Note 36 — Chapter VII · DEVOTION

More direct products of the Crusades may be found in our language in the words azure, cotton, orange, saffron, scarlet, sugar and damask (from the town of Damascus), all of which come to us either from Arabic or, through Arabic, from some Oriental language. Miscreant (misbeliever) was applied to the Mohammedans by the French Crusaders. Assassin (hashish-eaters) was used by the Christians to describe the secret murderers sent out by the Old Man of the Mountains against their leaders, because they used to intoxicate themselves with hashish before the interview. Hazard—originally a game played with dice—has been traced to Asart, the name of a castle in Palestine, during the siege of which it is said to have been invented; and termagant was first used in medieval romances as the name of one of the idols which the Saracens were supposed to worship.