—St.]
[526]. Again the work of Fate which intended to make the lovers man and wife and probably remembered the homely old English proverb, “None misses a slice from a cut loaf.”
[527]. A little matter of about a ton at the smallest computation of 200 lbs. to each beast.
[528]. In text “Natawású sawiyah.” [Clerical error for “natawánasú (nataánasú, the rarely used 6th form of anisa) shuwayyah” = let us divert ourselves a little.—St.]
[529]. In text “salaku-hu wa nashalú-hu.” The ✓ “salk” = scoring the skin and the ✓ “nashl” = drawing meat from the cooking-pot with its fingers or a flesh-hook or anything but a ladle which would be “Gharf.”
[530]. This account has been slightly abridged seeing that it is a twice-told tale.
[531]. “Written” either on the Preserved Tablet (vol. ii. 68) or on the sutures of the skull (iii. 123).
[532]. In Arab. “Khálat-kí insánun,” meaning also to lie with: compare the Gr. μίγνυμι Lat. misceo. [The same word occurs presently in another tropical sense: “Khálata-há al-Khajal wa ’l-Hayá” = shame and abashment mixed with her, i.e. suffused or overwhelmed her.—St.]
[533]. In text “Istanade ’alà Shakkati-h.” [“Istanáda ’alà” is in the Vocabulista in Arabico rendered by “recumbere” and “Shikkah” is a rug, while I can find no authority for “Shakkah” as quarter. The passage may therefore mean he lay down on his rug. If he had been leaning against the standing horse, it would on bolting have thrown him on the ground and awaked him rudely.—St.]