Note 203 — ABU KIR THE DYER AND ABU SIR THE BARBER.

Arab. “Nílah” lit. = indigo, but here applied to all the materials for dyeing. The word is the Sansk. नील growth probably came from India although during the Crusaders’ occupation of Jerusalem it was cultivated in the valley of the lower Jordan. I need hardly say that it has nothing to do with the word “Nile” whose origin is still sub judice. And yet I lately met a sciolist who pompously announced to me this philological absurdity as a discovery of his own.