Volume 14 — ARABIAN NIGHTS, VOLUME 14 FOOTNOTES (continued 2)

337 (return) [ The MS. here is hardly intelligible but the sense shows the word to be "Misallah" (plur. "Misáll") = a large needle for sewing canvas, &c. In Egypt the usual pronunciation is "Musallah," hence the vulgar name of Cleopatra's needle "Musallat Far'aun" (of Pharaoh) the two terms contending for which shall be the more absurd. I may note that Commander Gorridge, the distinguished officer of the U.S. Navy who safely and easily carried the "Needle" to New York after the English had made a prodigious mess with their obelisk, showed me upon the freshly uncovered base of the pillar the most distinct intaglio representations of masonic implements, the plumb-line, the square, the compass, and so forth. These, however, I attributed to masonry as the craft, to the guild; he to Freemasonry, which in my belief was unknown to the Greeks and Romans, and is never mentioned in history before the eight Crusades (A.D. 1096-1270). The practices and procedure were evidently borrowed from the various Vehms and secret societies which then influenced the Moslem world, and our modern lodges have strictly preserved in the "Architect of the Universe," Arian and Moslem Unitarianism as opposed to Athanasian and Christian Tritheism; they admit the Jew and the Mussulman as apprentices, but they refuse the Hindu and the Pagan. It seems now the fashion to run down the mystic craft, to describe it as a "goose-club" and no more; it is, however, sleeping, not dead; the charities of the brethren are still active, and the society still takes an active part in politics throughout the East. As the late Pope Pius IX. (fitly nicknamed "Pio no-no"), a free mason himself, forbade Freemasonry to his church because a secret society is incompatible with oral confession (and priestcraft tolerates only its own mysteries), and made excommunication the penalty, the French lodges have dwindled away and the English have thriven upon their decay, thus enlisting a host of neophytes who, when the struggle shall come on, may lend excellent aid.]

338 (return) [ The "Janázah" or bier, is often made of planks loosely nailed or pegged together into a stretcher or platform, and it would be easy to thrust a skewer between the joints. I may remind the reader that "Janázah" = a bier with a corpse thereon (vol. ii. 46), whereas the "Sarír" is the same when unburdened, and the "Na'ash" is a box like our coffin, but open at the tip.]

339 (return) [ [In the Arab. Text "They will recognise me," which I would rather refer to the Vagabonds than to the crowd, as the latter merely cries wonder at the resuscitation, without apparently troubling much about the wonder-worker.?St.]]

340 (return) [ [Ar. "na'tázu," viii. form of 'áza = it escaped, was missing, lacked, hence the meaning of this form, "we are in want of," "we need."?St.]]

341 (return) [ For the "Ardabb" (prop. "Irdabb") = five bushels: see vol. i. 263.]

342 (return) [ [In the MS. "'Ayyinah," probably a mis-reading for "'Ayniyyah" = a sample, pattern.?St.]]

343 (return) [ In text "Kubbah" = vault, cupola, the dome of unbaked brick upon peasants' houses in parts of Egypt and Syria, where wood for the "Sat'h" or flat roof is scarce. The household granary is in the garret, from which the base of the dome springs, and the "expense-magazines" consist of huge standing coffers of wattle and dab propped against the outside walls of the house.]

344 (return) [ Gen. "Baysár" or "Faysár," = beans cooked in honey and milk. See retro, Night ccclxxxviii., for its laxative properties.]

345 (return) [ [In the MS. "barbastu," with the dental instead of the palatal sibilant (Sín instead of Sád). Spelled in the former way the verb "barbasa" means, he sought, looked for, and is therefore out of place here. Spelled in the second manner, it signifies literally, he watered the ground abundantly. Presently we shall find the passive participle "mubarbasah" in the feminine, because referring to the noun "Tíz" = anus, which, like its synonym, "Ist," professes the female gender. ?St.]]

346 (return) [ [In Ar. "Mubarbasah," for which see the preceding note.?St.]]

