Note 326 — THE LOVES OF JUBAYR BIN UMAYR AND THE LADY BUDUR.

Lane (ii. 494) relates from Al-Makrizi, that when Khamárawayh, Governor of the Egypt (ninth century), suffered from insomnia his physician ordered a pool of quicksilver, 50 by 50 cubits, to be laid out in front of his palace, now the Rumaylah square. “At the corners of the pool were silver pegs to which were attached by silver rings, strong bands of silk, and a bed of skins, inflated with air, being thrown upon the pool and secured by the bands remained in a continual state of agreeable vacillation.” We are not told that the Prince was thereby salivated like the late Colonel Sykes when boiling his mercury for thermometric experiments.