Note [46.] It is a universal custom of the Arabs, on visiting the sick, to say, "May our Lord restore thee!" or, "No evil befall thee!" &c.

Note [47.] The first hospital built by a Muslim was that of Damascus, founded by El-Weleed the son of 'Abd-El-Melik, in the eighty-eighth year of the Flight (a. d. 706-7). The Arabs would deprive St. Ephrem Syrus of the honour of having been the author of the first institution of this kind; one of their historians ascribing it to an early Pharaoh, named Menáḳiyoosh; another, to Hippocrates.[335]

Note [48.] The remainder of the paragraph is translated from the Calcutta edition of the first two hundred nights.

Note [49.] "The metropolis of the world," or literally, "the mother of the world" ("umm ed-dunyà"), is a title given to several cities, as well as to Cairo, by their respective inhabitants. This passage, therefore, and others of a similar kind, in which even foreigners are made to rank Egypt and Cairo as superior to every other country and city, strongly favour the opinion that some of its tales were written, or altered, by an Egyptian.

Note [50.] A more ample eulogium upon Egypt and the Nile, but abounding with such gross errors that I could not confidently offer a translation, is found in the Breslau edition. It agrees better with the old translation; which, however, in this place, presents considerable unauthorized amplifications, and some misconceptions: "Birket el-Ḥabash" (for instance), the name of a lake on the south of Cairo, being mistaken for Ethiopia.

Note [51.] For this monthly rent (or about a guinea of our money), a large and handsome house may be hired at the present day in Cairo.

Note [52.] After the amputation of the hand for theft, the stump is usually plunged in boiling pitch or tar, or oil, to stanch the blood.

Note [53.]—On Retaliation and Fines for Wounds and Mutilations. Retaliation for intentional wounds and mutilations is allowed by the Mohammadan law, like as for murder; "eye for eye," &c.:[336] but a fine may be accepted instead, which the law allows also for unintentional injuries. The fine for a member that is single (as the nose) is the whole price of blood, as for homicide; namely a thousand deenárs (about 500l.) from him who possesses gold; or, from him who possesses silver, twelve thousand dirhems (about 300l.); for a member of which there are two, and not more (as a hand), half the price of blood; for one of which there are ten (a finger or toe), a tenth of the price of blood: but the fine of a man for maiming or wounding a woman is half of that for the same injury to a man; and that of a free person for injuring a slave varies according to the value of the slave. The fine for depriving a man of any of his five senses, or dangerously wounding him, or grievously disfiguring him for life, is the whole price of blood.

Note [54.] See No. 20 of the notes to Chapter ii.—"The women of Egypt have the character of being the most licentious in their feelings of all females who lay any claim to be considered as members of a civilized nation; and this character is freely bestowed upon them by their countrymen, even in conversation with foreigners."[337]—In the work from which the above passage is quoted, I have expatiated upon this subject more than I need do in the present case.

Note [55.] The Arabs are generally of opinion that the innate dispositions of a child are inherited more from the mother than from the father. They believe that a daughter commonly resembles, in good or evil qualities, her mother; and a son, his maternal uncle. Hence they often address a man, "Yá ṭeiyib el-khál!"—"O thou who hast a good maternal uncle!"