347 (return) [ The Moslem's tomb is an arched vault of plastered brick, large enough for a man to sit up at ease and answer the Questioning Angels; and the earth must not touch the corpse as it is supposed to cause torture. In the graves of the poorer classes a niche (lahad) offsets from the fosse and is rudely roofed with palm-fronds and thatch. The trick played in the text is therefore easy; see Lane's illustration M.E. chapt. xviii. The reader will not forget that all Moslems make water squatting upon their hunkers ina position hardly possible to an untrained European: see vol. i. 259.]

348 (return) [ The bull being used in the East to turn the mill and the water-wheel; vol. i. 16.]

349 (return) [ In text "Ratl." See vol. iv. 124.]

350 (return) [ About 1s. 2d.]

351 (return) [ The man was therefore in hiding for some crime. [The MS. has "lá tafzah-ní" = Do not rend my reputation, etc. I would, therefore, translate "Sáhib-há" by "her lover," and suggest that the crime in question is simply what the French call "conversation criminelle."?St.]]

352 (return) [ The "'Ishá"-prayer (called in Egypt "'Eshè") consists of ten "Ruka'át" = bows or inclinations of the body (not "of the head" as Lane has it, M.E. chapt. iii.): of these four are "Sunnah" = traditional or customary (of the Prophet), four are Farz (divinely appointed i.e. by the Koran) and two again Sunnah. The hour is nightfall when the evening has closed in with some minor distinctions, e.g. the Hanafí waits till the whiteness and the red gleam in the west ("Al-Shafak al-ahmar") have wholly disappeared, and the other three orthodox only till the ruddy light has waned. The object of avoiding sundowntide (and sunrise equally) was to distinguish these hours of orisons from those of the Guebres and other faiths which venerate, or are supposed to venerate, the sun.]

353 (return) [ Scott. "History of the Sultan of Hind," vol. vi. 194-209.]

354 (return) [ Red robes being a sign of displeasure: see vol. iv. 72; Scott (p. 294) wrongly makes them "robes of mourning."]

355 (return) [ A Moslem negroid from Central and Western North Africa. See vol. ii. 15. They share in popular opinion the reputation of the Maghrabi or Maroccan for magical powers.]

356 (return) [ This is introduced by the translator; as usual with such unedited tales, the name does not occur till much after the proper place for specifying it.]

357 (return) [ In text "Iz lam naakhaz-há, wa-illá," &c. A fair specimen of Arab. ellipsis.?If I catch her not ('twill go hard with me), and unless (I catch her) I will, &c.]

358 (return) [ i.e. "How far is the fowl from thee!"]

359 (return) [ [In the MS. "turayyih," a modern form for "turawwih."?ST.]]

360 (return) [ [The above translation pre-supposes the reading "Farkhah lá atammat," and would require, I believe, the conjunction "hattà" or "ilà an" to express "till." I read with the MS. "lá tammat," and would translate: "a chick not yet full grown, when the crow seized it and flew away with it," as a complaint of the father for the anticipated untimely end of his son.?ST.]]

361 (return) [ For "'Aun," a high degree amongst the "Genies," see vol. iv. p. 83. Readers will be pleased with this description of a Jinni; and not a few will regret that they have not one at command. Yet the history of man's locomotion compels us to believe that we are progressing towards the time when humanity will become volatile. Pre-historic Adam was condemned to "Shanks his mare," or to "go on footback," as the Boers have it, and his earliest step was the chariot; for, curious to say, driving amongst most peoples preceded riding, as the row-boat forewent the sailer. But as men increased and the world became smaller and time shorter the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, after many abortive attempts, converted the chariot into a railway-car and the sailer into a steamer. Aerostatics are still in their infancy and will grow but little until human society shall find some form of flying an absolute necessity when, as is the history of all inventions, the winged woman (and her man) of Peter Wilkins will pass from fiction into fact. But long generations must come and go before "homo sapiens" can expect to perfect a practice which in the present state of mundane society would be fatal to all welfare.]

