Note 120 — AL-HAJJAJ AND THE THREE YOUNG MEN.[117]
Richard Francis Burton translation · Edition 2
“Necks” per synecdochen for heads. The passage is a description of a barber-surgeon in a series of double-entendres; the “nose-pierced” (Makhzúm) is the subject who is led by the nose like a camel with halter and ring and the “breaker” (háshim) may be a breaker of bread as the word originally meant, or breaker of bones. Lastly the “wealth” (mál) is a recondite allusion to the hair.