Note 332 — THE RIGHTEOUS WAZIR WRONGFULLY GAOLED.[331]

This detail has no significance, though perhaps its object may be to affect the circumstantial, a favourite manœuvre with the Ráwí. [It may mean that the prisoner had to pass through seven gates before reaching it, to indicate its formidable strength and the hopelessness of all escape, except perhaps by a seven-warded, or as the Arabs would say, a seven-pinned key of gold. In the modern tale mentioned on p. 223 the kidnapped Prince and his Wazir are made to pass “through one door after the other until seven doors were passed,” to emphasise the utter seclusion of their hiding place.—St.]