362 (return) [ Scott (p. 200) "Welcome to the sovereign of the Aoon, friendly to his brethren," (siddík al Akhwán) etc. Elsewhere he speaks of "the Oone."]

363 (return) [ So he carried a portable "toilette," like a certain Crown Prince and Prince Bahman in Suppl. vol. iii. 329.]

364 (return) [ There is another form of the saw in verse:?

Good is good and he's best whoso worketh it first; * And ill is for me of provisions the worst.

The provision is = viaticum, provaunt for the way.]

The MS. has "akram" and "azlam" = "the more generous," "the more "turayyih," a modern form for "turawwih." iniquitous," meaning that while good should be requited by good, and evil provokes further evil in retaliation, the beginner in either case deserves the greater praise or blame.

365 (return) [ I have noted (vols. iii. 75, and viii. 266) that there are two "Soudans" as we write the word, one Eastern upon the Upper Nile Valley and the other Western and drained by the Niger water-shed. The former is here meant. It is or should be a word of shame to English ears after the ungodly murder and massacre of the gallant "Soudanese" negroids who had ever been most friendly to us and whom with scant reason to boast we attacked and destroyed because they aspired to become free from Turkish task-masters and Egyptian tax-gatherers. That such horrors were perpetrated by order of one of the most humane amongst our statesmen proves and decidedly proves one thing, an intense ignorance of geography and ethnology.]

366 (return) [ [In the MS. "lawá 'a-hu" for which Sir Richard conjectures the reading "lawwahahu" taking the pronoun to refer to the sword. I believe, however, the word to be a clerical error for our old acquaintance "láwa'a-hu" (see supra p. 266) and, referring the pronoun in the three verbs to the Lion, would translate: "and he worried him," etc.?ST.]]

367 (return) [ Arab. "Al-bashárah," see vol. i. 30: Scott has (vi. 204) "Good tidings to our sovereign."]

368 (return) [ [The MS. is here rather indistinct; still, as far as I can make out, it runs: "wa Hakki man aulàní házá 'l-Mulk" = and by the right of (i.e. my duty towards) Him who made me ruler over this kingdom.?ST.]]

369 (return) [ [The word in the MS. is difficult to decipher. In a later passage we find corresponding with it the expression "yumázasa-hu fí 'l-Kalám," which is evidently a clerical error for "yumárasa-hu" = he tested or tried him in his speech. Accordingly I would read here: "yakhburu ma'ahu fí 'l-Kalám," lit. = he experimented with him, i.e. put him to his test. The idea seems to be, that he first cross-examined him and then tried to intimidate him. With this explanation "yusáhí-hu" and later on "yulhí-hu" would tally, which both have about the same meaning: to divert the attention, to make forget one thing over another, hence to confuse and lead one to contradict himself.?ST.]]

370 (return) [ Here we find the old superstitious idea that no census or "numbering of the people" should take place save by direct command of the Creator. Compare the pestilence which arose in the latter days of David when Joab by command of the King undertook the work (2 Sam. xxiv. 1-9, etc.).]

371 (return) [ The text has "Salásín" = thirty, evidently a clerical error.]

372 (return) [ [In Ar. "yanjaaru," vii. form of "jaara" (med. Hamzah), in which the idea of "raising," "lifting up," seems to prevail, for it is used for raising the voice in prayer to God, and for the growing high of plants.?ST.]]

373 (return) [ The text, which is wholly unedited, reads, "He found the beasts and their loads (? the camels) and the learned men," &c. A new form of "bos atque sacerdos" and of place pour les ânes et les savants, as the French soldiers cried in Egypt when the scientists were admitted into the squares of infantry formed against the doughty Mameluke cavalry.]

374 (return) [ [In the MS. "wáraytaní ilà l-turáb" = thou hast given me over to the ground for concealment, iii. form of "warà," which takes the meaning of "hiding," "keeping secret."?ST.]]

