Note 583 — STORY OF THE YOUTH WHO WOULD FUTTER HIS FATHER’S WIVES.[580]

Arab. or rather Egypt. “Bábúj,” from “Bábúg,” from the Pers. “Pay-púsh” = foot-clothing, vulg. “Pápúsh.” To beat with shoe, slipper, or pipe-stick is most insulting; the idea, I believe, being that these articles are not made, like the rod and the whip, for corporal chastisement, and are therefore used by way of slight. We find the phrase “he slippered the merchant” in old diaries, e.g. Sir William Ridges, 1683, Hakluyts, m dccc lxxvii.