Note [6.] A great recompense in the world to come is to be the lot of him who takes part in a funeral-procession.
Note [7.] The ablution was necessary to qualify Ghánim for joining in the prayer over the dead.
Note [8.] "Ṣawáb" signifies "rectitude."
Note [9.] "Káfoor" is the Arabic for "camphor." Instances of antiphrasis in the names given to black slaves are very common.
Note [10.] "Bakheet" signifies "fortunate," from "bakht" ("fortune"), a word borrowed from the Persian.
Note [11.] I am not sure that this is to be understood as a jest; for I have been assured, by a slave-dealer and other persons in Cairo, that sometimes slaves brought to that city are found to be cannibals; and that a proof lately occurred there; an infant having been eaten by its black nurse. I was also told that these cannibals are generally distinguished by an elongation of the os coccygis; or in other words, that they have tails!
Note [12.] The story here alluded to is inserted in the original; but, being extremely objectionable, and too short and simple to be abridged, I have been compelled to omit it altogether.
Note [13.] This story is not in the old version; but I think the reader will consider it worthy of insertion in the present series, as an amusing illustration of the customs which are often observed by the Arabs on the occasion of the death of the master of a family. I can bear testimony to the general correctness of the picture which it presents; or rather state, that the greatest of the extravagances which it describes are not unfrequently practised in the present day.
Note [14.] As the Arab women are much more reluctant to uncover the upper and back part of the head than they are to shew the face, before strange men, such a scene as that which is here described is very seldom witnessed; but I have seen not so unfrequently a woman with her face uncovered, and besmeared with mud, on her receiving the news of the sudden death of a near relation.
Note [15.] This, to some readers, may require explanation. To free a slave who has no means of providing for himself, and not to grant him any means to do so, is almost the heaviest punishment that can be inflicted upon him; and to do this, unless for a heinous crime, is considered disgraceful.