375 (return) [ [The MS. has "wa dazz-há," which is an evident corruption. The translator, placing the diacritical point over the first radical instead of the second, reads "wa zarr-há," and renders accordingly. But if in the MS. the dot is misplaced, the Tashdid over it would probably also belong to the Dál, resp. Zal, and as it is very feasible that a careless writer should have dropped one Wáw before another, I am inclined to read "wa wazzar-ha" = "and he left her," "let her go," "set her free." In classical Arabic only the imperative "Zar," and the aorist "yazaru" of the verb "wazara" occur in this sense, while the preterite is replaced by "taraka," or some other synonym. But the language of the common people would not hesitate to use a form scorned by the grammarians, and even to improve upon it by deriving from it one of their favourite intensives.?St.]]

376 (return) [ Both are civil forms of refusal: for the first see vols. i. 32; vi. 216; and for the second ix. 309.]

377 (return) [ Everything being fair in love and war and dealing with a "Káfir," i.e. a non-Moslem.]

378 (return) [ In text "Labbayka" = here am I: see vol. i. 226.]

379 (return) [ In text "'Úd Khayzarán" = wood of the rattan, which is orig. "Rota," from the Malay "Rotan." Vol. ii. 66, &c.]

380 (return) [ [In the MS. "al-Zamán." The translation here adopted is plausible enough. Still I think it probable that the careless scribe has omitted the words "yá al-Malik" before it, and meant to write "O king of the age!" as in so many preceding places.- -St.]]

381 (return) [ Arab. "Al-Kuhná," plur. of "Káhin 't" = diviner, priest (non-Levitical): see "Cohen," ii. 221. [The form is rather curious. The Dictionaries quote "Kuhná" as a Syriac singular, but here it seems to be taken as a plural of the measure "fu'alá" (Kuhaná), like Umará of Amír or Shu'ará of Shá'ir. The usual plurals of Káhin are Kahanah and Kuhhán.?St.]]

382 (return) [ This is the celebrated incident in "Alaeddin," "New lamps for old:" See Suppl. vol. iii. 160.]

383 (return) [ In text "Jazdán" = a pencase (Pers.) more pop. called "Kalamdán" = reed-box, vol. iv. 167: Scott (p. 212) has a "writing-stand." It appears a queer place wherein to keep a ring, but Easterns often store in these highly ornamented boxes signets and other small matters.]

384 (return) [ Arab. "Bahr al-Muhít" = Circumambient Ocean; see vol. i. 133.]

385 (return) [ Arab. "Fár" (plur. "Firán") = mouse rather than rat.]

386 (return) [ Sleep at this time is considered very unwholesome by Easterns. See under "Kaylúlah" = siesta, vols. i. 51; ii. 178, and viii. 191.]

