Note 449 — TALE OF MOHSIN AND MUSA.[435]
Richard Francis Burton translation · Edition 2
The construction here, MS. p. 67, is very confused. [The speech of Muhsin seems to be elliptical. In Ar. it runs: “Li-anní izá, lam nukhullis-ha (or nukhlis-há, 2nd or 4th form) taktulní, wa aná iz lam tattafik ma’í anní izá khallastu-há tu’tí-há alayya”—which I believe to mean: “for if I do not deliver her, thou wilt kill me; so I (say) unless thou stipulate with me that when I have delivered her thou wilt give her to me in marriage——” supply: “well then I wash my hand of the whole business.” The Shaykh acts on the tit for tat principle in a style worthy of the “honest broker” himself.—St.]