Note 314 — THE THREE PRINCES OF CHINA.[303]

[The words “’Irz,” protection, in the preceding sentence, “Hurmah” and “Shatáráh” explain each other mutually. The formula “fí ’irzak” (vulg. “arzak,”) I place myself under thy protection, implies an appeal to one’s honour (“’Irz”). Therefore the youth says: “Inna házih Hurmah lam ’alay-há Shatárah,” i.e. “Truly this one is a woman” (in the emphatic sense of a sacred or forbidden object; “this woman” would be “házih al-Hurmah”), “I must not act vilely or rashly towards her,” both vileness and rashness belonging to the many significations of “Shatárah,” which is most usually “cleverness.”—St.]