387 (return) [ Modern science which, out of the depths of its self-consciousness, has settled so many disputed questions, speaking by the organs of Messieurs Woodman and Tidy ("Medical Jurisprudence") has decided that none of the lower animals can bear issue to man. But the voice of the world is against them and as Voltaire says one cannot be cleverer than everybody. To begin with there is the will: the she-quadruman shows a distinct lust for man by fondling him and displaying her parts as if to entice him. That carnal connection has actually taken place cannot be doubted: my late friend Mirza Ali Akbar, of Bombay, the famous Munshi to Sir Charles Napier during the conquest of Sind, a man perfectly veracious and trustworthy, assured me that in the Gujarát province he had witnessed a case with his own eyes. He had gone out "to the jungle," as the phrase is, with another Moslem who, after keeping him waiting for an unconscionable time, was found carnally united to a she-monkey. My friend, indignant as a good Moslem should be, reproved him for his bestiality and then asked him how it had come to pass: the man answered that the she-monkey came regularly to look at him on certain occasions, that he was in the habit of throwing her something to eat and that her gratitude displayed such sexuality that he was tempted and "fell." That the male monkey shows an equal desire for the woman is known to every frequenter of the "Zoo." I once led a party of English girls to see a collection of mandrils and other anthropoid apes in the Ménagerie of a well-known Russian millionaire, near Florence, when the Priapism displayed, was such that the girls turned back and fled in fright. In the mother-lands of these anthropoids (the Gaboon, Malacca etc.,) the belief is universal and women have the liveliest fear of them. In 1853 when the Crimean war was brewing a dog-faced baboon in Cairo broke away from his "Kuraydati" (ape-leader), threw a girl in the street and was about to ravish her when a sentinel drew his bayonet and killer the beast. The event was looked upon as an evil omen by the older men, who shook their heads and declared that these were bad times when apes attempted to ravish the daughters of Moslems. But some will say that the grand test, the existence of the mule between man and monkey, though generally believed in, is characteristically absent, absent as the "missing link" which goes so far as to invalidate Darwinism in one and perhaps the most important part of its contention. Of course the offspring of such union would be destroyed, yet t he fact of our never having found a trace of it except in legend and idle story seems to militate against its existence. When, however, man shall become "Homo Sapiens" he will cast off the prejudices of the cradle and the nursery and will ascertain by actual experiment if human being and monkey can breed together. The lowest order of bimana, and the highest order of quadrumana may, under most favourable circumstances, bear issue and the "Mule," who would own half a soul, might prove most serviceable as a hewer of wood and a drawer of water, in fact as an agricultural labourer. All we can say is that such "miscegenation" stands in the category of things not proven and we must object to science declaring them non-existing. A correspondent favours me with the following note upon the subject:?Castanheda (Annals of Portugal) relates that a woman was transporter to an island inhabited by monkeys and took up her abode in a cavern where she was visited by a huge baboon. He brought her apples and fruit and at last had connection with her, the result being two children in two to three years; but when she was being carried off by a ship the parent monkey kissed his progeny. The woman was taken to Lisbon and imprisoned for life by the King. Langius, Virgilius Polydorus and others quote many instances of monstruous births in Rome resulting from the connection of women with dogs and bears, and cows with horses, &c. The following relative conditions are deduced on the authority of MM. Jean Polfya and Mauriceau:?1. If the sexual organism of man or woman be more powerful than that of the monkey, dog, etc., the result will be a monster in the semblance of man. 2. If vice-versâ the appearance will be that of a beast. 3. If both are equal the result will be a distinct sub-species as of the horse with the ass.]

388 (return) [ Arab. "Tamím" (plur. of Tamímat) = spells, charms, amulets, as those hung to a horse's neck, the African Greegree and the Heb. Thummim. As was the case with most of these earliest superstitions, the Serpent, the Ark, the Cherubim, the Golden Calf (Apis) and the Levitical Institution, the Children of Israel derived the now mysterious term "Urím" (lights) and "Thummim" (amulets) from Egypt and the Semitic word (Tamímah) still remains to explain the Hebrew. "Thummim," I may add, is by "general consensus" derived from "Tôm" = completeness and is englished "Perfection," but we can find a better origin near at hand in spoken Arabic.]

389 (return) [ These verses have already occurred, see my vol. i. p. 275. I have therefore quoted Payne, i. p. 246.]

390 (return) [ Arab. "Wakíl" who, in the case of a grown-up girl, declares her consent to the marriage in the presence of two witnesses and after part payment of the dowry.]

391 (return) [ Such is the meaning of the Arab. "Thayyib."]

392 (return) [ This appears to be the popular belief in Egypt. See vol. iv. 297, which assures us that "no thing poketh and stroketh more strenuously than the Gird" (or hideous Ahyssinian cynocephalus). But it must be based upon popular ignorance: the private parts of the monkey although they erect stiffly, like the priapus of Osiris when swearing upon his Phallus, are not of the girth sufficient to produce that friction which is essential to a woman's pleasure. I may here allude to the general disappointment in England and America caused by the exhibition of my friend Paul de Chaillu's Gorillas: he had modestly removed penis and testicles, the latter being somewhat like a bull's, and his squeamishness caused not a little grumbling and sense of grievance?especially amongst the curious sex.]

