Note 227 — AL FATH BIN KHAKAN AND THE CALIPH AL-MUTAWAKKIL.
Richard Francis Burton translation
Easterns during purgation are most careful and deride the want of precaution in Europeans. They do not leave the house till all is passed off, and avoid baths, wine and women, which they afterwards resume with double zest. Here “breaking the seal” is taking the girl’s maidenhead.