Note 84 — HISTORY OF AL-HAJJAJ BIN YUSUF AND THE YOUNG SAYYID.[42]

[In the text: “Al-Kisrat al-yábisah ’alà ’l-Rík fa-innahá tukhlik jamí’a má ’alà fum al-mádah min al-balgham,” of which I cannot make anything but: a slice of dry bread (kisrah = piece of bread) on the spittle (i.e. to break the fast), for it absorbs (lit. uses up, fourth form of “khalik” = to be worn out) all that there may be of phlegm on the mouth of the stomach. Can it be that the dish “Khushk-nán” (Pers. = dry-bread) is meant, of which the village clown in one of Spitta Bey’s tales, when he was treated to it by Harun al-Rashid thought it must be the “Hammám,” because he had heard his grandmother say, that the Hammám (bath) is the most delightful thing in the world?—St.]