Note [10.] See Note 54 to Chapter iv.
Note [11.] "Táj-el-Mulook" signifies "the Crown of the Kings."
Note [12.] Lynxes were often employed in the chase in Arabian and other Eastern countries in former times; but I do not know if they are at present. See Note 24 to Chapter ii.
Note [13.] By this word are meant "oblong, cylindrical, hollow beads:" "ḳaṣabeh" signifying originally "a reed," "cane," &c.
Note [14.] The words "who hath taught men," &c., are from the Ḳur-án, ch. xcvi. v. 5.
Note [15.] "'Azeez" and "'Azeezeh" (masculine and feminine) signify "Dear," "Excellent," &c.
Note [16.] The handkerchief is generally oblong, and each of its two ends is embroidered with a border of coloured silks and gold; the other two edges being plain.
Note [17.] My sheykh has remarked in a marginal note, that this sign may allude to her heart, or to her sighing because she enjoys not the union she desires (as expressed immediately after); and that the latter is more probable, as the action is one common with persons in grief.
Note [18.]—On Conversing and Corresponding by means of Signs, Emblems, Metaphors, &c. Many persons of the instructed classes, and some others, among the Arabs, often take delight, and shew much ingenuity and quickness of apprehension, in conversing and corresponding by means of signs, emblems, &c., or in a conventional, metaphorical, language, not understood by the vulgar in general, and sometimes not by any except the parties engaged in the intercourse. In some cases, when the main metaphor employed is understood, the rest of the conversation becomes easily intelligible without any previous explanation; and I have occasionally succeeded in carrying on a conversation of this kind (though not in cases such as that described in the tale referred to by this note); but I have more frequently been unsuccessful in attempting to divine the nature of a topic in which other persons were engaged. One simple mode of secret conversation or correspondence is by substituting certain letters for other letters.
Many of the women are said to be adepts in this art, or science, and to convey messages, declarations of love, &c., by means of fruits, flowers, and other emblems. The inability of numbers of females in families of the middle classes to write or read, as well as the difficulty or impossibility frequently existing of conveying written letters, may have given rise to such modes of communication. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, in one of her charming letters from the East, has gratified our curiosity by a Turkish love-letter of this kind.[369] A specimen of one from an Arab, with its answer, may be here added.—An Arab lover sent to his mistress a fan, a bunch of flowers, a silk tassel, some sugar-candy, and a piece of a chord of a musical instrument; and she returned for answer a piece of an aloe-plant, three black cumin-seeds, and a piece of a plant used in washing.[370] His communication is thus interpreted:—The fan, being called "mirwaḥah," a word derived from a root which has among its meanings that of "going to any place in the evening," signified his wish to pay her an evening visit: the flowers, that the interview should be in her garden: the tassel, being called "shurrábeh," that they should have sharáb[371] (or wine): the sugar-candy, being termed "sukkar nebát," and "nebát" also signifying "we will pass the night," denoted his desire to remain in her company until the morning: and the piece of a chord, that they should be entertained by music. The interpretation of her answer is as follows:—The piece of an aloe-plant, which is called "ṣabbárah" (from "ṣabr," which signifies "patience"—because it will live for many months together without water), implied that he must wait: the three black cumin-seeds explained to him that the period of delay should be three nights: and the plant used in washing informed him that she should then have gone to the bath, and would meet him.[372]—I have omitted one symbol in the lady's answer, as it conveys an allusion not so consistent with European as with Arab notions of female delicacy.