Note 339 — TALE OF KAMAR AL-ZAMAN, (continued 3)

Arab. "Jamíz" (in Egypt "Jammayz") = the fruit of the true sycomore (F. Sycomorus) a magnificent tree which produces a small tasteless fig, eaten by the poorer classes in Egypt and by monkeys. The "Tín" or real fig here is the woman's parts; the "mulberry-fig," the anus. Martial (i. 65) makes the following distinction:—

Dicemus ficus, quas scimus in arbore nasci,

Dicemus ficos, Cæciliane, tuos.

And Modern Italian preserves a difference between fico and fica.