393 (return) [ [In the MS. "fahakat," lit. she flowed over like a brimful vessel.?ST.]]

394 (return) [ In 1821, Scott (p. 214) following Gilchrist's method of transliterating eastern tongues wrote "Abou Neeut" and "Neeuteen" (the latter a bad blunder making a masc. plural of a fem. dual). In 1822 Edouard Gauttier (vi. 320) gallicised the names to "Abou- Nyout" and "Abou-Nyoutyn" with the same mistake and one superadded; there is no such Arabic word as "Niyút." Mr. Kirby in 1822, "The New Arabian Nights" (p. 366) reduced the words to "Abu Neut" and "Abu Neuteen," which is still less intelligible than Scott's; and, lastly, the well-known Turkish scholar Dr. Redhouse converted the tortured names to "Abú Niyyet" and "Abú Niyyeteyn," thus rightly giving a "tashdíd" (reduplication sign) to the Yá (see Appendix p. 646 to Suppl. v. No iii. and Turk. Dict. sub voce "Niyyat"). The Arab. is "Niyyah" = will, purpose, intent; "Abú Niyyah" (Grammat. "Abú Niyyatin") Father of one Intent = single-minded and "Abú Niyyatayn" = Father of two Intents or double-minded; and Richardson is deficient when he writes only "Niyat" for "Niyyat." I had some hesitation about translating this tale which begins with the "Envier and the Envied" (vol. i. 123) and ends with the "Sisters who envied their Cadette" (Suppl. vol. iii. 492). But the extant versions of it are so imperfect in English and French that I made up my mind to include it in this collection.?[Richardson's "Niyat" is rather another, although rarer form of the same word.?St.]]

395 (return) [ [I read: "wa tukarribu 'I-'abda ilayya," referring the verb to "al-Sadakh" (the alms) and translating: "and it bringeth the servant near to me," the speaker, in Coranic fashion supposed to be Allah.?St.]]

396 (return) [ The text prefers the Egyptian form "Sherífi" pl. "Sherífíyah," which was adopted by the Portuguese.]

397 (return) [ The grace after meat, "Bismillah" being that which precedes it. Abu Niyyah was more grateful than a youth of my acquaintance who absolutely declined asking the Lord to "make him truly thankful" after a dinner of cold mutton.]

398 (return) [ [The root "Kart" is given in the dictionaries merely to introduce the word "karít" = complete, speaking of a year, &c., and "Takrít," the name of a town in Mesopotamia, celebrated for its velvets and as the birth-place of Saladin. According to the first mentioned word I would take the signification of "Kart" to be "complement" which here may fitly be rendered by "remainder," for that which with regard to the full contents of the dinner tray is their complement would of course be their remainder with regard to the viands that have been eaten.?St.]]

399 (return) [ For the "Zakát" = legal alms, which must not be less than two-and-a-half per cent, see vol. i. 339.]

400 (return) [ In text "Kazdír," for which see vols. iv. 274 and vi. 39. Here is may allude to the canisters which make great show in the general store of a petty shopkeeper.]

401 (return) [ [The MS. reads "murafraf" (passive), from "Rafraf" = a shelf, arch, anything overhanging something else, therefore here applying either to the eye-brows as overhanging the eyes, or to the sockets, as forming a vault or cave for them. Perhaps it should be "murafrif" (active part), used of a bird, who spreads his wings and circles round his prey, ready to pounce upon it; hence with prying, hungry, greedy eyes.?St.]]

402 (return) [ Arab. "Niyyah" with the normal pun upon the name.]

403 (return) [ Arab. "'Ámil Rasad," lit. acting as an observatory: but the style is broken as usual, and to judge from the third line below the sentence may signify "And I am acting as Talisman (to the Hoard)".]

