Note [62.] "Es-Suhà" is an obscure star in the Greater Bear, at which people look to try their powers of sight. It is the star 80, by [Greek: z]

Note [63.] My sheykh has remarked in a marginal note on the "Five Elders" or Sheykhs here mentioned, "the known number is the four; namely the [first four] Khaleefehs; or the Four Welees (eminent saints), the seyyid El-Bedawee and the seyyid Ed-Dasooḳee and Er-Rifá'ee and El-Geelánee" The latter four are often mentioned together as being the saints generally most esteemed in the present day and the founders of the four principal orders of Darweeshes.—Who, then, can be meant by "the Five Elders" I do not know; but I have retained this number as it occurs again in a variation of the same verses in a subsequent tale, which is almost exactly the same as that of Táj-el-Mulook.

Note [64.] "Ibn-Seenà" ("Son of Seenà") is the true name of the great physician called by us "Avicenna."

Note [65.] The gait of Arab ladies is very remarkable: they incline the lower part of the body from side to side as they step, and with the hands raised to the level of the bosom they hold the edges of their outer covering. Their pace is slow, and they look not about them, but keep their eyes towards the ground in the direction to which they are going.

Note [66.] It should be remarked here, that the private room of an Eastern princess is not to be regarded as a Western bed-room. In the East, a guest may lay himself down upon a deewán in the presence of another, to pass the night, without any infringement of decorum.

Note [67.] See the latter paragraph of the first note in the present series.

Note [68.] See Note 9 to Chapter vii.

Note [69.] The doors in Eastern houses generally turn on two wooden pins; one fitting into a hole in the lintel; the other, into a hole immediately behind the threshold; and the latter is very short. It is therefore often easy to displace a door by raising it a little, which may be done by means of a projecting wooden lock; and in many cases, when the door cannot be displaced from its sockets, it may be raised sufficiently to remove the inner latch from its catch. The doors of the ancient temples and tombs in Egypt were formed as above described, with pins, which were often made of bronze.

Note [70.] I here read "nimsheh" (also written "nimjeh" and "nimjáh"—from the Persian "neemjah") instead of "ḳamsheh." The latter is described by my sheykh, in a marginal note, as "a strip of leather divided into two, and tied together and nailed at the upper end to a piece of wood;" but the use of such an instrument in this case would be ridiculous. The name of "nimsheh" is often given to a royal dagger.

Note [71.] As persons are often decapitated in an Eastern palace, a skin is made use of to receive the head and the blood. I believe it to be similar to the round skin used by travellers to eat upon; which is converted into a bag by means of a running string round the edge.