Note 248 — THE ADVENTURES OF MERCURY ALI OF CAIRO.[214]

Arab. “Shúbash” pronounced in Egypt Shobash: it is the Persian Sháh-básh lit. = be a King, equivalent to our bravo. Here, however, the allusion is to the buffoon’s cry at an Egyptian feast, “Shohbash ’alayk, yá Sáhib al-faraj,” = a present is due from thee, “O giver of the fête!” See Lane M. E. xxvii.