404 (return) [ In the text "Ishári," which may have many meanings: I take "a shot" at the most likely. In "The Tale of the Envier and the Envied" the counter-spell i{s} a fumigation by means of some white hair plucked from a white spot, the size of a dirham, at the tail-end of a black tom-cat (vol. i. 124). According to the Welsh legend, "the Devil hates cocks"?I suppose since that fowl warned Peter of his fall.]

405 (return) [ In text "Yaum al-Ahad," which begins the Moslem week: see vols. iii. 249, and vi. 190.]

406 (return) [ [In Ar. "Harj wa Laght." The former is generally joined with "Marj" (Harj wa Marj) to express utter confusion, chaos, anarchy. "Laght" (also pronounced Laghat and written with the palatal "t") has been mentioned supra p. 20 as a synonym of "Jalabah" = clamour, tumult, etc.?St.]]

407 (return) [ [In Ar. "yahjubu," aor. of "hajaba" = he veiled, put out of sight, excluded, warded off. Amongst other significations the word is technically used of a nearer degree of relationship excluding entirely or partially a more distant one from inheritance.?St.]]

408 (return) [ Arab. "Yaum al-Jum'ah" = Assembly-day, Friday: see vol. vi. 120.]

409 (return) [ A regular Badawi remedy. This Artemisia (Arab. Shayh), which the Dicts. translate "wormwood of Pontus," is the sweetest herb of the Desert, and much relished by the wild men: see my "Pilgrimage," vol. i. 228. The Finnish Arabist Wallin, who died Professor of Arabic at Helsingfors, speaks of a "Faráshat al- Shayh" = a carpet of wormwood.]

410 (return) [ "Sáhibi-h," the masculine; because, as the old grammar tells us, that gender is more worthy than the feminine.]

411 (return) [ i.e. his strength was in the gold: see vol. i. 340.]

412 (return) [ Arab. "Haysumah" = smooth stones (water-rounded?).]

413 (return) [ For "his flesh was crushed upon his bones," a fair specimen of Arab. "Metonomy-cum-hyperbole." In the days when Mr. John Bull boasted of his realism versus Gallic idealism, he "got wet to the skin" when M. Jean Crapaud was mouillé jusqu'aux os.

For the Angels supposed to haunt a pure and holy well, and the trick played by Ibn Túmart, see Ibn Khaldun's Hist. of the Berbers, vol. ii. 575.]

414 (return) [ Here begins the second tale which is a weak replica of Galland's "Two Sisters," &c.]

415 (return) [ This is the usual term amongst savages and barbarians, and during that period the father has no connection with the mother. Civilisation has abolished this natural practice which is observed by all the lower animals and has not improved human matters. For an excellent dissertation on the subject see the letter on Polygamy by Mrs. Belinda M. Pratt, in "The City of the Saints," p. 525.]

416 (return) [ In text "Kuwayyis," dim. of "Kayyis," and much used in Egypt as an adj. = "pretty," "nice," and as an adv. "well," "nicely." See s.v. Spitta Bey's Glossary to Contes Arabes Modernes. The word is familiar to the travellers in the Nile- valley.]

417 (return) [ In Arab. a "Kanát;" see vol. iii. 141. The first occupation came from nature; the second from seeing the work of the adopted father.]

418 (return) [ Abu Niyyah, like most house masters in the East, not to speak of Kings, was the last to be told a truth familiar to everyone but himself and his wife.]

419 (return) [ The MS. breaks off abruptly at this sentence and evidently lacks finish. Scott (vi., 228) adds, "The young princes were acknowledged and the good Abou Neeut had the satisfaction of seeing them grow up to follow his example."

In the MS. this tale is followed by a "Story of his own Adventures related by a connection to an Emir of Egypt." I have omitted it because it is a somewhat fade replica of "The Lovers of the Banú Ozrah" (Vol. vii. 177; Lane iii. 247).]

420 (return) [ Mr. Chandler remarks (p. 25, "On Lending Bodleian Books, &c."):?"It is said that the Curators can refuse any application if they choose; of course they can, but as a matter of fact no application has ever been refused, and every name added will make it more and more difficult, more and more invidious to refuse anyone." I have, therefore, the singular honour of being the first chosen for rejection.]

421 (return) [ Mr. Chandler's motion (see p. 28, "Booklending, &c.") was defeated by an amendment prepared by Professor Jowett and the former fought, with mixed success, the report of the Committee of Loans; the document being so hacked as to become useless, and, in this mangled condition, it was referred back to the Committee with a recommendation to consider the best way of carrying out the present statute. The manly and straightforward course of at once proposing a new statute was not adopted, nor was it even formally proposed. Lastly, the applications for loans, which numbered sixteen were submitted to the magnates and were all refused! whilst the application of an Indian subject that MSS. be sent to the India Office for his private use was at once granted. In my case Professors B. Price and Max Müller, who had often voted for loans, and were willing enough to lend anything to anybody, declined to vote.]

422 (return) [ According to the statutes, "The Chancellor must be acquainted with the Business (of altering laws concerning the Library), and he must approve, and refer it to the Head of Houses, else no Dispensation can be proposed."]

423 (return) [ The following telegram from the Vienna correspondent of "The Times" (November 16, 1886), is worth quotation:?]

"The Committee of the Vienna Congress (of Orientalists) is now preparing a memorial, which will be signed by Archduke Renier, and will be forwarded in a few days to the trustees of the British Museum and to the Secretary of State, praying that a Bill may be introduced into Parliament empowering the British Museum to lend out its Oriental MSS. to foreign savants under proper guarantees. A resolution pledging the members of the Oriental Congress to this course was passed at the Congress of Leyden, in 1883, on the motion of Professor D. H. Müller, of Vienna; but it has not yet been acted upon so thoroughly as will be the case now.]

"The British Museum is the only great library in Europe which does not lend out its MSS. to foreigners. The university and court libraries of Vienna, the royal and state libraries of Berlin and Munich, those of Copenhagen and Leyden, and Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris all are very liberal in their loans to well-recommended foreigners. In Paris a diplomatic introduction is required. In Munich the library does not lend directly to the foreign borrower; but sends to the library of the capital whence the borrower may have made his application, and leaves all responsibility to that library. In the other libraries, the discretion is left to the librarian, who generally lends without any formalities beyond ascertaining the bona fides and trustworthiness of the applicant. In Vienna, however, there has occasionally been some little excess of formality, so a petition is about to be presented to the Emperor by the University professors, begging that the privilege of borrowing may be considered as general, and not as depending on the favour of an official.]

"As regards Oriental MSS., it is remarked that the guarantees need not be so minute as in the case of old European MSS., which are often unique copies. According to the learned Professor of Sanskrit in this city, Herr George Bühler, there are very few unique Oriental MSS. in existence of Sanskrit?perhaps not a dozen."]

424 (return) [ (1.) "On Lending Bodleian Books and Manuscripts" (not published). June 10, 1866; (2) Appendix. Barlow's Argument. June, 1866; (3) On Book-lending as practised at the Bodleian Library. July 27, 1886; Baxter, Printer, Oxford. The three papers abound in earnestness and energy; but they have the "defects of their qualities," as the phrase is; and the subject often runs away with the writer. A single instance will suffice. No. i. p. 23 says, "In a library like the Bodleian, where the practice of lending prevails as it now does, a man may put himself to great inconvenience in order to visit it; he may even travel from Berlin, and when he arrives he may find that all his trouble has been in vain, the very book he wants is out." This must have been written during the infancy of Sir Rowland Hill, and when telegrams were unknown to mankind; all that the Herr has to do in our times is to ask per wire if the volume be at home or not.]

425 (return) [ Chandler, "On Lending Bodleian Books," etc., p. 18.]

426 (return) [ Koran, xxiii. 14.]